Obama Loan Based on Good Credit

Inaccurate campaign stories about Barack Obama have been really piling up over the last couple weeks. There was the bogus story of the kid Obama allegedly refused to give the terrorist fist jab, the correction Fox News anchor Brit Hume issued after claiming Obama's half brother had told The Jerusalem Post that Obama had a "Muslim background", and AP reporter Jennifer Loven's assertion that Obama shifted his Iraq position to "withdrawing combat troops could take as long as 16 months" despite evidence that Obama has had a 16 month plan for withdrawal since 2007.

The worst of the stories may have been the Washington Post's expose that revealed the Obama's mortgage loan came at an interest rate that was "below the average" for 30-year fixed rate loans. Turns out this was because the Obama's have good credit.

FiveThirtyEight Blogger Nate Silver wrote, "It took more than four months, but something finally beat out the Vicki Iseman story for its sheer chutzpah and utter irresponsibility." Silver goes on to explain that according to the website myFICO.com "a borrower with very good credit can expect a mortgage rate about 30 basis points better than someone with pretty good credit, and a borrower with excellent credit can expect about a 50 basis point discount." The Obamas' mortgage rate was 30 points better than average.

Political Animal's Kevin Drum, with tongue-in-cheek, demands that the Obamas release their FICO score immediately. He calls this (non-)story "a complete non-scandal over the fact that people with high incomes generally qualify for slightly better mortgage rates than regular working stiffs. Is there something in the water back in DC, or what?"