Knowing When To Keep Your Distance

There is an article out today that needs some clean up, Obama's five rules of scandal response, Carrie Budoff Brown, Kenneth P. Vogel Carrie Budoff Brown, Kenneth P. Vogel – Wed Dec 24, 6:52 am ET. http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/16836

The article above constructs together five "rules" for how the incoming Obama administration is handling the Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich scandal with respect to Mr. Obama's Senate seat replacement. The rules outlined are interesting enough, however, the reporting that is strung together is trying to bleed out that Obama is not as removed from the scandal as he might appear. There's really no evidence that Obama had anything to do with Blagojevich's malfeascence. The media just thrives on drama.

The article ended with a question that has a very obvious answer, so obvious it is possibly rhetorical:

"To the extent that the report succeeds in its goal of establishing the distance between Obama and Blagojevich, it necessarily raises the question: Why was the president-elect and leader of the Democratic party playing no role in a key appointment to national office being made in his home state, and by a Democratic governor?"

It is no real secret in Illinois politics that Gov. Blagojevich has been running a corrupt administration from the begining. In fact, anyone who is familier with him, is not surprised by the allegations made against him. So, with all honesty, Obama has probably been trying to keep his distance from Blagojevich in general. What Presidential Candidate would even want their name associated with Blagojevich? When reading the statement above from today's article the authors are either out of touch with long list of news worthy scandals that Blagojevich has been associated with or they are trying to imply that Obama has some interest in influencing the selection of his suceessor, which he does not. Furthermore, The article's own reporting states that, "Craig said Obama 'was not engaging on this in any personal way and had no interest in dictating the result of the selection process.'"