Memo to Obama: We're not questioning your obvious lack of patriotism here. We're questioning how you managed to get a sweetheart deal the little people can't get.
Much be great to have such privileges.
Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.Clearly, it's time Obama, Dodd and Conrad resigned their Senate seats.
The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.
Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.
Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said the rate was adjusted to account for a competing offer from another lender and other factors. "The Obamas have since had as much as $3 million invested through Northern Trust," he said in a statement.
Modest adjustments in mortgage rates are common among financial institutions as they compete for business or develop relationships with wealthy families. But amid a national housing crisis, news of discounts offered to Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D) by another lender, Countrywide Financial, has brought new scrutiny to the practice and has resulted in a preliminary Senate ethics committee inquiry into the Dodd and Conrad loans.
Within Obama's presidential campaign organization, former Fannie Mae chief executive James A. Johnson resigned abruptly as head of the vice presidential search committee after his favorable Countrywide loan became public.
Just the appearance of impropriety is enough, right?
In other grim news for Obama, the inmates are upset with him now that he's pretending to move to the right. Are they so naive they don't realize it's smoke and mirrors?
Barack Obama's recent rightward lurch on key issues is causing a revolt among left-wing bloggers and activists, who had been his earliest and most ardent supporters.More on The Messiah's sweetheart deal at Right Wing News and Hot Air. The crazies on the left have no problem with this, apparently.
"Obama's not just moving to the center for the general [election], he's practically denouncing and rejecting every progressive voice in the country," fumes Danner Kline, who blogs in Alabama for his Web site, 9Numbers.com.
Over the past several weeks, Obama has shifted from his liberal positions on gun rights, capital punishment and terrorist surveillance. And he walked away from his pledge to work within the confines of public campaign financing.
In addition, liberals lament, Obama took swipes this week at MoveOn.org and retired Gen. Wesley Clark for their fierce partisan attacks.
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