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Good Help is Hard to Find

9:16 AM, May 13, 2008 • By DEAN BARNETT
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The indefatigable Jake Tapper has tallied ten times where Barack Obama has blamed his staff for some sort of foul-up. A sample:

(Sunday), in an interesting New York Times look at Obama's rise in Chicago politics, we learned that in 2004 some Jewish supporters became alarmed to learn that in a questionnaire Obama refrained from denouncing Yasir Arafat, or from expressing strong support for Israel's security fence.

Reports the Times: "In an e-mail message, Mr. Obama blamed a staff member for the oversight, and expressed the hope that 'none of this has raised any questions on your part regarding my fundamental commitment to Israel's security.'"

One will want to bear in mind this serial buck-passing the next time Obama mentions his illustrious Democratic forebear, Harry S. Truman. Even more relevant is Obama's obvious ineffectiveness at getting his staff to perform at an adequate level. The man by his own telling hires and retains a bunch of irretrievable stumble-bums, and yet we're supposed to trust him with the entire Executive Branch?

Of course, there's nothing here that will enjoin the Obama campaign from continuing to make his "excellent judgment" argument. Unless the conversation turns to hiring decisions.

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