Obama's Countrywide-like Sweetheart Mortgage Deal

Shortly after being sworn in as a U.S. Senator in January 2005, Obama bought a Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. Obama bought the house for $300,000 less than the asking price of $1.95
million.

The Obamas' income had just risen dramatically. As a U.S. Senator, Obama got an annual salary of $162,100, Random House agreed to reissue an Obama memoir as part of a $2.27 book million deal, and the University of Chicago Hospitals promoted Michelle Obama and more than doubled her pay, to $317,000.

To finance his new mansion, Obama secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois. Obama received a discount on the loan:

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.

So who cares? Perhaps you should. Joe Stephens explains why in the Washington Post:

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.

Driving the recent debate is concern that public officials, knowingly or unknowingly, may receive special treatment from lenders and that the discounts could constitute gifts that are prohibited by law.

"The real question is: Were congressmen getting unique treatment that others weren't getting?"

Obama, caught off-gaurd about Johnson's sweetheart Countrywide deals, initially tried to defend his vice presidential talent scout. But, Obama threw Johnson, under the bus, just a few days after Johnson's Countrywide sweetheart deals came to light.

Obama is spinning his sweetheart mortgage deal as the lender competing for Obama's business:

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said the rate was adjusted to account for a competing offer from another lender and other factors.

[. . .]

The Obama campaign called the rate "consistent with Northern Trust policies, and it reflected the base rate set for that period discounted to address the competition for the account and other opportunities, such as personal financial services, that the relationship would bring to Northern Trust."

It's those "other factors" and "other opportunities" that worry me. Those "factors" and "opportunities" could be anything, including special access to a grateful U.S. Senator or a President.

Presidents, and U.S. Senators, need to avoid the appearance of impropriety. As with Obama's relationship with the crook, Antoin Rezko, Obama's judgment once again failed both Obama and America.