Barack Obama -Defends VP Search Member Who Resigned

FROM NEWSDAY: "I am not vetting my vice presidential search committee for their mortgages. This is a game that can be played. Everybody who is tangentially related to our campaign is going to have a whole host of relationships," Barack Obama said, adding that (Jim) Johnson, a former head of Fannie Mae, is a voluntary adviser.
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FROM WASHINGTON POST: "Jim Johnson has a very discrete task, as does Eric Holder [another member of the VP search team], and that is simply to gather up information about potential vice presidential candidates," Obama responded. "They're performing the job well. It's a volunteer, unpaid position and they're giving me information, and I will then exercise judgment in terms of who I'll want to select as a vice presidential candidate. So these are folks who are working for me, not people who I have assigned to a particular job in the future administration, and ultimately, my assumption is, is that this is a discrete task they'll be performing over the next two months."