Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Clinton attack machine just greasing its gears...

Obama is going to learn a real hard lesson about politics in Washington.
Watch out for the Clintons.


Less than two months after ascending to the United States Senate, Barack Obama bought more than $50,000 worth of stock in two speculative companies whose major investors included some of his biggest political donors.

One of the companies was a biotech concern that was starting to develop a drug to treat avian flu. In March 2005, two weeks after buying about $5,000 of its shares, Mr. Obama took the lead in a legislative push for more federal spending to battle the disease.

The most recent financial disclosure form for Mr. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, also shows that he bought more than $50,000 in stock in a satellite communications business whose principal backers include four friends and donors who had raised more than $150,000 for his political committees.

A spokesman for Mr. Obama, who is seeking his party’s presidential nomination in 2008, said yesterday that the senator did not know that he had invested in either company until fall 2005, when he learned of it and decided to sell the stocks. He sold them at a net loss of $13,000.


This has Hilary all over it.
Its way too soon for any republicans to make attacks but Hilary is seeing that she is not in the lead and has let the dogs loose on Obama.

But its not like Obama is is innocent here either.
This particular deal seems odd to say the least:

The investments came at a time when Mr. Obama was enjoying sudden financial success, following his victory at the polls in November 2004. He had signed a $1.9 million book deal, and his ethics disclosure reports show that he received $1.2 million of book money in 2005.

His wife, Michelle, a hospital vice president in Chicago, received a promotion that March, nearly tripling her salary to $317,000, and they bought a $1.6 million house in June. The house sat on a large property that was subdivided to make it more affordable, and one of Mr. Obama’s political donors bought the adjacent lot.


Damn 317K. Nice Michelle Obama. Nice indeed.
But what is the deal with a donor buying the lot next to you? Hmmmm...
That sounds like a bit of a conflict on interest.
Maybe Obama isn't as green to the politics of Washington and contributions as is perceived.

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