To POLO 326: What law did the Obamas break when their bought their house in Chicago? None! They wanted a house that had half a lot next to it owned by the same seller who was selling the house and its lot. The price was too high---not an unusual occurance in Chicago's real estate market. The price is almost always too high there, frankly! But the Obamas, not being wealthy like the McCains and the Bushes, couldn't afford the two-pronged deal.

Along comes a wealthy family friend who then purchases the half lot and offers to sell it to the Obamas for a less-exhorbitant price, allowing Barack and Michelle to go ahead with the real estate deal. True, the person who purchased the half lot is married to someone who got in trouble with the law for his activities within the Blagojevich administration but that doesn't mean either she or the Obamas did anything wrong. NOR ILLEGAL. They just purchased a house!

A few years back, my daughter who is a homeowner in Chicago said Mom, the house next door is for sale. Why don't you buy it and then I could expand my garden I informed her that, not being a Chicagoan and owning a house/property that is more in keeping with the national norms cost-wise, it wasn't even something I could seriously consider. But suppose I had. Then suppose I sold it to her for much less than I paid for it. Would I be doing something illegal? No!

Also consider the $600,000 loft condo the McCains purchased for their daughter. I assume they're not charging her rent, nor asking her to pay even a reduced price to purchase it from them. But if they did, would they be doing anything illegal? Not at all.

As to the price of the Obama house, that, my fiends, is the Chicago real estate market. Houses are priced out of range for most families unless they have a friend or Mom or rich Daddy to help them out. Barack doesn't have a Mom or rich Daddy. Michelle doesn't have a rich Daddy and her mother is far from being in financial shape to help them out.

The irony of the whole thing is that when Senator Obama becomes president, the federal government will likely lay claim to that land for use in setting up Secret Service and other security arrangements. If the Obamas didn't already own it, the feds would have to purchase it! The purchase arrangement that occured between the Obamas and the lady who purchased the half lot actually saved us taxpayers some money.

Let's take this a little further. If McCain, by chance, wins the presidency, can you imagine how many millions it's going to cost the government to set up security arrangements at all of the half dozen houses, condos and ranches he owns?

Please, folks, stop picking up bits and pieces of nonsense and passing them off as facts. If you can write a comment in Salon, you can execute a search to determine what's true and what's not.

I meant "my friends" in the previous posting. But given the glee that some diehard opponents have when they blast the Democrat ticket, I suppose the use of "fiend" does apply---sometimes.