"It you sit on a board with someone for years..."

An **irrelevant** association to the issue at hand. ...except for those who want careless listeners to FORM a different idea of its relevance. If the story were that Obama had refused to serve on a nice, friendly community board because some guy he didn't like was on it, they'd be playing THAT up as a fault.

Face it...if Obama mentioned which toothpaste he used, someone would be looking for problems with the manufacturer!