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What Didn't He Know, and When Didn't He Know It?

Obama's unsatisfyingly vague response to the Blagojevich scandal.

By |Posted Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008, at 7:12 PM

(Continued from Page 1)

So we're left with vagueness. Why does it matter? It always matters when a politician won't say the simple thing. Maybe it matters a little more with Obama, who can answer the dickens out of a question when he wants to. There's evidence that Obama wanted Valerie Jarrett to take his seat—the governor sure seemed to think the president-elect wanted that. Suddenly, in the middle of the process, Obama stopped wanting that. Why?

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John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail. He can be reached at slatepolitics@gmail.com. Read his series on the presidency and his series on risk. Follow him on Twitter.