HOW THEY FINALLY GOT A PIECE OF THE PIE: OBAMA GETS SWEETHEART MORTGAGE LOAN

Now they up in the big leagues...gettin' their turn and bat...

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in
an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32
million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.

The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an
interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the
average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large,
known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or
discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.

In Obama's case, he received a lower rate than the average offered at
the time in Chicago for similarly structured jumbo loans. He secured his final
mortgage commitment on June 8, 2005, and during that week, rates on similar
loans for which information is available averaged 5.93 percent, according to HSH
Associates, which surveys lenders. Another survey firm, Bankrate.com, placed the average at 6 percent.

"It's certainly safe to say that this borrower did better than
average," said Keith Gumbinger, an HSH vice president, noting that consumer rates
vary widely. "It's a good deal."

The Obama campaign called the rate "consistent with Northern Trust
policies, and it reflected the base rate set for that period discounted to
address the competition for the account and other opportunities, such as
personal financial services, that the relationship would bring to Northern
Trust."

When the Obamas secured the loan, their income had risen dramatically.
Obama assumed his Senate seat in January 2005, with an annual salary of
$162,100. That same month, Random House agreed to reissue an Obama memoir, for which it
originally paid $40,000, as part of a $2.27 million deal that included two
future nonfiction books and a children's book.

Around the same time, the University of Chicago Hospitals promoted Michelle Obama to a vice president and more than doubled her pay,
to $317,000.

The couple wanted to step up from their $415,000 condo. They chose a
house with six bedrooms, four fireplaces, a four-car garage and 5 1/2 baths,
including a double steam shower and a marble powder room. It had a wine cellar,
a music room, a library, a solarium, beveled glass doors and a granite-floored
kitchen.

Fish don't fry in that kitchen.