This is a situation where the traditional “…Wait. WHAT?” seems a bit… understated: “Obama For America took out a $15 million loan from Bank of America last month, according to the campaign’s October monthly FEC report. The loan was incurred on September 4 and is due November 14, eight days after the election. OFA received an interest rate of 2.5% plus the current Libor rate.”
Now, I could say a lot of things about this. I could say that it is passing strange for a campaign to borrow walking-around money when it’s supposedly a fundraising mega-machine (the Government Accountability Institute is a little concerned about that, actually). I could say that it’s remarkably awkward that Bank of America apparently has a much cozier relationship with Obama for America than the latter’s faux-populist message might imply. I could even say that Warren Buffett may have found a fairly clever way to dump fifteen million into the Obama campaign without having to answer to those pesky finance laws that Obama once supported, until they all got in the way. But I won’t.
Instead I’ll say: I really hope that Bank of America has some good collateral on that loan, because they ain’t seeing that money paid back any time soon.
Moe Lane (crosspost)