the moral purity sweepstakes

This is going to be a fun campaign—McCain and Obama duking it out for who’s more righteous, with the media and the blogosphere egging them on.

Today, Obama lost a round. His VP vetter just handed in his resignation. That’s good news for Obama, you’d think. Right?

Well, not exactly [e.a.]:

UPDATE: McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds emails:

Jim Johnson’s resignation raises serious questions about Barack Obama’s judgment. Selecting the vice presidential nominee is the most important decision a presidential candidate can make and one even Barack Obama has said will ’signal how I want to operate my presidency.’ By entrusting this process to a man who has now been forced to step down because of questionable loans, the American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media. America can’t afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours. That’s not change we can believe in.

Dissecting Obama’s words and deeds with a scalpel may not win John McCain the election, but anyone who thinks that Obama will be able to wriggle out from under the McCain camp’s relentless focus on the contrast between those words and deeds is probably in for a rude surprise.

John McCain is one tough—and patient—son of a bitch.

update: more on this from Chris Cillizza:

The most dangerous stories for any candidate are those that raise questions about the core of his (or her) campaign narrative. One needs only to look back to the 2004 presidential race for evidence of this trend. …

For Obama, any questions in voters’ minds about whether he truly is a change agent or is legitimately committed to breaking the alleged stranglehold lobbyists and other power brokers have over the political system is potentially disastrous. Because of the peril involved, it’s not terribly surprising that Obama moved quickly to “fix the glitch” once he realized questions about Johnson weren’t going away.

Seen another way, however, this episode could forebode poorly for how Obama handles the various slings and arrows sent his way by Republicans and their famed — and effective — noise machine.