Barack Obama wants nothing to do with Vernon Jones.

"I do not endorse him. I have not endorsed him. He put my picture on his literature without asking me," Obama said Tuesday, when journalists inquired about the Jones connection after Obama finished a town hall meeting at Powder Springs' McEachern High School.

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While Jones' tactics seemed vaguely familiar — "in the South Side of Chicago ... those kinds of things are not uncommon," Obama said — the presumptive Democratic nominee for president has only the vaguest notion of who Jones is.

"I think he may have come to an event of ours a while back," Obama said. "The reason I think I may have met him is I know somebody told me as I was shaking his hand that he had taken pride in voting for George Bush twice."

The flier that Jones sent out was digitally manipulated to make it appear they were standing on the same stage. Still, he's unrepentant, as usual. He has falsely suggested that Obama endorsed him for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. And he has absolutely no apology to offer for the deception.

Quite the opposite. At a press conference on Monday, Jones, DeKalb County CEO, railed against the "liberal media" and declared that he can attract the conservative voters Obama needs to win Georgia.

Yes, you read that correctly. The hyperarrogant Jones declared that Obama needs "Mr. CEO" to get Georgia's electoral college votes in November. (Wow. I knew Jones' jump-the-shark moment was coming, but I didn't know he'd leap over an entire pod of blue whales.)

Never mind that Obama is the candidate who has raised scads of money in Georgia, who drew 20,000 people to a rally at Georgia Tech last year and who filled the gym at McEachern with about 2,700 people. Jones hasn't drawn gonzo cash or crowds.

But, still, he's the man — at least in his mind.

In fact, Jones is toxic to the Democratic ticket in the fall. If he ends up winning the July 15 primary, he could prove a huge boost for John McCain.

McCain does not have the enthusiastic support of the state's Republican voters. His campaign fears that many of them, especially the Christian conservatives who flocked to the polls for George W. Bush, may sit out the fall election.

So far, Obama, who is courting evangelical voters, may not be perceived as a threatening enough figure to prompt a backlash among social conservatives. But Jones is just the sort of polarizing Democrat whom large numbers of socially conservative Republicans would turn out to vote against.

His record of embarrassing antics would provide easy fodder for incumbent Saxby Chambliss, who has stored up a tidal wave of cash with which to drown his challenger. Just think of the ads Chambliss could run.

You'd see reruns of a woman's accusation that Jones raped her in December 2004, although he was never charged with a crime. At best, the episode, which involved two women, was a sordid ménage à trois, something unlikely to win the approval of Bible Belt Georgians — whether Republicans or conservative Democrats.

Earlier that year, DeKalb County Commissioner Elaine Boyer filed a police report alleging that Jones shoved her in the hallway outside the commission chambers after a heated dispute over a budget vote. That came shortly after an unnerved constituent had reported to police that a confrontation with Jones — at her home — left her feeling threatened. If you believe you detect a pattern suggesting Jones has a problem dealing with women, Chambliss will no doubt hammer the point home.

That tally of public foibles, by the way, doesn't even touch on Jones' divisive racial politics, which run counter to everything Obama stands for. Jones plays the race card at every sign of opposition, insisting that criticism of him derives from an unfair double standard that denigrates powerful black men.

Obama believes he has a shot at putting Georgia in the win column. But even with his money, his "change" mantra and his charisma on the campaign trail, it's a long shot. With Jones on the ticket to drag him down, he'd have no shot at all.

• Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Sundays and Wednesdays.