* It’s all in the perspective. Bloomberg leads its Obama/Rezko story this way…
The couple who sold Barack Obama his Chicago home said the Illinois senator’s $1.65 million bid “was the best offer'’ and they didn’t cut their asking price because a campaign donor bought their adjacent land, according to e-mails between Obama’s presidential campaign and the seller. […]
The Obamas submitted three bids: $1.3 million on Jan. 15, 2005; $1.5 million on Jan. 21; and $1.65 million on Jan. 23, according to a copy of the sale contract shown to Bloomberg News. […]
The e-mail between Wondisford and the campaign adviser also says that the sellers had “stipulated that the closing dates for the two properties were to be the same.'’ In January 2006, Rita Rezko sold the Obamas one-sixth of the lot, for $104,500, to expand their yard. She later sold the rest of the land to Michael Sreenan, who said by e-mail yesterday that he bought it in late December 2006 for $575,000.
That seems to clear up a lot. The seller didn’t just take a first bid from Obama, and it was the seller who wanted the closing dates on the same day. Also, note that Rezko sold the land for a profit - He bought it for $625K, sold a slice to Obama for $104.5K and sold the rest to Streenan for $575K. So it doesn’t appear that he paid an exhorbitant amount. One of the criticisms has been that Rezko subsidized the house purchase.
* But this is how the Tribune leads its story…
Before he bought his South Side mansion in 2005, Sen. Barack Obama took his friend and fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko on a tour of the premises to make sure it was a good deal, Obama’s campaign revealed Monday. […]
Obama was able to buy the house for $300,000 less than the listed price while Rezko, in his wife’s name, paid the full $625,000 asking price for an undeveloped side lot.
You get an entirely different and more sensational picture from that article, perhaps because the Trib wasn’t given the e-mails that Bloomberg obtained. Newspapers are jealous that way.
* Meanwhile, some of you have asked me for a list of Illinois superdelegates. Here are the committed delegates. It appears that John Rednour, the Mayor of DuQuoin, is the only Illinois “Super” for Hillary Clinton.
Uncommitted Democratic super delegates are here. Congressmen Dan Lipinski and Rahm Emanuel top that list, which also includes Steve Powell (the UFCW 881 official), Edward Smith (I think that’s the Laborers’ Union chieftain, not the alderman) and Margie Woods (Will County Board).
…Adding… The Bill Foster campaign points out that if their guy wins next month’s special election to replace Denny Hastert, he’ll also be a super delegate. And considering that Obama is doing a TV ad for Foster, his convention intentions seem pretty clear.