Hannity falsely claimed Raines is "a chief economic adviser" to Obama
SUMMARY: Sean Hannity falsely asserted that former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines is "a chief economic adviser" to Sen. Barack Obama. A McCain campaign ad claims that Raines "advises" Obama -- a claim that Raines and the Obama campaign have denied -- but even that ad did not claim that Raines is a "chief" adviser.
On the September 23 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity falsely claimed that former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines is "a chief economic adviser" to Sen. Barack Obama. The McCain campaign has released an ad citing a July 16 Washington Post article for the claim that Raines "advises" Obama, a claim that both Raines and the Obama campaign have denied. However, not even the McCain ad claimed that Raines is a "chief" adviser.
Moreover, according to a September 19 Washington Post Fact Checker post by Michael Dobbs, the McCain campaign's basis for its claim was the Post article's statement that Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters." Dobbs wrote that Anita Huslin, who authored the July 16 Post article, told him that Raines "said that he had gotten a couple of calls from the Obama campaign." Dobbs concluded:
The McCain campaign is clearly exaggerating wildly in attempting to depict Franklin Raines as a close adviser to Obama on "housing and mortgage policy." If we are to believe Raines, he did have a couple of telephone conversations with someone in the Obama campaign. But that hardly makes him an adviser to the candidate himself -- and certainly not in the way depicted in the McCain video release.
From the September 23 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:
HANNITY: I only got time for a short segment. I want to get this in. This is important, because, you know, Bill Clinton said in the campaign, during the nominating process, that Obama played the race card against him and that he planned to play the race card against him.
Now, you know, Greta [Van Susteren, Fox News host] has an interview coming up after us here on Hannity & Colmes. Now, the McCain campaign came out with an ad. Jim Johnson and Frank Raines are two guys that worked at Fannie Mae, the heart of this entire --
BERNARD GOLDBERG [Fox News contributor]: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right.
HANNITY: -- you know, issue going on Wall Street. This guy, Raines, in six years, made $90 million. And because the campaign of McCain brought up the fact that he's a chief economic adviser, some are saying, "Well, that's not fair," that's -- Dukakis is the one that brought up that that's, you know, like Willie Horton.
GOLDBERG: Dukakis -- Dukakis said it was like Willie Horton. And you know what? Liberals see the Willie Horton ad, and they see a black guy. Conservatives see the Willie Horton ad, and they see a criminal.
In this particular case, Raines was one of the guys that ran the company into the ground. Was it Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac?
HANNITY: It was Fannie Mae, and it was $90 million that he made.
GOLDBERG: Yeah, he ran --
HANNITY: Right.
GOLDBERG: He ran it into the ground, so to do an ad and show a black man, and to call that a Willie Horton thing -- this is what I'm talking about. Race is way too sensitive to fool around with it like this.
I would say the CLOSEST relationship was Obama getting the 2nd most money in campaign contributions from Freddic Mac/Fannie Mae, and doing it in only 3 years.
Nobody mainstream talks about that though. Darn conservative media.
You mean contributions from EMPLOYEES of Freddie and Fanny. Nice try conflating the companies, one of which was paying the firm of McCain campaign manager Rick Davis $15,000/month till LAST MONTH, with the people who work for them.
Randy
So what did BHO do or not do in return for all those contributions? Just coincidence that they were FM/FM employees that contributed so much as a group? He certainly didn't do enough.
He didn't DO anything for them. It was a lot of the EMPLOYEES, not the company itself. McCain recieved more money from the company, or board of directors, which I think would "expect" something in return.
Obama received campaign contributions from a group of FM/FM employees.
McCain's campaign manger was on the FM/FM payroll as a lobbyist. The most recent monthy payments to Davis's firm were for access to McCain.
Don't know if this really matters but, Obama did receive the 2nd most money in campaign contributions from the employees of FM/FM. However, McCain received $169,000 from FM/FM board of directors and lobbyists, while Obama received $16,000.
And who was first?
John W. McCain.
Actually it was Sen. Dodd (Democrat). Do your research and learn the difference between contributions by INDIVIDUALS and contributions by ORGANIZATIONS.
It's pretty easy to reconcile, and if you look at Obama's contributions, the vast majority have been very small amounts from a lot of different people. McCain's have come from very few people, in much larger amounts. Employees versus owners is what we have going on here, as others have pointed out to you.
Franklin Raines? Surely they mean Claude Raines, who played the Invisible Man in 1933:
Claude Rains as The Invisible Man
If Congress comes up with 700 billion won't it be Invisible Money?
If Congress comes up with 700 billion won't it be Invisible Money?
It WILL be one of the greatest vanishing acts in history - $700 billion, gone in a flash....
the lying has gotten to the point with mccain and palin, it's the old saying, if their lips are moving....
If I haven't mentioned it yet, it's well-known - especially among his peers - that hannity is the
DUMBEST.
GUY.
IN.
MEDIA.
Oh, but I did finally figure out why he sniffs so often while he's talking. It's to keep that pea-sized and atrophied brain of his from rolling out his nose onto his notes.
DUMBEST.
GUY.
IN.
MEDIA.
It's more like
DUMBEST.
GUY.
ON.
PLANET.
Oh, I don't know about that. What about all those gushing members of his radio audience that find the great thrill of their life being able to call his show and congratulate him on being "a great american"?
It's a special kind of stoopid that permeates those folks.
But, speaking of the planet, you do realize that hannity broadcasts are - as we speak - speeding through space onward to distant galaxies and convincing the intelligent life on a distant planet that they ARE alone...
IMO, Hannity (much like Coulter), are in this for the money. They found an audience and are simply selling a product (hate and lies) that unfortunately a portion of the populace seems to enjoy listening to.
FWIW, tonight on his show Hannity repeated the exact same lie about Frank Raines being a big Obama adviser. Pretty incredible, huh? The rough stuff is getting started for real among the right wingers who are petrified that McCain is losing this race.
Like I said yesterday, Raines is going to have to write every one of the wingnuts personally and tell them that he doesn't advise Obama. Even then Hannity would LIE about it. He needs to pay for his lies.
Seannie the Sissy.. repeats the same thing over and over concerning Obama. His nonsense is getting old. Within a few weeks, he'll be walking down Main Street USA carrying a sign with the same junk scribbled on it. And he will still be screaming at the top of his lungs..Tell me one thing Obama has done..
Seannie the Sissy.. repeats the same thing over and over concerning Obama. His nonsense is getting old. Within a few weeks, he'll be walking down Main Street USA carrying a sign with the same junk scribbled on it. And he will still be screaming at the top of his lungs..Tell me one thing Obama has done..
I heard part of his radio pukefest the other day, and he's still harping on Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright. How many months has it been since they parted ways?
But Sean has never been one to put things in proper time perspective. After all, he still refers to the Senior Senator from West Virginia as "Robert KKK Byrd", when Sen. Byrd dropped his membershio in the Klan over 60 years ago....
Writer, a couple of days ago I heard Hannity say again that Barack Obama's brother in Africa lives in abject poverty on $1 a month...a right wing myth that was debunked over a month ago. There are other long-debunked lies he continues to repeat and which I won't bother to repeat. And he continues to repeat these lies over and over and over again. He is utterly without shame. I don't care if someone has views which are the opposite of mine...hell, I might even learn something from them. But Hannity is perhaps the worst when it comes to spreading lies in such a crude and wholesale fashion.
The TRUTH and HANNITY: complete strangers to each other.
I think the title of "dumbest guy in the media" is shared by Hannity and O'Reilly.
They both seem supremely unintelligent.
Does Hannity ever claim anything that isn't false?
Does Hannity ever claim anything that isn't false?
Just when he says "This is Sean Hannity".
At this pace, Hannity will say that Franklin Raines is Obama's running mate by the time Monday comes around.