Your opponent received and had installed for free, cell phone towers from ATT and Verizon, who he oversees on the Commerce Committee? Or when your opponent's running mate had her house built for free by the company she gave the contract to to build the cities sports stadium? Makes buying a small lot of land at full value look so insignificant.
Ethical violations are not about comparisons about what is worst. Either something is unethical or it isn't. period. Obama's actions w/r/t the house thingie has the air of impropriety about it. It doesn't rise to the level of fraud, and no one is suggesting that he has done anything unlawful or given any special favors to one of his supporters. Still, it is what it is. Everyone makes mistakes, and I see this as pretty minor, though, particularly because it didn't happen very recently.
Rezco paid full price for his piece of land while the Obama's payed $300K less for their house. Hmm...
Obama bought a less valuable piece of land/house than Rezko. Obama wanted to get that extra piece of land, so his children had a good yard to play in. He couldn't afford to buy the other lot. Tony Rezko, a friend, bought the other piece of land as a favor for Obama. Obama then paid $106,000 or so for the strip of land, about $40,000 more than the value it was assessed for, so Obama paid Rezko back more so, and Rezko kept the rest of the lot, knowing with a senator, and what now looks like the next president of the United States, being right next door, that lot is going to gain a lot of value.
But what's wrong with that. He bought the other piece of land for himself, not for Obama, and then sold a sliver of that land to Obama, for more than it's value. Now he is sitting on a lot that is sure to gain in value with the next president of the United States living next door.
Campaign donors doing favors for elected officials is a breach of ethics. If not an out and out bribe.
