MICKEY KAUS: “Barack Obama’s choice of Jim Johnson to vet his VP prospects is already embarrassing his campaign . . . Johnson was an atrocious, tin-eared choice on many other grounds. He’s symbol of old Democratic elites–the Mondale Restoration!–and of Beltway business as usual. He’s gotten obscenely rich off of public service while pursuing a failed liberal antipoverty theory (community develpment) and taking credit for spreading around other peoples money. . . . Why would Obama, in his first big personnel decision, choose a paleoliberal greedhead with a track record of failure? You tell me. He’s described Johnson as “a friend.” It looks as if he was at best highly susceptible to amicable overtures from someone he should have had some critical perspective on.”

I think we’re seeing a pattern of poor judgment here.