Obama, Acorn And Their Starring Role In The Mortgage Crisis
By Frank Salvato
October 10, 2008
Page 2 of 3
Because of the Community Reinvestment Act, any financial institution that wants to expand or merge -- any financial institution that has earned the right to grow because of its utilization of good business practices -- has to prove it has complied with the Community Reinvestment Act otherwise the growth move can be blocked through regulation set-up to enforce the law. ACORN, under the guise of affecting "affordable housing for the poor" routinely employs intimidation tactics (both physical and verbal), public charges of racism and threatens to use the Community Reinvestment Act to block business expansion. These actions have enabled ACORN to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and "organizational contributions" (read: bribes) from America's financial institutions.
Indisputably, the actions of ACORN, in their intimidation of financial institutions that make up the mortgage banking industry, serve as the chief catalyst for the mortgage crisis and the financial meltdown we are experiencing today. By coercing the mortgage banking industry into lending to those who were unqualified to borrow, ACORN instigated the collapse of the housing market and, as a result, is directly responsible for qualified borrowers -- you and I -- being unable to secure legitimate lines of credit today.
But how does this relate to Barack Obama?
Barack Obama's Connection to ACORN
When a young Barack Obama was first starting in his career as a "community organizer," he caught the eye of Madeleine Talbot, the Chicago chapter head of ACORN. Talbot was so impressed with Obama's organizational skills in his effort to attain asbestos abatement at a low-income housing project that she invited Obama to help train her own staff in the art of community organizing. (web site)
In an article by Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN leader and a member of ACORN's National Association Board, published in Social Policy titled, Case Study: Chicago - The Barack Obama Campaign, Barack Obama is cited as being a key figure in ACORN's yearly leadership-training seminars. (web site) Foulkes also exposes the fact that the much-touted Project Vote campaign which Obama takes credit for organizing was, in fact, in direct partnership with ACORN.
Barack Obama was retained to represent ACORN in a legal action regarding an Illinois law addressing what has come to be known as "motor-voter" voter registration. He was intentionally and specifically sought because of his days working with Madeleine Talbot.
After Obama officially left ACORN and began to craft his political career he tapped into his time at ACORN to field his volunteer staff. Having trained many of the ACORN leaders in Chicago there was a well-spring of enthusiasm for his candidacies throughout the organization, candidacies that include his 1996 congressional campaign, his 2000 State Senate campaign, his 2004 US Senate campaign and today's 2008 presidential campaign. It should be noted here that Obama sought and received endorsements from ACORN's political arm for his political contests.
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