The story here, to my mind, is not: Obama got support for the projects the article describes. It's: Valerie Jarrett, one of his close advisors, let this continue after her group took over management of the project in 2001.

Hilzoy, one of the best, most even-tempered, and analytically rigorous writers on the Web, looks at Obama, Valerie Jarrett, and public-private housing in Chicago.

While you're at it, just let it sink in that this is what the Web does, and meanwhile the recently bloodlet Los Angeles Times, part of a company that's selling arguably its most reliably profitable asset in order to avoid default, continues to publish Senior Nothing In Particular Expert Jonah Goldberg.