Johnson's Statement On Withdrawing

Jim Johnson passes along a statement:

I believe Barack Obama’s candidacy for President of the United States is the most exciting and important of my lifetime. I would not dream of being a party to distracting attention from that historic effort. Therefore, I have withdrawn from the VP selection process.

I am extremely proud of my service to Fannie Mae and in other important dimensions of public service. This withdrawal should in no way imply that I accept the blatantly false statements and misrepresentations that have been written about me in recent days

Comments

Such BS that this became an issue. And three rapid-fire posts on it Marc? Seriously?

Screw you and your blog.

Posted by Jake | June 11, 2008 3:08 PM

Translation: "If I quit now, will the Wall Street Journal leave me alone and let me keep my big pile of money? 'Cuz I love ya, Obama, really really dig the change message, but...I love my big pile of money even more."

Posted by Vail Beach | June 11, 2008 3:23 PM

Obama: The distraction candidate

Posted by sbj | June 11, 2008 4:27 PM

Every 'distraction' gets us farther from the 'built brick-for-brick to win' Obama . . .

. . . and closer to the real Obama.

Bring on the truth - bring on the 'distraction' - and expose more of BHObama's extremist positions.

Posted by Matt | June 11, 2008 6:10 PM

Every 'distraction' gets us farther from the 'built brick-for-brick to win' Obama . . .

. . . and closer to the real Obama.

Bring on the truth - bring on the 'distraction' - and expose more of BHObama's extremist positions.

Posted by Matt | June 11, 2008 6:11 PM

This is somehow an issue? What a joke the RNC has become... hope they can find more straws to grasp at...

Posted by Wessia | June 11, 2008 6:13 PM

Obama is so respected by is peers that if one of them has any suspicious actions in their past that could jeopardize his bid for the presidency they actively withdraw themselves from Obama's campaign.

I feel sorry for the RNC supporters who have posted here. Do you have the ability to think critically at all? Do you even know what critical thinking is? You all seem to merely spout off the rhetoric that you have been told is true.

Please, please, PLEASE just present one of Obama's so-called extremist positions and explain why it is extreme. Please present some facts to back up your allegations. As of now, you all seem like sheep to me.

Posted by Andrew | June 11, 2008 6:40 PM

"Such BS that this became an issue. And three rapid-fire posts on it Marc? Seriously?

Screw you and your blog."

Marc -

Can't you ban the IP of folks like that from commenting? It's a very small minority...I'm sure your blogger software has the capability...

Posted by Paul | June 11, 2008 7:00 PM

Hey Andrew! Can you list ONE - just ONE - achievement by Osama (oops!) Obama, during his tenure as a Senator?

Posted by Wilson | June 11, 2008 9:23 PM

Hey Andrew! Can you list ONE - just ONE - achievement by . . . Obama, during his tenure as a Senator?

Okay:

* Ethics Reform: Obama was the Senate's point person on ethics reform, and sponsored or co-sponsored the bills that made up what the Washington Post called "the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet." I'm also a fan of this bill, which I think of as the Journalists, Bloggers, and Citizens' Muckraking Empowerment Act: it creates a searchable database of recipients of federal grants and contracts.
* The Lugar-Obama initiative to strengthen the Nunn-Luger framework for securing loose nukes, and to extend it to securing and destroying stockpiles of conventional arms. (For instance, shoulder-fired missiles that could be used against passenger airlines, fired at our forces, or used to make any number of ongoing conflicts more deadly.)
* Various bills concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina, including an amendment putting strict limits on the use of no-bid contracts after disasters, requiring planning for the evacuation of people with special needs and senior citizens, creating a National Emergency Family Locator System, etc.
* There are also a lot of good bills he worked on that did not make it, including the compromise immigration bill and a proposal to create an independent Congressional Ethics Enforcement Commission, and some that are on the Senate calendar now, like a bill to criminalize various deceptive election tactics, like deceptive robocalls, providing misleading information about where to vote or what conditions you have to meet to be eligible to vote, etc.

Obama and Lugar on Avian Flu

Laurence Lessig on Obama's work on Technology

There's plenty more . . .

Posted by southpaw | June 12, 2008 1:56 AM