Factcheck.org has taken on John McCain's recent ad claiming Obama gave Tony Rezko political favors in return for assistance on his home purchase. Not surprisingly to those of us that have followed this story, they show that there is no substance whatsoever to this claim:
http://www.factcheck.org/...
It's untrue that Rezko got "$14 million from taxpayers" for himself, as the ad seems to be saying. The "help" to which it refers is a one-page letter Obama signed in October 1998 urging the city housing commissioner to support an apartment project for low-income senior citizens. . . . The 97-unit Cottage View Terrace, which opened in 2002, was funded with taxpayer money, and Tony Rezko was involved in developing the project.
And as for that home purchase:
When the Obamas wanted to increase the size of their yard, they approached the Rezkos about purchasing a strip of the adjacent parcel. Obama told the Sun-Times that a 10-foot strip of the 60-foot lot appraised for $40,000. The Obamas nevertheless paid Rita $104,500 (or 1/6 of the total purchase price of her lot) for the strip. In 2007, Rita sold the remaining lot for $575,000 (or roughly a $54,500 profit on the overall property).
McCain's ad, however, is worded in a way that could leave a false impression. It says Rezko "helped him buy his million-dollar mansion" by "purchasing part of the property he couldn't afford." That's true, but only because the seller wanted to sell the two parcels as a unit and the Obamas couldn't afford both. Rezko did not make a gift of any property to the Obamas.
I've explained this here before, but to recap, I am a real estate agent, and I see this sort of situation all the time. A seller owns a house plus an adjoining parcel of land, and almost always lists the house plus the vacant land together because they know it will be near impossible to sell the land separately. Rezko only helped by agreeing to buy the vacant parcel, thus dividing the two lots and making the house more affordable. But as Factcheck points out, they made a profit on this purchase as well, and in no way did they give the Obamas any money.
It's the sort of deal that is done all the time; there's nothing remotely illegal about it, and the relationship between Obama and Rezko has been vetted over and over again. Let McCain do his worst; there's no THERE there.