People Who Will Complicate Obama's Campaign

No, we're not talking about Bill and Hillary here, but other friends and associates of Obama who will become familiar names to voters by November, if they aren't already:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Who's Tony Rezko? William Ayers? Few Americans know, but they probably will by Election Day.

Rezko is a Chicago businessman, convicted of more than a dozen charges this week. Ayers is a professor—and former member of the radical Weather Underground. Both have ties to Barack Obama and may well show up in anti-Obama ads you'll be seeing before long.

These days, presidential candidates can expect to have every personal relationship, new or ancient, inspected like a crime scene on "CSI." Then, if there's political hay to be made, a version of the details is quickly out.

Republican John McCain has his own potential problem people whom Democrats may try to exploit. In some cases, they have been for years.

For example, there's Charles Keating Jr., a wealthy savings and loan executive from Arizona who was the focus of a congressional ethics investigation in which McCain was ensnared in the 1980s. Rick Davis and Charlie Black, two men in the inner circle of McCain's campaign, are former lobbyists—hardly a crime but still fodder for critics who want to undermine McCain's self-portrayal as a senator fighting to lessen big money's influence on politics.

So both parties will be researching—and putting the worst face on what they find.

It's especially true for Obama, still a newcomer to the national scene. Voters haven't had years to form impressions based on what he has said or the legislation he's passed. Or associates they've heard about forever.

The article goes on to detail the problems that will be caused by the following individuals: Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, William Ayers, Emil Jones, Rashid Khalidi, Father Michael Pfleger, and of course, Michelle Obama. Read the rest of the article for the details.