| Notes |
"Longtime Washington insider Jim Johnson became the first casualty of the general election campaign Wednesday, leaving his seat on Barack Obama's running-mate search team after coming under fire for his lucrative ties to financial corporations and lenders.
"Johnson, a former Fannie Mae CEO who also helped vet running mates for Walter Mondale in 1984 and John Kerry in 2004, stepped down following reports that he received favorable loan terms from a mortgage lender that Obama has criticized sharply on the campaign trail." |