Barack Sweetie's Sweetheart Mortgage

Well, well, well. Barack Sweetie has a sweetheart deal of his own on his Hyde Park manse--in addition to the convicted Tony Rezko (and Rita) Valentine of the lot next door. This can't keep until after the 4th-- Obama's sweetheart mortgage deal headlined today in the Washington Post, "Obama Got Discount on Home Loan":

"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. 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."

Gee, no wonder he didn't see anything wrong with bringing Jim Johnson on board the Obama campaign bus to vet his Veeps. Johnson, soon thrown under said bus, is a former Fannie Mae exec, and sweetheart deal recipient from Countrywide Financial. This calls for a broader investigation, hmm Barack, Sweetie? Northern Trust Employees also sweetly donated $71,000 to Obama's campaigns since 1990.

And recall his "surge in income" (hmm, at least some of it) was from his book deal capitalizing on his new prominence, which cleverly skirted Senate ethics rules, a la Hillary, getting the advance between his election to the Senate and taking office.

The Swamp picks it up. More detail at the RNC.

Barack Obama, in it for himself. But then he's a typical liberal, only generous with other people's money--the taxpayers of the US of A.

P.S. Is this your idea of affordable housing Barack? Are you a TOTAL HYPOCRITE, sweetie?

The couple wanted to step up from their $415,000 condo. They chose a house with six bedrooms, four fireplaces, a four-car garage and 5 1/2 baths, including a double steam shower and a marble powder room. It had a wine cellar, a music room, a library, a solarium, beveled glass doors and a granite-floored kitchen.

The Obamas had no prior relationship with Northern Trust when they applied for the loan. They received an oral commitment on Feb. 4, 2005, and locked in the rate of 5.625 percent, the campaign said. On that date, HSH data show, the average rate in Chicago for a 30-year fixed-rate jumbo loan with no points was about 5.94 percent.

Yes We Can.

UPDATE: The Obama camp response, via Major Garrett, FoxNews:

On The Washington Post story “Obama Got Discount Home Loan,” the campaign, through spokesman Ben LaBolt, tells The Bourbon Room that Barack Obama received a loan that “anyone with the Obamas’ financial profile could have gotten the same rate on that mortgage.”

LaBolt says the Obama family was flush with cash at the time they were loan shopping and that the bank in question, Northern Trust, sought their business by offering a lower mortgage rate and to respond to a competitive mortgage rate offered by another lender. LaBolt would not identify the lender “at this time.”

“There was a competitive offer from another bank and the Obamas had a substantial amount of cash to deposit in the bank,” LaBolt said. “Northern Trust made the loan for commercial reasons.”

How convenient to not identify the other lender. At this time. Could the unnamed bank be that of another Obama buddy, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias' Broadway Bank? Another can of worms. And the banker to...Tony Rezko. From an earlier post:

Remember this? And in related news, the "earnest but naive" friend of Barack, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, banker to Barack, was also banker to friend of Barack Tony Rezko. (Watch your back, Barack.) Of course, these guys are all earnest but naive.

UPDATE: Geraghty's initial take here. The American Thinker yesterday, reminding us of much, including Rezko's former star employee Kelly King Dibble is now a senior officer at Northern Trust. Read it all. Previous posts on Dibble here, here, here, here, here. What role Michelle not so belle? Incestuous Chicago. The American Thinker you will note writes under a pseudonym. He's a retired Illinois state employee.