I like that! Reminds me of John Gotti being called the “Teflon Don”. I'll see if i can come up with a similar nickname for Obama, and do a post at my new blog on it – something about Obama and “Teflon”.

(BTW, I moved and updated my blog. Should show up here, since doing an update on my Disqus profile.)

And how does playing “tit for tat” lower the price of gas?

Stereotypes and lies. The only ammo these people can conceive of using, and it's not working.

It's more amusing and sad than anything. It's going to boil down to simple lies just like what we see from the crazier Clinton supporters and what we'll see from Republicans.

All that being said, Obama got the same treatment any other celebrity did. In exchange for being able to link his name with their products, a company like this will often provide the celeb with a better than market deal. The O-Man is my horse in this race, win lose or draw, but he's got to do a better job of scrutinizing these kinds of transactions before signing the paperwork and think about how they will play in the press.

A quarter point higher rate wouldn't have killed him. Worrying about $300/mo when your P & I alone (no taxes or insurance) is $7485 is bullshit – at roughly $8800/mo WITH taxes and insurance (estimated – $12,000 taxes – $4000 insurance) the effective savings is 3% over a rate at market.

For high income earners, the interest deduction is a beautiful thing – but our “get the best deal at all costs” mentality sometimes backfires on us.

At least he didn't go off the deep end like my girl Hillary did back in the 90's. That was when I was a stockbroker. That futures trading bonanza, where she raked in a hundred thousand dollar profit off of a THOUSAND DOLLAR investment that she watched part-time was the biggest crock of shit. The whole Street laid down for them on that one, partly because they don't want you to know about block trades, where we take down a block of stock or option contracts at varying prices and then divvy them up to our clients any way we saw fit.

“The rich are not like you and I” is one of the truest statements ever written

Giving the profitable trades to the guy you wanted to juice, or the guy you needed to stop crying about his loses – that was everyday business.

It doesn't mean he

Well, Karmi was the butt of his own joke.

http://culturekitchen.com/liza/blog/bush_doesnt...

It's interesting to note that on a loan of this size, 30 basis points difference has a present value of over $40k. With more and more America's having mortgage difficulties, I suspect that politicians are going to continue to get scrutiny in this area.

*taking off my Obamaholic hat and putting on my housing finance expert hat*

The WaPo articles author's analysis was pedestrian and shows a complete lack of understanding of what goes on in obtaining a mortgage.

Your FICO score, payment history, debt to income ratio, earnings and assets, and the worthiness of the property in question largely determine your rate. It is not uncommon for a mortgage broker to offer lower than average rates in order to get the deal.

Senator Obama, as it is widely reported, has significantly low debt (and did back then), had recently made a sale on a condo, and had serious earning potential. The spread on a mortgage is always negotiable, and the commission for the broker was more than enough reason to offer a lower rate.

Plus, the key is the word “average” generally means middle…so unless we are going to investigate all borrowers who recieved that rate at that point in time, compare FICO scores, credit histories, income and earnings, and comparables in terms of property, the writer's conclusions mean diddly.

*taking the housing finance pro hat off*