Friends of Barack Obama

1. Friends of Barack Obama William Charles Ayers and Barack Obama have been friends for decades. This is a man who has admitted to BOMBING THE PENTAGON -- and has never expressed one ounce of regret for his actions. Ayers is a terrorist -- and Obama is his friend and political student. Obama and Ayers served together in 1995 on the CAC, overseeing the distribution of about $50 million to area schools through radical left-wing groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or ACORN).

2. Friends of Barack Obama Wright has been the minister to Obama for more than 20 years and gave him the title of his second best-seller, “The Audacity of Hope.” Wright married Obama and his wife, Michelle, and baptized their two daughters. To reporters who had followed the campaign, it was an old, oft-written story. But this time it had video of Wright saying things like “U.S. of K.K.K.A.,” available on YouTube and played endlessly by cable news channels.

3. Friends of Barack Obama Rezko was also one of Obama's earliest supporters. In 1995, when Obama ran for a seat in the Illinois Senate, Rezko, through two of his companies, donated thousands of dollars to the Obama campaign. Ironically, Obama won the election in a district that included 11 of Rezko's 30 low-income housing projects. In 2003, Rezko held a lavish fundraiser at his Wilmette, Ill., mansion for Obama's Senate election. In fact, Rezko raised big dollars for Obama. In 2005, when Rezko was under federal investigation for influence peddling, Obama and Rezko's wife, Rita, bought adjacent pieces of property from a Chicago doctor.

4. Friends of Barack Obama (2004) Obama, however, is different from most Democrats because of his willingness to embrace the controversial Soros. Shortly after Soros equated the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Obama joined him in New York for a fund-raiser June 7. Little has been made of his connection to Soros, although it is unique. Not only did Soros donate to Obama's campaign, but four other family members - Jennifer, sons Jonathan and Robert and wife Susan - did as well.

5. Friends of Barack Obama In the four years since he stepped down as Fannie Mae’s chief executive under the shadow of a $6.3 billion accounting scandal, Franklin D. Raines has been quietly constructing a new life for himself. He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case’s D.C. conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters. 

6. Friends of Barack Obama The Obama campaign found itself on the defensive after the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the former Fannie Mae chief had received millions of dollars in home loans -- some of which may have been below average market rates -- from Countrywide Financial, a partner of Fannie Mae and a leading purveyor of subprime mortgages. The Washington Post reported yesterday that alleged accounting manipulations for 1998 had resulted in maximum payouts to Fannie Mae's senior executives -- $1.9 million in Johnson's case -- when the company's performance that year would have yielded no bonuses. Even after he left Fannie Mae in 1999, Johnson received millions of dollars in guaranteed consulting fees and perks that included an office, two secretaries and a car and driver for himself and his wife.”