McCain misfires as he attacks Obama's home purchase

[RedEarth]

Joe Miller
factcheck.org
Updated: 5:17 PM ET Aug 22, 2008
Summary
On the defensive over the extent of multiple McCain homes, the GOP candidate strikes back. But his TV spot gives an oversimplified and misleading account of how Obama bought his own $1.6 million house in Chicago.

....

It says Rezko "purchased part of the property couldn't afford." Rezko's wife did buy an adjoining tract but later sold the land at a profit. Obama paid market price for his home.

............

It's untrue that Rezko got "$14 million from taxpayers" for himself, as the ad seems to be saying. The "help" to which it refers is a one-page letter Obama signed in October 1998 urging the city housing commissioner to support an apartment project for low-income senior citizens. A copy went to the state housing development authority. The 97-unit Cottage View Terrace, which opened in 2002, was funded with taxpayer money, and Tony Rezko was involved in developing the project.

But the deal did not put $14 million into Rezko's pocket. That figure represents the total development cost for the project. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Rezko and his partner, Allison Davis, netted about $855,000. That's not pocket change, but it's a far cry from $14 million. And the tenants of the building benefited too.

Moreover, the ad's claim that Obama wrote the letter as a favor to Rezko is without factual support. Both men deny that Rezko asked Obama to write them, and Obama says his district office frequently sent letters supporting "worthy" community projects, so routinely that "I wasn't even aware that we wrote the letter." Rezko's attorney, Joseph Duffy, told the Sun-Times in 2007 that "Mr. Rezko never spoke with, nor sought a letter from, Senator Obama in connection with that project." And Obama told Sun-Times reporters in a March 2008 interview:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154782

[Zenlitened]

1. John McCain is unsure, out of touch and easily confused.

That's what comes from living inside a bubble, isolated from facts and the day-to-day reality the rest of us live in.

He just doesn't have what it takes anymore to be our next president.

[Tutankhamun]

2. Yep. It just becomes more apparent each day.

[Beartracks]

3. Isolated, in a bubble, confused...

Is that what the GOP likes in a president? Someone who is, um... malleable?

[unc70]

4. The sell-through was from Rezko's wife to one of his associates

I am voting for Obama.

But I see a lot of risk in a couple of issues often dismissed here on DU. The house deal is one of them; the "lack of transparency" in Obama's disclosures obscuring that Blackwell alone was Obama's only income for over a year is another (excepting his part-time IL Senate pay); his family story/myth is too much "log cabin" story and doesn't match up with several key facts. I think most of these issues reflect Obama being too clever by half. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite all of us.

The "sale" of the lot/yard by Rezko's wife has all the attributes of a sham transaction between related parties. (You might find such sales when builders, developers, et al make sales to establish reference valuations in order to provide comps needed for the appraisals needed to support new-home loans.)

We should not push the houses issue too hard; Or the book deals; or the retainers. We do not want to start looking too closely at Chicago politics or Illinois politics. Too many people are involved from both parties for anyone coming out looking very good when they and their associates and actions are put under the microscope. Same for their personal lives.

We really don't need to put anyone else on a pedestal, not even our own candidates.