The Daily Caller reported a story on Monday alleging that President Obama is responsible for the sub-prime mortgage meltdown because he helped poor blacks in Chicago obtain loans.
The story was promoted by Tucker Carlson on Fox & Friends yesterday, and today it's being circulated among the wingnut blogosphere wherein its being presented as the gospel.
The Caller story was based on the idea that the president was the lead attorney in a case of racial discrimination in 1995, but as Media Matters quickly pointed out, he wasn't. Daily Caller writer Neil "Rose Garden Heckler" Munroe simply assumed the president was the lead attorney because his name was listed first in alphabetical order. Moreover, the president had nothing to do with the case, neither appearing in court or counseling the plaintiffs.
Those are the facts. And then there's the racism. The idea that poor black communities caused the meltdown is a racist fantasy that ignores and excuses the responsibility banks had in aggressively marketing and selling loans to people who clearly couldn't afford them.
I'd keep an eye on this story, because it could easily go mainstream at any time despite having no basis in reality. This is entirely within the vein of the dogwhistle campaign that says the president wants to give you welfare for doing nothing. You know, he wants to raise your taxes so he can give minorities more welfare.