Damned by misplaced exculpation

A rather peculiar defense of Obama:

President-elect Barack Obama has never been close to Mr. Blagojevich. He has aligned with the Daley division of the fractured Democratic machine, while Mr. Blagojevich, chiefly through the sponsorship of his father-in-law, a powerful Chicago alderman, has been from that faction that has always resented the mayor’s good fortune for being born with the Daley name.

You know the Obama administration is going to be good for some serious scandal when his pre-inaugural defense of his character is that he’s from the bigger and MORE corrupt part of the Chicago machine.