Obama, Up Close and Unfiltered

He also asked whether hospital food is as bad as it used to be. Marzluf gave him a no comment.

Obama visited four patients, carrying a breakfast tray to 17-year-old Shelby Davis, and telling her mother that today is the 7th birthday of his daughter Sasha. He asked the patients how long they had been there and whether their insurance was covering their costs.

Obama's longest conversation was with Raymond Bisher, 52, a former Missouri police officer with congestive heart failure, a wife working two jobs and a son serving in Iraq. The candidate seemed amazed when Bisher said that his wife takes weekly shots that cost $1,500 apiece. "That's $6,000 a month. Wow," Obama said, assuring Bisher that he would make health care "a big priority."

Bisher, looking at his monitor, told the nurse that his blood pressure appeared high.

"When reporters are around me, my blood pressure goes up too," Obama said.

At his news conference, Obama fielded questions on subjects ranging from tax cuts to health care mandates to crime without missing a beat. But he stumbled a bit on a question about Jim Johnson, who is leading his veep search. A controversy has been brewing since Saturday, when the Wall Street Journal reported that Johnson got special loans as a friend of the CEO of Countrywide Financial, the company under scrutiny in the subprime loan mess--this at a time when Johnson was either chief executive of Fannie Mae or a consultant to the government-subsidized agency. Obama's response:

"I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages. You're going to have to direct -- it becomes sort of a -- this is a game that can be played -- everybody, who is tangentially related to our campaign, I think, is going to have a whole host of relationships. I would have to hire the vetter to vet the vetters. I mean at some point, we just asked people to do their assignments. Jim Johnson has a very discrete task."

Hmm . . . That amounts to saying that what Johnson is doing is just not that important. And this isn't a trivial allegation against Johnson.

Atlantic's Marc Ambinder sees the thing petering out:

"I don't see where the story goes from here, pending more revelations, so Obama's answer might be the last we'll hear of it, despite the McCain campaign/RNC's best efforts. That said, yes, the VP search process is a discreet task, but it is one that is extremely important and that has bearing on the future of the country. Johnson is a valued adviser to Obama. Obama's definition of 'tangential' must be quite roomy."

But National Review's Jim Geraghty thinks it hurts Obama:

"It means Obama can't bring up big CEO salaries and compensation, and he can't use his usual stump speech lines about 'powerful Washington insiders' escaping accountability.