Dave is right to point out that as far as we can tell from the
indictment, Obama appears to be in the clear with regard to
the charges about Blagojevich trying to sell the Senate
seat. However, the Blagojevich connection is merely the latest in
a long line of troubling associations for Obama. The most
charitable assessment of the pattern is that Obama is content
looking the other way in the face of wrongdoing to gain political
advantage at the time. This is the case with the financing he
received from Tony Rezko, his membership in Jeremiah Wright's
church, and his relationship with Blagojevich. While the issues
didn't cost him the election, the question that remains is
whether the judgment he's displayed in his associations in the
past, will be a prologue to how he conducts himself as president.
Can somebody emerge from a corrupt political world, navigating it
adroitly, without internalizing some of its tactics?