Obama's housing policies, part one – Is past prologue?

During the Vice-presidential debate, Joe Biden attempted to pin President Bush to McCain-Palin by saying “the past is prologue.” If there is any truth to that saying, then it is fair to examine the past record of Barack Obama. Specifically, over the next several days I will examine the record of Obama on housing. A signature issue for Obama, he has 8 years of work on housing as an Illinois senator which is open to review.
I must admit that I was not aware of much of what I plan to cover until mid-last week. I had read about Tony Rezko and knew there was a relationship between Obama and the convicted slumlord but I had not considered the context of that relationship until recently. A June, 2008 Boston Globe article by Binyamin Appelbaum triggered my interest in this matter. Honestly, I was shaken to read about the conditions of housing in the South Side of Chicago during the two terms Barack Obama spent in the IL Senate. He served for 8 years in this district and said he did not know conditions were as bad as they were. I find that to be an incredible admission.
This post begins with an embedded video released with the Boston Glose article. Coming articles will explore in more detail the programs and people which contributed to the sorry state of housing in the South side of Chicago.

I urge you to read this article. It is over 3 months old but I doubt many people are aware of these facts.
Stay tuned…
Other posts in this series:
Part One: Obama’s housing policies: Is past prologue?
Part Two: Obama’s housing policies: Cold constituents
Part Three: Obama’s housing policies: A story about what did not happen
Part Four: Obama’s housing policies: Obama’s housing advisors