Barack Obama's first act as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was to appoint a vice presidential search team. One of the team members was former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson, whose associations with sub-prime lender Countrywide Financial and other corporations touched off a controversy that led to his resignation this week. FOXNews.com Political Reporter Judson Berger takes a look at how that reflects on the Obama campaign mantra of change.

Barack Obama rose to clinch the Democratic nomination on a platform of change, but when it came time to kick off the search for a running mate, he turned to the insider's insider.

The Illinois senator's decision to tap Jim Johnson, a former Fannie Mae CEO who had performed similar vetting tasks for past nominees, backfired this week. Obama parted ways with the Beltway veteran Wednesday after weathering criticism for the sweetheart deals Johnson apparently enjoyed from his corporate ties.

The episode only highlights the challenge Obama faces as he attempts to carry the change mantle all the way to the White House: The outsider, pledging to clean things up in Washington, still needs the janitors who have been there long enough to know how to get the job done.

Historians say Obama cannot completely cast out the influence of old Washington, but because it was a call for change that made him, he'll want to steer clear of the political fixtures whose records conflict with his own message.

"The U.S. government is a huge beast, and it's hard to turn it around," said Michael Barone, political author and writer for U.S. News & World Report. "And that's something Obama will discover if he's not already aware of it. ... It's an advantage to have people who know how the system works."

But he added Obama "might have been wiser" to avoid someone like Johnson.

Barone, a FOX News contributor, said the Johnson episode reflects the "tension" between the theme of change and the realities of operating an effective campaign or administration.

In many ways, Obama has stood for real change -- even in the way he ran his Web-savvy campaign. He amassed a war chest from small donors online. He maintained an open forum for bloggers and blasted out text messages on Obama happenings to anyone who would subscribe.

He pledged not to take contributions from Washington lobbyists and called on the national party to do the same. Like general election rival John McCain, he pledged to rail against pork-barrel spending, but also promised across-the-board transparency in his administration.

His Web site even states he will call on new hires to affirm they were not awarded the job based on political connections.

But Obama arguably began to fold into the Democratic establishment in January, when 2004 nominee John Kerry and then Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsed him.

The reality for Obama, political scholars say, is that he can't throw out the old to bring in the new.

Several presidential candidates have promised to do so, only to ease off that pledge once in office.

Presidential historian Robert Dallek and Barone pointed to President Carter as a prime "outsider" candidate.

Only when he came to office, he appointed Cyrus Vance -- the deputy defense secretary under President Johnson -- as secretary of state, and Harold Brown -- another Johnson defense official -- as secretary of defense. And later budget director Bert Lance resigned amid scandal.

Dallek said even President Nixon ran for office in a climate primed for a change candidate, given the discontent over the Vietnam War. Nixon had a so-called secret plan to end the war, but as Dallek said, he's still waiting to see that plan.

Rather, Dallek said the change Obama may bring is in the form of a bipartisan administration, instead of an "outside-the-Beltway" pack of advisers.

"I would not be surprised if he made Chuck Hagel the ambassador to the United Nations," he said.

Whom Obama picks as a running mate will probably send the strongest signal of how much change the change candidate wants.

Dallek said Obama's desire to "mute" his connection to party fixtures may work against Hillary Clinton as a potential VP pick. He said Obama will probably try to find a running mate seasoned in national security, but not as familiar as Clinton.

There are several candidates who have run on a platform of too much change.

Barry Goldwater was too conservative in 1964 and George McGovern was too liberal in 1972, American University history professor Allan Lichtman noted.

But Lichtman said those two candidates were also up against powerful incumbents. Goldwater lost to Johnson. McGovern lost to Nixon after being tagged the candidate of amnesty, acid and abortion.

Lichtman, a Maryland Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2006, said the climate is favorable for Obama to sustain his message of change. There's no incumbent, and approval ratings for the outgoing president are not quite 30 percent.

"He's got to make some compromises," Lichtman said. "But he's got to be true to himself, and that's a very delicate balance."

Even McGovern triggered skepticism about his pledge for change when, in an apparent moment of political appeasement, he dropped Thomas Eagleton from his ticket after it surfaced that he had received electro-shock therapy for depression.

Obama endured similar criticism Wednesday from McCain, whose campaign charged that he caved under pressure by dropping Johnson. Obama said earlier that he can't be expected to "vet the vetters."

The incident was a sign of the new strains Obama faces as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

"You begin to see some of the pain that Obama is going through trying to be a candidate of change, but also accommodate himself to the powers that be," Lichtman said.

Lichtman added: "He should not blow it."

FOX News' James Rosen contributed to this report.