Obama's Countrywide connection

Unless you're talking policy, or ability to govern, you can't touch him with this. You can only distract him, if he's so inclined to be distracted. Here's the lesson we've learned over the past 18 months: Mr. Obama is able to get his argument across no matter the distraction.
And why is Bonnie throwing stones?
DG... San Diego, CA

This is a cheap shot. Countrywide was the biggest and most aggressive lender out there and a lot of their loans are going bad becuse of it. Mozillo was very highly regarded before this mess and knew a lot of influential people. Show me some proof before you make allegations that this is a sweetheart deal. So far it's just the most blatant guilt by association story I have seen.

Posted by: Donnie G:

"You can only distract him, if he's so inclined to be distracted"

I'm amazed at how fast these talking points get seeded into the lexicon.

Distraction: any subject which makes Obama or his supporters uncomfortable.

And so it begins... Strikes me that Mr. Viles and Ms. Russell should have done a bit more homework. Then again, I suppose this demonstrates that blogging doesn't equal journalism. Even a scintilla of research into this "link" between Johnson and Mozilo, along with the noted transactions, would reveal no illegal activity nor a failure to disclose. Ever heard of a 10K? or 10Q? Not to mention that neither Mozilo nor Countrywide have made contributions to Sen. Obama's campaign - see the Federal Election Commission records! Do your homework Mr. Viles, lest you further erode the Los Angeles Times journalistic reputation by using the NY Sun (versus NY Times?) as a source for your blog subjects.

"Obama's Countrywide connection" is an inaccurate headline, since it is James Johnson's connection. And that connection is that he had real estate loans. Someone please get me the fainting couch.

This is like a hot tomato and like McDonald's, I am not touching this one.

That's just dumb. Really? Is there nothing else to report on regarding the general election today? Really??

As a retired business reporter who covered FANNIE and FREDDIE for over 20 years I can tell you that this kind of unholy alliance between big lenders and those two GSE's is endemic. The top executives of these two quasi public/private entities have raked in hundreds of millions over the years in unearned compensation simply because the implied federal guarantee allows them to take greater risks at lower cost. Then they pocket those lower costs. It's time to strip these two giant entities of any government backing, implied or otherwise. Until that happens expect more lenders to honey up to their executives as they did with Johnson.

Obama crucified Hillary for Hillary's having a campaign manager, Mark Penn, who had lobbied for CountryWide. By Obama's own standards, therefore, this is no "cheap shot" -- it's a legitimate issue. (Even if it somehow isn't a big deal, it's clearly a sign of hypocrisy. Obama can't bash Hillary over the Penn-Countrywide connection and then expect no criticism over this, arguably closer, connection to Countrywide.)

Yawn

Zoo-ey, that was a scintillating comment.

Now, as for being FoA (Friend of Angelo): it looks like being FoA really doesn't do much for you at all. According to media accounts, the loans that FoA's got were done pretty much at market rates.

This is all very sophisticated strategy:

1. James Johnson is to assume position of great influence.

2. It is known that if people look carefully into JJ's past, they will see all sorts of housing related muck.

3. Preempt serious digging by leaking the FoA story and making him FoA. The media swoop in and pronounce: "aha" and "got him" only to find that they haven't uncovered anything evil at all.

4. JJ and Obama go on their merry way, without worrying too much about being linked to the bad real estate guys again.

Strategists, what do you call all that? It's got to have a punchy name.

i wonder if these obama zombies could selfdestruct,dont worry,you will get your free house,and no need to head to canada,or mexico,no draft either,scocialism is so beautiful,free everything

So, where is the connection to Obama? Someone that he just recently hired to start looking for potential VP's (As opposed to a policy advisor) is good friends of the CEO of Countrywide? OK, this isn't someone that will be in the cabinet should Obama win the Presidency, right? So, I guess I don't understand the dilemna. Also, seeings how countrywide is the biggest home lender, I think it would be near impossible to find anyone without a link to them....and some links may not be willful. Like mine for example. Countrywide bought my home loan from another company that bought it from the people I signed with. Does that mean that I am evil too?

Just beacause home values are declining does not mean, every lender out there that lend money to people,
last few years, a bad company, Plus when was the last time doing friends a favour a bad thing????
Cheap shot!!!!! If you ask me!!!

So, an friend of a friend does something and now we're connected.? Sounds like dirt at it's lowest level and not really worth reading except to know what is stirring.

Don't worry Obama followers. Nobody seems to pay attention to any of his questionable dealings.

Hehe. The only news sources pushing this smear have been Murdoch mouthpieces: The Sun, the WSJ, and Fox news. Surprise, surprise. I guess friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend attacks just don't have the cut Murdoch wishes they do; he'll have to buy a few more papers before he can get anything out of something meaningless like this.

Big "F'ing" deal if Obama knows a person who received what essentially is just a major rate exception for their loan they they took out. As a soon to be former employee of CFC I can tell you that major rate exceptions were given all the time to alot of customers regardless of their background or who they knew. That's just the way the mortgage business is period!!. Plus the comparsion in the WSJ was not very strong due to the fact that it basing it's data on long-term fixed rates when these loans were clearly the much lower short-term arm loans that this person received when the rates were at their recent lowest back in 2003. I hate when information is so misconstrued!!!

I don't like Obama one bit. But this is a pathetic story. Friend of a friend took some big real estate loans at low rates? Boo, author.

Hey......whether you like it or not, Johnson has friends in high places and also is expected to reward those friends who have assisted him. He will be calling in his markers and so will they. Don't tell me Obama isn't involved in this one. Just like he wasn't involved with his preacher's ideals??? Favors will be expected, and favors will be handed out. That's how it works. But when Obama stands up and says he is a "Change", surely he must be joking. Politics haven't and won't change. Let's not kid ourselves.

Obamatons have to get used to the fact that this guy is "guilty by association" in ways that traditional candidates could never imagine. Just get used to it and get over it. And relax. Sen. Obama’s campaign may be able to withstand the occasional lazy headline by a Times’ blogger as crazy as that sounds. Now, if only we could do something EFFECTUAL about the falling number of hits to this blogs..."Yes we can reload LA Land 20 times a day for blog post we can believe in! " Hmmm, it could work...

Anyway, The AP reports that “Obama has asked a three-person team, including Caroline Kennedy, to help lead the vetting of a prospective vice presidential candidate. The other two members are Jim Johnson, and a legal advisor to the campaign, Eric Holder."

To get the full scope and scale of the uselessness of such stories, we really ought to know what CEOs of financial companies, rating agencies, banks and mortgage lenders Deputy Attorney General Holder and Ms. Kennedy have ever supped with and whether or not the wore flag pins at the time. It’s all related to SoCal housing folks - Think about.

I am neither an Obama or McCain proponent but the public should get ready for this kind of nonsense from the media from now until election in November.

The advantage of being in the media is that you have the opportunity to print literally anything you so desire and attribute it to the infamous "un-named source/annonymous source" and then rely on the Constitution to exempt you from liability.

Already the "media" and the party "spinners" have concluded how the electoral college vote will play out, which in essence is their way of deciding who shall be elected long before the candidates have an opportunity to truly expound on their agendas.

What this nation needs is an honest and unbiased media and folks, that is not going to happen. The era of the true journalist has long since past and we, the public, have to suffer this travesty into the forseeable future.

Let's see... by this logic:

John McCain is friends with George W. Bush. Bush lied us into an endless war and committed treason by authorizing the release of the identity of a covert CIA agent...therefore John McCain is a traitor.

Case closed

The author of this should be fired. What horrible journalism.

This is stupid! You are just spitting in the wind. Why don't you leave the man alone if you can't come up with something better.

The headline "Obama's Countrywide Connection" and the accompanying LA Times blog entry (and the WSJ article) are all pathetic, silly attempts to manufacture solid news. First, those who hold themselves as journalists neglected to make critical inquiries of how and why we went to war in Iraq. Now they seem to hope that by the sheer distribution of baseless stories, the public will be manipulated into frenzy about absolutely nothing.

Huh? If they gave him a rate exception, they have to do it as a matter of policy, and everyone who fits those same criteria get the same rate exception.

What a pathetic story. Half of California has their loans at Countrywide - even Ed McMahon - and he's in foreclosure.

Fox News has invaded the WSJ - what a shame. An attempt at a Murdoch hit job.

I have to say, for being the "New" type of politicians, he sure does have a lot of sleazy friends.

Would Obama do anything differently, given his critique on "special interests"? Not one bit.

He's just another politician, with special connections to special interests groups. Only Obama supporters are naive and stupid enough not to know that; perhaps, they willingly look the other way, cuz the cold truth is too hard to swallow.

This blog is typical vapor news from the mouthpieces of the repugs. Please dig deeper and make a more convincing case next time. A second grader could have done this well! (Sorry to insult the second grader, but what passes as journalism these days is a very low bar.)

I got here from a headline on my Google homepage. How this story is "news" is beyond me.

I heard Obama is also connected to Kevin Bacon

Tommy:

I like your "logic," except for one thing: Bush and McCain are far from friends. If Bush weren't president right now, I doubt you'd see any pictures of him and McCain at fundraisers. You remember that VIP barbecue he threw at his ranch? George and Laura were not invited.

It's hard to see why this should be a big deal for Obama. A guy who's part of a team charged with finding a vice presidential nominee had a special deal with Countrywide. That's embarrasing now that Countrywide has cratered, but it's hardly damning. To me, the bigger deal is that Obama and company couldn't find anyone else do their VP vetting. Is Jim Johnson the only person in Washington able to do this? It's not as if he's been a stunning success at it either. He missed John Zaccaro's real estate problems when he signed off on Geraldine Ferraro's pick in 1984. It seems a grad student with a laptop, Google and a Lexis/Nexis account could do as well.

Hey! why don't you talk about the 40,000 jobs McCain's friends gave away to Airbus (France, Europe...)?

So, where is the Patriotism?

This is the worst bias article i ever seen.

very unprofessional jornalist :-)

Sorry :-)

I think this just proves that Presidential Nominees should only befriend or associate themselves with people who never do anything even remotely questionable.

Wait a second, that leaves NOBODY!

This is stupid. Obama just selected (last week) this dude because he has done past searches for a VP in 1984 and 2004. Apparently the guy got a sweet loan from Countrywide, but isn't Countrywide the biggest home lender in the US? I had a countrywide loan too. The guy was the former CEO of Fannie Mae, you think he had good credit? At any rate, what does that have to do with Obama?
I guess this is the only thing Republicans have on Obama, like he was on the board of a non-profit with a former 60s terrorist radical (ignore that Republicans and Mayor Daily served on the same board). If I were a Republican I would be scare and would be engaging in yellow journalism as seen here, but things are changing.
If this gives Obama a "Countrywide connection", I can think of ways McCain has terrorist connections, drugs connections, and lets talk about some real connections to the Keating five and the savings and loans debacle. McCain is after all the one standing actually taking money from PACs and lobbyists.
- Peter, you republican? Is this what your column is going to turn into?

If You Obama fanboys don't get the connection. Don't let it ruffle your feathers any. Obama is nothing more than the wolf in sheep's clothing. AFTER it is to late and Obama (heaven forbid!) get elected, will you see his true side.

If Obama calls his opponent Bush-McCain - we should call him Crook-Hussein

Joker Jo: I support Obama. Please call him Crook-Hussein as often as you can.

So, what?

Bush holds hands (literally) with the Saudi's and hangs out with Cheney and Condi.

I fail to see the Obama/CW scandal.

Geez - this is moronic. The power of the internet is not only can truth come out, but a lot of unsubstantiated crap can as well. In this case, the connection is substantiated to exist, but the "evil" is not necessarily present.

To Joker-Jo and fandeboris and toby and tiddle and piddle and the anachronism know as Victor Knopp and gromit:

Looking for bogeymen is a nice hobby but not a fruitful endeavor.

And especially to gromit - you dimwit - Obama didn't say squat about Mark Penn. But know that Mark Penn was in charge of the firm that OWNS McCain's campaign manager's firm. Now, how's that for a connection? Parroting McCain: That's not change I can believe it.

And why we're on the subject of home loans, remember a guy named Charles Keating? Maybe you aren't mature enough to remember what happened with the S&L meltdown in '89. There was a group known as the Keating Five, five Senators — Dennis DeConcini, Alan Cranston, John Glenn, Don Riegle and John McCain — who had received, for both themselves and for groups they supported, well over $1 million from Keating in the 1980s as favors and political contributions. They all had to answer to the Senate Ethics Committee.

Header wrote:
"And especially to gromit - you dimwit - Obama didn't say squat about Mark Penn."

Wrong.

Obama's chief campaign strategist and principal talking-head, David Axelrod, blasted Penn only two months ago for having worked with Countrywide.

Axelrod said this in early April: "[Hillary]'s stuck with [Penn] through the revelation that his firm was working for Blackwater and working for Countrywide, and, you know, so, it’s kind of stunning. Remember that the embassy said they weren't sure whether he was there as a representative of his firm or a representative of Senator Clinton. I mean, I think there are issues associated with this. I'm not - you can use the word hypocrisy, but there are certainly questions that arise from this."
(MSNBC's "Countdown," 4/7/08)

Whoops. Looks like this "dimwit" is smarter than a Header. And a lot less in the tank for Obama!

It's folks like you -- who are willing to deny any negative comment about Obama whether or not it is true (and, obviously and more troublingly, not CARING whether it is true) -- who give the many genuinely thoughtful Obama backers like David Geffen a bad name.

I'd play with you more, but this is a battle of wits, and I'm obviously fighting someone who's unarmed.

I'm all for Obama, but it's a fair story. He picks three people to head up his VP search, currently the most high-profile matter of his campaign. One is Caroline Kennedy (because she is the daughter of JFK), the second is Eric Holder (because he was one of the highest-ranking/highest-profile African Americans in the DOJ during the last Democratic administration), and third is James Johnson.

It's not a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, guilt by association, right-wing media thing. It is what it is. Poor vetting on Obama's part, but nothing he can't get past.

Obama is not perfect, but he's the best we've got. And I say that inspite of all these Obamaton comments, not because of them.

Obama/Democrat '08

And why we're on the subject of home loans, remember a guy named Charles Keating?

Posted by: Header

I was afraid someone would educate these guys and gals about that...in the Journalism 101 for Dummies that means another equally vaporous article on McCain's connections to nefarious elements associated (well...) with the LA Housing market.

For the sake of all of us readers, Let's pray that Carly Fiorina buys a house in Playa Del Rey, or God knows what will be posted....

Have any of you actually read the full WSJ article? The only facts they found is that an Obama advisor had 3 mortgage loans with the country's largest lender and apparently knew the president. One of those loans was not at a rate below the national average while two were below the national average (although the article goes on to admit that they didn't know whether the advisor paid points to reduce the rate, whether the rates were average for the area and similarly situated Countrywide borrowers). For the LA Times to report on stories from other publications without confirmation of facts, especially when the initial articles are lacking facts is irresponsible and frustrating. Your article picks and chooses seemingly damning content from those articles and inflames the issue with a conclusory headline. Shame on you!

Please read the copy of the letter I wrote to the WSJ specifically questioning their facts, their rush to publication and their motives:

Gentlemen,

I don't even know what to say other than your article was irresponsibly published. Your research was incomplete and made implications that I can only assume were intended to harm a candidate. Your article has spawned tens of other articles which picked up on your implications and ran with them. This was clearly foreseeable and I can only assume it was intentionally published in an attempt to create a scandal.

The only fact you have that might raise questions about the loans to James Johnson is that he had 3 loans and that the interest rates for 2 of them were below the national average. Is that it? You obviously know that there could be other factors which could explain that single fact since the rest of your article discusses those "possible" factors. If someone only skimmed your article (which many people do) it looks as though the WSJ has dug up some juicy dirt. But a reading of your article basically throws the implication out there then slowly adds caveats which if carefully read leads to the conclusion that you haven't finished your research and that there is nothing out of the ordinary with those loans.

As some one with a real estate law background I read your first few paragraphs and assumed you would provide further insight. Instead, you did no geographic research to determine whether the lower rates were made due to a more competitive market at the time. Were those loans at a lower rate than similar loans in that market? I don't know because you didn't address that issue. Were those loans at a lower rate than comparable Countrywide loans? I don't know because you didn't provide me with that information. Comparing to a national average is no comparisan at all.

Did James Johnson have stellar credit and significant income and net worth which would have allowed him the luxury of shopping around for the best rate? I don't know because you didn't provide me information in that regard. Doesn't it make sense that someone who works in the mortgage industry would have superior knowledge of how to shop for the best rates?

The most important question: were those loans held by Countrywide or sold on the secondary market. If they were sold on the secondary market that would indicate that they met certain underwriting standards and that they were processed as any other Countrywide mortgage. Unfortunately, you didn't provide that information either.

You don't know whether either of James Johnson or Franklin Raines paid points to lower their rates?!

Implying that several loans with the same mortgagee indicates some kind of dubious relationship is silly. Mom and pop ironworker in the Midwest tend to stay with the same bank/banker for their entire lives. Bankers work hard to establish relationships with their customers. Look to EVERY bank in the US and you will find that there are loans made to people the bank president personally knows.

Tying an Obama adviser to Franklin Raines who "a onetime Clinton administration budget director, who left Fannie Mae amid an accounting scandal in 2004" is also irresponsible. Apparently, you found no other commonalities between these guys other than they both knew Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and both had loans at rates lower than the national average. There is an obvious attempt here to discredit a presidential candidate by tying one of his advisors to someone unrelated who "resigned amid" a scandal.

I must disclose that I currently support Obama, but I want to hear facts about both candidates. In the coming months there will be a good deal of mud slinging by the parties and the PACs. There are few sources I look to for honest, investigative journalism to help me sort truth from mud. I expect more from the WSJ. Shame on the two of you and your editor for allowing such an incomplete and obviously biased item to be published.

Not suprising in the least to me. Obama has been caught talking out of both sides of his mouth on more than one occasion already and he isn't even in office yet. The first 1-2 years should prove to be very interesting. He will have a rough time of it trying to get anything by the congress and the senate. I don't look to see him last the entire four years

Not suprising in the least to me. Obama has been caught talking out of both sides of his mouth on more than one occasion already and he isn't even in office yet. The first 1-2 years should prove to be very interesting. He will have a rough time of it trying to get anything by the congress and the senate. I don't look to see him last the entire four years

Now, for something completely different: Grand Avenue Project delay rejected, ses LATimes.

Sounds like the WSJ is desperate trying to dig up dirt on Obama. Like they used to say, this dog won't or can't hunt. As soneone else said, since when is doing a friend a favor illegal?

And why is it all we hear about are "Friends of Obama"?

Lets see some hit pieces on Friends of McCain, I'm sure they'd be doozies. Let's start with Charles Keating!

Better yet, how about if every newspaper person got up in the morning and recited, "I will not besmirch democracy with phony guilt by association stories."

I'm not an Obama supporter but the mere fact that all of the dirt that has come out seems to be more about his friends and associates that about the man himself. This is pushing me toward supporting Obama. He must be really clean if this is the best the Republicans can do!

i understand that the news industry is very tough bussiness and paying actual jurnalist cost real money ,not couch camping wages,please peter pick up the torch you have learned on this blog and someone at this paper write a ligitiamate story,please no bloger bull,you know the real stuff that people in denial hate,before its to late and you guys end up owen the explantions

You cannot stop Mozilo. You can only hope to contain him.

The media and Obama are blasting McCain because he's in the same political party as Bush.

Well, this James Johnson is helping Carolina Kennedy screen for v.p. candidates for Obama. What a lark. Carolina is absolutely no expert on vice presidents. Johnson is another of Obama's friends in low places (i.e. Rezko, Nation of Islam, Fidel, Hamas, just to name a few.

Ethics means a lot of me when I choise friends. Obama should have chosen better, but perhaps he choses them because they are the same as him. It does matter what friends you chose (relatives like Obama's you cannot chose) as "birds of a beather flock together".

Poor, Viles, just poor.

peter your jedi training is complete

i was just reminde by a friend that we live in age when you can get a house without being veted why not the presidentcy

Seriously? That's all you got?

Phil Gramm's lobby work for UBS is a problem.

This piece of information is a point of interest.

The difference? Big.

And Gramm is McCain's presumptive Treasury Secretary.

Just because you're writing on a blog doesn't mean you shouldn't present the whole story.

If you're a journalist, Peter Viles, you should tell the whole story.

Wow. Teflon Obama. Johnson is a high ranking advisor to Obama and gets special treatment from the CEO of a company that played a major role in this housing mess. If Johnson and Wright can't stick, nothing will. His supporters will forget and forgive.

Thank for the heads up Pete. I guess I wont be voting for Mr.Johnson in November.....oh that's right he not running for anything. Never mind...

This seems like a total non-story to me. Who cares if the guy helping Obama vet his VP picks got a few real estate loans from Countrywide? I'm sure Jim Johnson has perfect credit, and these news articles don't prove that he got some great rate.

And let's not forget that millions of Americans with ZERO connections got zero percent teaser loans from Countrywide. Are they tarnished because of this? This is just more evidence that Countrywide was giving low interest rate loans to everybody.

If you want to find a real scandal, look at McCain's top financial advisor Phil Gramm. Gramm is a lobbyist for a major bank (UBS) that is knee-deep in this mortgage crisis, and Gramm helped McCain write his financial policy. That's a much more realistic scandal than this phony Jim Johnson stuff.

Im a Hilary Clinton supporter and was looking at both Obama and McCain, and I just picked one... Obama. This is really, really lame. I wasn't concerned with the Weather Underground connection and I am less concerned with this one (it's not even someone Obama knows). Republicans must be in real trouble!

Hmmm. Well anyone who belongs to Bilderberg, Council On Foreign Relations & Trilateral Commission AND is on the board of that known evil, Goldman Sachs, has to be evil themselves by association. Plus, now watch this stretch --- he's on the board of KB Home too. The same KB Home that had a romance with Macfarlane Partners, the giant parasite on Calpers hind quarters. Hat tip to Uncle Wiki.

Oh yes, in addtion to his KB Homes relationship, he's on the board at Gannett too, the people that own USA Today. USA Today, if I remember, is a mouthpiece for the NAR and the housing industry (I really should qualify that claim, but what the heck... it's party time).

So, linkage: Johnson-Housing Industry / Johnson-Obama / Obama-Housing Industry

Jennifer: What's with the outrage. WSJ hasn't been trustworthy since December, 2007. Maybe before that, but that's when I started paying attention.

Other stuff to think about: Perseus, where Johnson is a Vice Chairman - Invested heavily in Healthcare. Johnson is on the Board at United Health. Major happening in Obama presidency will be healthcare reform / universal healthcare. Can you spell GRAVY TRAIN for people in the right position?

Then notice all the Goldman Sachs alums in the Perseus lineup as well. And then remember how GS alumni tend to occupy Treas. Sec. positions as well.

Johnson will very likely be involved in more than just helping select a VP, and with a friend like that, Obama really might not need PAC and "Registered" Lobbyist help.

Does this make him a worse choice than McCain? They're probably equally bought and paid for. Will Laura Richardson's name come up as a candidate for V.P.? Ha! I wouldn't be surprised.

Oh, I almost forgot though... one of the other things that Perseus likes to invest in is.... outsourcing. And wouldn't you know it, they have an office in India (they have one in Germany too, but I think that's for the Pharma connection). They say on their website that they are involved with India because of the India's great need for renewable energy and... right. Could Obama be in the claws of people that are sending our remaining jobs offshore? So much food for thought, but we have plenty of time to mull it over as Rome burns.

Disjointed, but cathartic nonetheless.

We really have to rethink this government thing.

You or someone you know going through default or foreclosure? Writer would like to interview you. Please email me at stories@foreclosureofamerica.com

His pastor, his friend what else dose'nt he want us to know about? Follow all leads until they end, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it super chicken.

This blog used to focus on real estate. Now it focuses on gas prices, trees, and irrelevant stories like this. To make things worse, this story's original facts were never checked. Therefore, I think I'll stop reading now. Let me know when you start focusing on real estate again.

I know I said I was going to get involved in this. But I changed my mind.

In the Ivory Coast region of Africa, where over the centuries, many were captured and sold into slavery in the Americas, there are many interesting peoples and cultures.

Now, while neither of the current candidates nor I is a descendant of slaves, as far as I know (who knows, there were white slaves in this country, in the Barbary Coast, in Turkey and there were Asian slaves in Asia), I enjoy learning alll things about the area nontheless, and I think we can and should learn and benefit from tribal wisdom; it is thus relevant to our current discussion.

There is this particulary interesting country called Abomey, it's not the biggest and its people might be related to the Yoruba people, which is known for their fierce female warriors, the Amazons of the Africa as they were known in the 19th Century, and who, not surprisingly, won a skirmish against the colonial French all-male soldiers (thus pre-emptively ridiculing the current, patronizing, separate-gender Olympic games).

Their national symbol, bequeathed by King Guezo in the 1800's, is a water jar with many holes. His point to his fellow country men is this: that freedom of his country can be comapred to that jar, with many holes and thus can not hold water. If each one of them, the sons of the nation, can put his finger in one hole, the jar will hold water.

Now, I know McCain is useless and without hope, but perhaps a good man like Obama can step forward and say to the nation, the problem is bigger than any one person can handle. I am opening up the presidency. We should all share in the the power of that office. We should all be wined and dined by lobbyists and representatives of the Bilderberg Group and the Trilaterial Commission. Anyone running for the presidency is nothing but an egomaniac. I will not forsake my tribal wisdom. I hope you will not forsake yours either. I am not a descendant of slaves. I don't know about you, but it doesn't matter. What matter is we honor the wisdom of a people who have suffered greatly from slavery. Let's all stop being egomanics and realize we all have a share in our common destiny and let us together work hard to right his ship. And let no man be so arrogant as to think his Ivy League education or his Cal Berkeley education (I am sorry, but I confess that's me) elevates him above his fellow countrymen, but that we all are saviors of this country, that we are all presidents of this great nation. And for me to seek to have that much presidential power all by myself is to make a mockery of my tribal tradition, as you do to your own tribal tradition to gather as much power. Let's not only remember and pay tribute to King Guezo's wisdom, but live it in our everyday lifes. Let's all say, yes, we will henceforth make this a real democracy where everyone is king and president! Let no man say to you that you are not good enough! You are and you can be everything you want to be in this the greatest country in the world! Empower each of you and us and we empower all of us! Thank you, all you kings and queens, presidents and first ladies/gentelmen.

Guy, here's the short version: things will get worse (or better depending on your perspective) for a long time. Prices will come down, foreclosures will rise, loans will reset, villains will be investigated, people will lose jobs. What more about real estate do you want to know?

Isn't it time to understand *why* all those things are happening, in stead of just watch them happen and count them?

I know someone mentioned it above but here's a reminder. The Lincoln Savings and Loan collapse in 1989 is said to have cost taxpayers $3.4 billion. John McCain was one of the 'Keating 5' Senators who wanted to help Charle Keating "the bank" from being investigated. It is reported that McCain and family enjoyed luxurious gifts at Keatings expense. This sort of puts, as McCain likes to say 'service to this great nation' in a new perspective.

If it is true that Kevin Bacon is 6 degrees from Mozillo then I want him outed as well.

It's looking more and more like being FoA (friend of Angelo) hurts more than it helps.

James Johnson has quit the Obama team, letting us know he doesn't want to be a drag on them with all the negative publicity:

http://tinyurl.com/6xyyue

He can probably operate more effectively behind the scenes anyway.

It is hard now to find any The Change You Believe In except Obama.

The trick is you need to wear "The Emperor's New Clothes" and transform to The Chosen One.

Obama do have the right skills to deal with the home loan crisis (with friend's help).

I was going to vote for Obama until this latest scandal. I will not be voting for Obama now. I voted for Clinton twice, voted for Gore, voted for Kerry, but there is no way I'm voting for Obama. This guy is the biggest empty suit since Bob Dole. Have you ever heard him speak without a script. I have. Trust me, he's about as smart as a box of rocks.

Uhhhhhhhh......you CAN touch Obama and all of his little buddies with this. It is NOT 'just a distraction.'

If this kind of crap is the CHANGE we can believe in, well, NO THANKS.

I notice it takes TEAM OBAMA five minutes to get a bunch of whiners together to "pooh pooh" what is a REAL PROBLEM. If this garbage were coming out of TEAM McCAIN, the Obama crew would be having a FIELD DAY ripping them to shreds.

Sorry, I don't buy it. You can't wave this off. This IMPACTS Obama's credibility as a "change agent." It makes him look like a SLEAZY CHITOWN POL.

It's a load of crapola, and Team Obama, and that means THE CANDIDATE, is up to his ELBOWS in it.

I think the Democratic Party, once again, picked the weaker candidate.

Why is it that something from Obama is seen as questionable it becomes a smear? You Obamites are sheep. How can you respect either candidate running for office not only with shady business dealings like this but ties to crooks, liars and murderers? You know Ted Kennedy and William Ayers? I support neither candidate and yet I can smell bull coming miles away. Lets start using our commen sense here.