MR. ELECT

Posted at 7:20 a.m. ET

Ronald Reagan was called "the Teflon president."  Criticism seemed to miss him, or roll off him.  He had the knack of emerging from crises relatively unscathed. 

Barack Obama has been the Teflon candidate, and president-elect.  However, something has happened in the last day that may change or at least affect his near-Divine image:  Mr. Obama has been reminded of where he comes from, and "I didn't know" becomes increasingly hard for the public to take.

The governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, has been arrested on a variety of corruption charges.  The list of charges is likely to increase.  Obama is an Illinois senator, his transition team based in Chicago.  Mr. Obama now says he didn't have any contact with the governor, who, under law, will appoint his successor in the U.S. Senate.  But David Axelrod, one of Obama's closest aides, said several weeks ago that Obama did speak with the governor about the Senate appointment.  Now the Obama compound says that Axelrod "misspoke."  David Axelrod is not known for "misspeaking."

It's important because one of the charges against the governor is that he tried to solicit bribes in return for the Senate seat.  Is it conceivable that no one in the Obama camp got wind of any of this?  The AP notes:

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama hasn't even stepped into office and already a scandal is threatening to dog him.

Obama isn't accused of anything. But the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a fellow Democrat, has been charged with trying to sell Obama's now-vacant Senate post gives political opponents an opening to try to link him to the scandal. A slew of questions remain. The investigation is still under way. And the ultimate impact on Obama is far from certain.

He pointedly distanced himself from the case Tuesday, saying, "I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening" concerning any possible dealing about Blagojevich's appointment of a successor. 

We should note that Mr. Obama is not charged with anything, and that nothing the governor said on the FBI wiretap tapes that led to his arrest contains anything damaging about the president-elect.  Still, we have one more case of an association that is bound to embarrass Mr. Obama - coming after Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, and the entire Chicago political establishment. 

The serious nature of the crimes listed by federal prosecutors raises questions about the interaction with Gov. Blagojevich, President-elect Obama and other high ranking officials who will be working for the future president," said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the new GOP House whip.

Added Robert M. "Mike" Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, "President-elect Barack Obama's comments on the matter are insufficient at best."

Chances are that Obama will weather this without too much damage.  The in-the-tank press has not crawled out of the tank.  But the imagery is awful.

And then there's something else, as reported today by Mike Allen in The Politico.  This is a beaut: 

President-elect Obama says he plans to use all three of his names when he takes the oath of office in January, giving voice to an unusual name that was rarely heard during the campaign expect by critics.

In his first post-election newspaper interview, with reporters from the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, Obama was asked: “Do you anticipate being sworn in as Barack Obama or Barack Hussein Obama?"

He replied: “I think the tradition is that they use all three names, and I will follow the tradition, not trying to make a statement one way or the other. I'll do what everybody else does.”

In fact, all presidents have not used their middle names when taking the oath of office. Jimmy Carter famously went as “Jimmy Carter.” Ronald Wilson Reagan took the oath as simply “Ronald Reagan.”

Bad move by Obama.  As Mike Allen notes, he isn't really following a tradition.  He has a choice.  During the campaign, Republicans who used Obama's middle name were called racists and fearmongers.  Obama didn't seem to have a middle name.  Now he will use it in the oath.  The hypocrisy just flows, and, while the in-the-tank crowd will give him a pass, other Americans will notice. 

Image is critical to a president.  The "governor thing" and the "name thing" are not helpful to Obama at the moment. 

The wild card here is the governor.  He's going down.  He may want to take Obama with him by making wild charges, accurate or not.  Or he may claim to "have" something on Obama.  Look, the guy is scum.  And there may be a book contract in this.

December 10, 2008.