Barack Too Quick to Fire?

The speedy firing of James Johnson from Barack's VP search committee shows that Barack has learned his lessons. Don't waste time with loyalty, cut out the cancer.

But there is a flip side to caving to pressure, and that is, precedent.

For some Democrats, Obama's quick move to separate himself from Johnson will be seen as a caving to Republicans. There will almost certainly be more of these Republican attacks; by removing Johnson, Obama has only emboldened GOPers for the next time around, goes the argument.

By giving in to the pressure, Barack has opened the door for more of the same.

Case in point: Republican operatives are seizing on the news to keep firing away at Obama. "If Barack Obama is concerned his campaign's ties to special interests are distracting from his VP search and message, why is Eric Holder still on his search committee? Why is registered federal lobbyist Steve Farber leading the convention for Obama's supposedly 'lobbyist-free' campaign? Obama's hypocritical attacks show he can't stand up to his own standard - and that he just isn't ready to make change," said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

There's also the issue of judgment, which, way back when, was a key premise for Barack's candidacy.

And this from McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds: "Selecting the vice presidential nominee is the most important decision a presidential candidate can make and one even Barack Obama has said will 'signal how I want to operate my presidency.' By entrusting this process to a man who has now been forced to step down because of questionable loans, the American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media. America can't afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours. That's not change we can believe in."

Worst of all for Barack says pundit Craig Crawford, supporting the notion that he can't live under the cleanliness standards he's established, remains his poo-pooing of the matter.

Obama's cavalier response utterly contradicted his campaign's supposed crusade for reform. Not only did those words come across as tone deaf to the very ethical issues that he has raised in this election, but his remarks sounded like the ethical relativism we so often hear from the Washington business-as-usual crowd that Obama claims to be running against.