Seven Blago questions for Obama – and a few add-ons of my own

I don’t think I could have done better myself than the Politico’s question list.

Basically, they and I want to know:
• When Obama and Blago surrogates last spoke, as well as head-to-head contacts;
• Were any of these talks about Obama’s vacating Senate seat;
• What’s up with “correcting” Axelrod, including why it took so long to do it;
• Did Fitz’s office or the FBI talk to you;
• When did you learn Blago was under investigation;
• Did you or your staff contact Fitz or the FBI if you had any reason to sense this was a pay-for-play push by Blago, especially re point No. 1;

I would add a couple of rhetorical questions of my own to which we may not get the answers, either:
• How much less cohesion is there in your inner circle than was portrayed in the campaign, given the number of statements Axelrod had had, not just to retract on his own account, but has had retracted for him?
• Why didn’t you say “Blago must resign” Tuesday rather than Wednesday?
• Do you have any info on any of the “six candidates”?
• Re Politico’s question No. 1, were any of these contacts before you decided to give Valerie Jarrett a White House job?
• Why is your staff letting Obamiacs censor Blago questions on your website, especially since appropriate questions, not just winger trolling are being removed?

That said, let me offer some tentative answers:
• Obama and Blago staffs talked until mid-November or so;
• Valerie Jarrett was offered the WH job AFTER Blago started pushing for “consideration”;
• In spite of this, nobody at Obama’s office (contrary to the early Rahm Emanuel rumor) contacted Fitz or FBI;
• Obama’s inner circle ISN”T that coherent, but Obama, yes, B.O. himself, ultimately, is determined to still be that tight-lipped with the press, or even the public, or your most loyal minions are.

Result? Contrary to MSLBs decrying the MSM for over-covering this issue, etc. you, President Obama, probably will get yourself a Whitewater-type “cloud” that is, as far as the handling of how things have unwound, that is and will be at least partially your own fault.

Update, 1:30 p.m.

Obama says he has had no personal contacts with Blago since the election, claims his office was not involved with any deal-making, and that he’s still gathering details on who all from his staff had contacts with Blago’s staff.

Analysis?
• Statement No. 1 is a duh; I don’t think Obama is that dumb, and never have.
• Statement No. 2 says nothing; Blago’s “motherfucker” statement already attests to its veracity.
• Statement No. 3? The real question is, not what Obama knows about staff contacts, but what his “rounding up” means. Some sort of “massaging” will happen, as Obama wants to make sure he has tracked every comment down before making any further statement, so that there are no more forced retractions by David Axelrod, etc.

Other than that, Statement No. 3, and the rest of Obama’s presser, did nothing to address the “timeline” questions vis-à-vis Jarrett’s appointment to WH staff, etc., what Obama knew a week or two ago about staff contacts, etc.

Obama may well answer these questions in the future. But, anybody who thinks he said anything new today is guilty of wishful thinking.