In all fairness, the value of the property is now probably below what he paid for it. The "asking price" is hardly any indication of market value.
In all fairness, the transaction was in 2005, today's market price has nothing to do with the argument. The "asking price" is one of the big indicators of the market value at THAT TIME.
In all fairness, this is more of an indictment of our political system. I scratch your back and you scratch mine. Relatively speaking, Senator Obama is probably still cleaner than most politicians. But I do think this issue will dog him, especially in the general election.
in all fairness none of knows why the price dropped. if you're going to criticize this at least stick to the what's really shaky about the deal, that he was helped out by rezko, who took none of the discount.
I agree with you on the political system thing, but when your message is aobut changing the system, you really can't afford to have this kind of thing hanging over your head. the fact that Obama's cleaner is probably also helped by his short time in politics.
That's the part that troubles me. I don't care whether Obama got a good deal on the property, but that this guy and his family helped him get it, and the way they helped him get it. That, and his long history with a very shady fellow. There is a real appearance of impropriety. I think he needs to fully explain this and hopefully get it behind him. This thing is tailor made for a GOP attack ad. Impeach Bush.
I am pointing out that current market value has no relevance to the discount price he paid in 2005. Of course none of us knows exactly what went through. But we do know about a big price drop that was out of the norm along with no price drop for his pal. I don't understand why people couldn't see the obvious: this deal stinks, and if he was a republican, you would be stomping all over him.
I think that is the heart of the matter. The fact that he didn't pay asking price isn't surprising to me. It doesn't automatically mean something crooked happened. What does matter is that Obama associated with, and asked a crooked real estate guy for help, and that he has maintained some sort of ties with the person still to this day. Right now, though, Obama hasn't been accused of doing anything wrong, but his connections should be looked at.
no actaully we wouldn't because the facts that have been reported so far haven't suggested he did anything wrong or illegal or helped rezko in anyway.
^the argument of Hillarites that Obama is in danger of a GOP attack ad is quite (Marc) Rich. The GOP attack machine is going to go full steam no matter what, no matter who, and it is going to make mountains out of even the tiniest molehill. If you are arguing that it's going to be worse for him than for Hills, I got some interest in an arkansas real estate dev I can sell you.
LOL, I guess you don't remember how many times ppl here craped on Cheney for his former ties with Halliburton? Obama => Deval Patrick #2, pretends to be clean and above the fray.
omg, now you've gone off the deep (pun intended) end. this is in no way comparable to halliburton making billions off a war effort that we went into on false info. this is a politician getting a 15% discount on his home. apples meet oranges or something like that.
I agree with hotballa that this doesn't look good for Obama because he has run on being a new kind of politician but before we throw Obama to the wolves we should see if there really was a quid pro quo for Rezko. At the moment the most we can say it is bad judgement that Obama took a favor from Rezko but not corruption as we don't know if Obama did anything for Rezko.
The GOP machine will go after Hillary, Obama or Edwards with everything they got the difference IMO is that Hillary will hit them back just as hard, if not harder.
That's using your logic of "so far haven't suggested he did anything wrong or illegal", I am pretty sure Cheney hasn't done anything illegal regarding to Halliburton. Obama => Deval Patrick #2, pretends to be clean and above the fray.
IMO America needs a candidate who will heal the political rift. You sound like you, like Hillary, want to deepen the divide.
I agree, I just don't agree with the tone that if this weren't obama he would be jumped on. never good for a politician to receive favors, wheter they pay them back or not. I agree with that.
dude pay attention, alls I'm saying is comparing halliburton and war money, to a dude buying a house is idiotic. you're reaching. i'm not accusing anyone of anything. the two situations are entirely different. and they aren't different scales of the same favor. they are entirely different. its a stupid argument.
