Obama is in Some Trauma!

Washington Post – Media Notes

At first, I thought this New York Times piece on Barack Obama was pretty intriguing.

NEW QUESTIONS raised about his FINANCES. Boy, I figured, the investigative reporters are really on his trail now.

Consider the lead: "Less than two months after ascending to the United States Senate, Barack Obama bought more than $50,000 worth of stock in two speculative companies whose major investors included some of his biggest political donors."

Hmmm . . .

"One of the companies was a biotech concern that was starting to develop a drug to treat avian flu. In March 2005, two weeks after buying about $5,000 of its shares, Mr. Obama took the lead in a legislative push for more federal spending to battle the disease."

Hey, that doesn't sound good.

"The most recent financial disclosure form for Mr. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, also shows that he bought more than $50,000 in stock in a satellite communications business whose principal backers include four friends and donors who had raised more than $150,000 for his political committees."

I'm thinking, is this the next Hillary-and-the-cattle-futures?

But then I read that Obama's spokesman says the senator didn't know about the investments until the fall of 2005, and then sold them for a $13,000 loss.

And then, the coup de grace: "The spokesman, Bill Burton, said Mr. Obama's broker bought the stocks without consulting the senator, under the terms of a blind trust that was being set up for the senator at that time but was not finalized until several months after the investments were made."

A blind trust?