Jay Kersting's Blog

As regular readers of this blog know, I have been hard on Barack Obama lately, but in the past I took it easy on him and actually thought highly of him for a while.

Well, this latest gaffe is surrounding his team that was tasked with picking a Vice Presidential nominee.  The team consisted of Jim Johnson, who helped Walter Mondale and John Kerry find their Veep nominee, Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder.  Of those three, I thought that Holder would be the problem due to his connection to Bill Clinton's pardoning of Marc Rich.

But it is Jim Johnson who has resigned a day after Barack Obama said that he didn't think he needed to vet the vetters....or something worded in a very Bush-like fashion.

Is this a big deal?

No.  Not by itself.  But again it does show a disturbing trend in his decision making.

And I think that will become an issue by the fall.  Basically, every single gaffe in personnel will get linked together and a trend will be illustrated to show his greater problem, whether real or perceived.

But again, Jim Johnson is a problem.  Jeremiah Wright is a problem that he overcame. Michael Pflager is a problem that he overcame.  The one who called Hillary a monster is a problem that he overcame.

Tied together, which you can be assured will happen, could be a problem. 

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Do potential First Ladies matter in the election?

I don't know if they do or not, but knowing how people find the results of "American Idol" more important than what is happening in the election cycle, or what Congress is doing to hurt us, or storms throughout the Midwest, or wildfires in California, I think it is possible that the wife of the candidate might matter.

To that end, Rasmussen Reports has polled on that question.

61 percent said that wives influence their votes.   Only eleven percent said it is NOT important at all.

Really?

Related to the story, Michelle Obama is viewed more unfavorably than Cindy McCain, 42 to 29 percent.  On the favorable side, they are pretty even with McCain edging Obama 49 to 48 percent.

Sorry, no daily tracking poll on this.

And no, you cannot call a toll free number to cast your vote either.

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Does having a reggae song named after a Presidential candidate help a campaign?

Cocoa Tea has a really awful song called "Barack Obama" and YES, I do play it.

My brother, Topher, heard it on his XM Satellite Radio and told me about it.  

So, yes Topher, it is playing on the show.  Enough to drive news anchor David Gaines up the wall.

And it does get burned in one's mind....just like a "Free Credit Report dot Com" ad does.

Now everyone is hating me for bringing that up. 

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Even THIS GUY is critical of Barack Obama!!

I doubt John McCain uses this in his campaign. 

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Ryan Lefebvre found himself praising a Texas Rangers player and insulting one with an anger management problem at the same time.

Here is ESPN's story. 

Josh Hamilton's story of coming back from a bad case of alcohol and drug addictions has been very interesting and worthy of praise.  (Someone never getting addicted is more worthy, but still.....)  And Ryan was talking about Hamilton taking responsibility, while many other players, like Milton Bradley do not.

Oops.

When I see Ryan next week, I will remind him to not piss off a guy with well documented problems with anger management.

Then again, if you were named for a board game company, you might have problems with anger too.  

I think that Ryan Lefebvre knows something that Milton Bradley needs to learn.

Milton Bradley, it's just a game.

I am watching my door this morning.

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Have a great Thursday.  Add comments as you see fit.

OH, and you may now see my blog appear at Bob Wilson's Presidential Blog Watch webpage.  Things are finally indexing properly with Google.  Woo hoo!! 

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