Obama Finance Chair Linked To Subprime Industry

Barack Obama has slammed the banking industry for its predatory use of sub-prime mortgages, which are pushing millions of American homeowners toward foreclosure. But his campaign's Finance Chair, Penny Pritzker, owned a failed Chicago thrift that helped pioneer sub-prime financial instruments and faced accusations of abuse.

One might wonder why Hillary Clinton's campaign hasn't jumped on this issue. Maybe it's because Penny's little brother, J.B. Pritzker, is a mover and shaker in the Clinton campaign.

In May of 2007, Jay Robert, aka, (J.B.) Pritzker, threw his support behind Hillary Clinton, representing a coup for her campaign by wresting the billionaire out of Obama's home town of Chicago, and better still, the brother of Obama's Campaign Finance Chair.

J.B. Pritzker announced he would head a new grassroots organization called Citizens for Hillary Clinton. Pritzker told reporters at the time, the new organization would go into states "where we haven't fully organized" and seek out campaign supporters as well as raise funds.

Apparently the Pritzkers will be sitting at the head table at the Inaugural Ball if either Democrat wins.

Read the article here.

Comments

[starcycle]

But... but... Barack Obama is a savior with good judgment. He's about hope and change, not money politics as usual -- how can this be??

[BrooklynLager]

You need to come up with an argument FOR Hillary Clinton to win votes - "he's as bad as my candidate" never convinces anyone.

[andyboy]

But but but he never closed a loan. Or did a phony appraisal. Or hoodwinked a buyer into signing an ARM.

Why are people always trying to blame Barack for other people's failings?

Farrahkan, Rezko, Pritzker?

Unwarranted

[mig991]

Exactly, it won't stick because it is not HIS dirt.

I like Sen. Clinton but she has her hands are on a lot of things that will not show her in a favorable light.

[thromulese]

No. But he did heroically vote “present” over 130 times. Such courage and valor is so rare in today’s politics. I think if he doesn’t get elected president, maybe he should be sainted by the pope.

[hank48188]

Obama needed help buying his house so he picked the guy, Tony Rezko, that was under investigation by the FEDS, that sure was an example of good judgement! The Tony Rezko Political Corruption trial starts on Monday

[loki]

I dont know why its never dawned on me before. But Hillary is from Chicago and well connected there, as is Obama. Chicago is probably the 4th most corrupt city in the US. DC is of course 1, 2nd would be Wall street, but its not a city, so it would have to be New York. Id say Vegas is 5th. But just my observations.

[Roose]

Another Snoozer.

Hillary, please go away. PLEASE!

[radicalcentrist44]

Obama is doing the same thing every other presidential candidate does, he has people on his staff and advisors who do things like predatory lending. However, he is the candidate of "change" and "hope" (whatever that means) but yet he still follows the same same script every other candidate does. Obama is going to get elected president and we still do not know what he stands for.

[wyorange]

The "HOPE" and "CHANGE" thing for Sen. Obama is more campaign hype than anything else. That hype leads the crowd. Most of the American people love to be on a bandwagon and once hooked it is very difficult for them to see beyond the hype.

Same with the "new kind of politician" nonesense that the Obamamites have bought into. He is very little different from most of our politicians (just has not been in the limelight long enough to have a lot that can be dug up); i.e., 17 year relationship with a sleazy character (Rezko) who helped finance his campaigns, water downing his nuclear waste/leakage bill because Exelon (another campaign contributor) was upset about how tough it was, complains about influence of lobbyists yet has Exelon's main lobbyist as a key campaign member, is chairman of a subcommittee relating to Nato but has never called a hearing, promises along with Sen. McCain to accept public financian if they are the respective nominees but now is hedging on that promise, and touts how he can reach across the aisle and bring about unity in governemtn (but apparently has not learned that compromise is a necessity to getting legislation passed -- voting against the credit card interest rate bill and not co-sponsoring Sen. Feingold's current bill on withdrawing troops from Iraq (these two instances sort of showing the same type of GW mentality of "my way or no way")).

As a life-long registered republican supporting Sen. Clinton I will not be voting for Sen. Obama in a McCain/Obama contest. See Sen. McCain as far stronger on national security and probably not much difference between he and Sen. Obama on effects on our national debt. Appears to me that most of Sen. Obama's proposals are to be funded by increasing taxes whereas most of Sen. Clinton's proposals having funding sources other than increasing taxes.

For me Sen. Obama is a lot of "hype" but I really question whether he can deliver on his HOPE/DREAM and CHANGE agenda. Think he is rather naive in some of his proposals and especially of his view of the world.

And as far as that "ability to reach across the aisle and work with republicans"; sort of like a snowball's chances in hell.

[CraigMM]

This is funny! If it were HRC he article would be right up top with an unflattering picture of her with it. Since it is BO, they slide down the page so it looks like an old story. The content is funny, too, because they spend more time talking about HRC than BO's ties with the corruption. Again the double-standard is applied: everyone does it / it's no big deal / change the subject to something negative about HRC. Typical. I thought BO was different? I thought he was above this? He is not, but his flock will defend him instead of holding him to the same standards they have hammered HRC about. 10 million votes for HRC and this story about BO, just don't fit in with the narrative that HuffPo is trying to tell. Okay BO supporters, you can come out and make your straw man arguments to defend BO. I know you have to. It's gotten old and predeictable and is going to end up driving the HRC supporters away in the GE, but go ahead....

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

I mostly see posts mocking "Obamabots" *in advance* even before they've responded, showing that Hillary's supporters are equally if not more rabid in wanting to denounce a fellow Democrat-- I mean "reject." Nice preemptive strike.

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

Not good.

We see this with health-care. Obama can't really attack Hillary's pro-private industry health-care plan because his is the same. But supporters of true universal health-care shouldn't be fooled by her claims either.

It's also true with Tony Rezko. He gave money to the Clintons, to Ed Rendell, to the mayor of L.A., even to George Bush. Hillary doesn't really want to bring that up, when both are at fault.

Both Hillary and Obama are loved by Wall Street investors. They're corporate Democrats. But Kucinich, not Edwards, was the place to go for progressives who were uncomfortable with the two frontrunners.

[loki]

Your correct, no story because everyone who has a brain understands that the only candidates we are allowed to vote for, at bought and owned by corporate elite.

[Nolawi]

There is no story here...

[Duffs]

No kidding.. wow.

Give me back the last 2 minutes of my life.

[midtown]

“The [sub-prime] financial engineering that created the Wall Street meltdown was developed by the Pritzkers and Ernst and Young, working with Merrill Lynch to sell bonds securitized by sub-prime mortgages,” Timothy J. Anderson, a whistleblower on financial and bank fraud, told me in an interview.
==========­==========­===

This could only have happened after the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in late 1999 and the Financial Services Modernization Act (the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) was passed. Banks could only do that in a limited capacity before then. This TImothy J. Anderson character (who did he whistleblow to?) is overstating their genius.

Read it here yourself:
The Long Demise of http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.htmlweill/demise.html

So

[apresdeluge]

I had to reach for the defibrillator when I saw this headline on ObamaPost! Can it be that Arianna is really such a misogynist that she doesn't want ANY candidate to win? Maybe she will launch a write in campaign for herself!

[LindaLee99]

I had to re-fresh my browser, too, to see if I was still at the HuffPo site. Someone stopped singing coombyya long enough to report something new about Senator Obama. But,but,bu­t... I thought he was the unfettered candidate of change?

[nihilon x]

There was a story about his ties to Rezko posted recently and there are likewise a few new articles and blogs about him allegedly backtracking on NAFTA. Both Ridley and Hutchinson routinely criticize on these very pages and Taylor Marsh herself has been posting attacks on Obama herein.

There is also the recent article by Roseanne Barr, if you want to consider that even noteworthy.

Here's what you're missing, though -- its not just the Huffington Post that supports Obama...it­s also the American voting public.

As such, the criticism is all there...it­s just that his good far outweighs his bad.

[Kally]

Even if Hillary had 100% proof of obama's crookedness and corruption some how the male website bloggers would turn it around on her. No matter what obama does it rolls off the butts back like water. But since McCain is going to beat the pants off him what difference does it make. Maybe when the MSM starts to pound him like they have pounded Hillary we might get all his corruption out in the open - starting with Auchi the Iraqi crook living in Britian who wanted obama to sneak him into the country with a visa after he was denied one.

[hank48188]

If you look at Obama's House deal involving Tony Rezko you can see his crookedness. When you are a Public Official and you accept the "favor" from your largest fundraiser of buying a vacant lot for $625,000 so Obama could buy the House for $1.65 million, that is CORRUPTION, what was Rezko to receive for doing this "Favor"?

[bitabingbitabangbitaboom]

TIME TO REBOOT AMERICA!

[gd7277467]

!!! Y A W N !!!

[gd7277467]

!!! Y A W N !!!

[midtown]

Who did Timothy J. Anderson work for that he could be a whistleblower? I can't find any information about him.