I'm sure Obama was aware, as virtually every person over the age of 7 in Illinois was, that Blagovich was a corrupt political hack, which in a place like Chitown means being very corrupt indeed. But I'm also confident that Obama has generally been spectacularly good at knowing how to run in some dirty circles while keeping himself clean. He may interact with the occasional shady motherfucker, as one must in politics nearly everywhere but especially in Chicago, but he never actually does any business or makes any moves or even publicly says anything that isn't completely above board. He's very, very good at using people until they become liabilities in any way, then discarding them without so much as a speck on him. Its not so much that Obama is great at hiding corrupt stuff he's done as it is he's great at being successful without doing corrupt stuff. I don't think this is because he's some sort of saint. I'm sure the man has as many personal and petty and vain parts to his soul as all of us, and especially politicians, do. I just think he realizes that it's better, on all fronts including personal wealth, to be the CEO of Google than it is to be Ken Lay. Eyes on the prize. Up until now the prize was the presidency. Now its being the best president ever. Because it's good for America and the world, sure. But also because the best president ever will be vastly richer and more powerful than any small time machine crook like Blago (or, say, Nixon. if you wanna get Presidentia) ever could be.
This will not touch Obama. At worst its another Rezko moment. Nothing wrong, just "associations". The thing is, nobody except diehard Republicans gave a shit about associations when Obama was running for President. They certainly aren't gonna care now that he's actually in charge and running shit. And they really, really are not gonna care in 2012 when he's been President for 4 years. If by then, Repblicans are still stuck talking about Blago, then Obama will have done a fantastic job and will be reelected in a landslide. It'd be like dredging up Wright again or something.
Now, I suppose you could fret that Republicans will try to block Obama's health care and infrastructure initiatives early on if they feel that this has given them an opening, except they have such a loose foothold in congress and the Senate that any meaningful opposition would require some serious organizing and rallying. but so far I have seen almost no Republican public officials lay the groundwork for any serious congressional resistance to Obama's announced plans. And, unless this somehow magically hits so hard it knocks Obama like 40 points in approval rating, he's still going to be vastly more popular than any Republican on Capitol Hill. So, even in the immediate, get-shit-done-right-away phase, this still won't matter.