Sorry Mr. Raines, Under the Bus with You. You, too, Washington Post.

Two months ago, the Washington Post wrote:

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. [Emphasis mine]

The Obama campaign said nothing.

Today, however, the message from the Obama campaign is “Franklin…who?”

This is another flat-out lie from a dishonorable campaign that is increasingly incapable of telling the truth. Frank Raines has never advised Senator Obama about anything — ever.

That’s a strange statement.

First, the tone is almost panicky. It certainly seems like an overreaction considering that Obama’s campaign never bothered to dispute the original Washington Post story and, to my knowledge, this is the first statement it’s ever made about any connection between Obama and Raines. To come out and call John McCain a liar is pretty strong language for a first response.

Second, it’s not necessarily true. McCain’s campaign didn’t lie. It used information from a news report that, until today, it had no reason to doubt. Why would it? It doesn’t take a real genius to figure out that the most likely source for the Washington Post’s claim was Raines himself since the only other source that could give such a definitive statement was the Obama campaign itself. I’m going to presume that Obama’s people aren’t going to come out strong on a fact that it was responsible for getting into the news so I think it’s safe to call Raines the source.

Now, it could be true. Burton said that Raines never advised “Senator Obama” and the Washington Post report said that he had advised Obama’s campaign. That’s the kind of slippery language that wouldn’t be out of place coming from the campaign of your typical Chicago machine politician, but given the Obama’s campaign’s gaffe history, I don’t think they were trying to get very cute with the language. And the commercial to which Burton is objecting mentioned Obama himself. I think the obvious intention is that he’s denying the commercial, which is based on the Post report.

Which means that Burton’s real gripe is either with the Post or with Franklin Raines himself.

I think a couple follow-up questions to the Obama campaign are in order.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Obama Campaign: He’s Not One of Those Washington Insiders Like John McCain, George Washington, or Abe Lincoln!
• Barack Obama Really Needs to Check His Package Right Now.
• Barack Obama’s Response to Palin’s Speech was Dumb When I Used it in Kindergarten

Tags: Barack Obama, Economics, Washington Post

Category: Johnny Mac, The Economy and Your Money