Rash decisions may cast doubt on judgment
First there was Obama's property deal in 2006 with the wife of political fund-raiser Tony Rezko, who has the feds gunning for him with both barrels. Rezko's wife bought a lot next to Obama's new home in Kenwood, and then Obama purchased a 10-foot-wide strip of land from her.
Obama called his transaction "boneheaded" and a "mistake," but everyone who is anyone in Chicago politics knows Rezko is a man to keep at arm's length. A newly elected U.S. senator should have thought long and hard about a financial relationship with Rezko.
Then there was the stock purchase, apparently by Obama's stockbroker, that had the senator investing in two volatile companies, AVI Biopharma and Skyterra Communications.
But I had only skimmed the surface. A report by the New York Times, which furthered the original story on thestreet.com, suggests some of the biggest campaign contributors to his Senate run also held large chunks of these stocks, including one who, like Rezko, is being investigated by the feds.
At a press conference Wednesday, Obama said the more than $50,000 he had invested in AVI Biopharma and Skyterra was part of a quasi-blind trust. "At no point did I know what stocks were held, and at no point did I direct how those stocks were invested," he said.
He said his concern was to create a portfolio that did not show any conflict of interest with his Senate job. But AVI Biopharma was developing an avian flu vaccine, and Skyterra had just received Federal Communications Commission approval for a national wireless network.
Obama didn't hold shares in these companies long and sold them for a loss of $13,000. Still, you have to wonder whether he was paying full attention. (He has now set up a traditional blind trust, mostly investing in mutual funds and the money market.)
Obama is a brilliant man, a canny man and a mesmerizing speaker. He has energized Democratic crowds across the country. But the Rezko and stock deals suggest a worrisome ethical cavalierness and a hubristic ambition that may derail him if he is not careful.