Mofo Politics | Hoping Obama Fails

A list of the most prominent of Barack Obama’s Fannie Mae connections.

Franklin Raines

Franklin Raines is the former Chairman and Chief Executive of Fannie Mae. In 2006, The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) sued Raines to recover some of the $90 million dollars it paid to Raines between 1998 and 2003, including $50 in bonuses based on overstated earnings (source).

According to OFHEO, under Raines, Fannie Mae “had engaged in Enron-like accounting machinations that allowed Fannie to overstate its earnings and underestimate the risk the company faced.”

Connection to Obama – Anita Huslin of the Washington Post wrote that “taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.”

The Obama Campaign calls this claim a “flat-out lie.” However, it is very clearly written in the first paragraph of the Washington Post story linked here. It should be noted that neither Franklin Raines nor the Obama campaign sought to refute this story until now (the story is months old).

Jim Johnson

Former Chairman of Fannie Mae. Johnson has been linked to a mortgage scandal in which certain individuals were granted preferential treatment by Countrywide:

Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Calabasas-based Countrywide, may have provided favorable terms on mortgages to Johnson and other friends. Ever since Johnson and the Obama campaign have been on the defense.

Connection to Obama – Obama had asked Jim Johnson to head his VP search, as noted in the NY Times, May 2008:

The search is in its earliest phases, officials said, and Mr. Obama has asked Jim Johnson, a longtime Democratic hand, to lead the process.

Johnson is also known to have contributed thousands to the Obama campaign, and, according to the Politico, still advises Obama to this day.

Senator Chris Dodd

Senator Chris Dodd, fellow Democrat, and supporter of Barack Obama, is implicated in a mortgage scandal concerning Countrywide Mortgage. As head of the Senate Banking Committee, Dodd allegedly received “special treatment” on his own mortgages. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Dodd maintains he was unaware he had received special treatment, while acknowledging he was a VIP customer.

Connection to Obama – Dodd endorsed Obama in February 2008, as pictured above. As yet, Obama has not spoken out about Dodd’s issue or called for an investigation.

UPDATE: Time Magazine’s Karen Tumulty says McCain’s Obama/Raines ad is racist:

This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.

Let me stipulate: Obama’s Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn’t even mention a far more significant tie–that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama’s vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial.

…

Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black.

UPDATE: Obama says he will present detailed plan to deal with financial crisis…later.

UPDATE: WaPo, 8 months later: Raines isn’t a close advisor to Obama afterall.

RELATED: The mother of all bailouts.