Two Pinocchios for the McCain campaign re: the Raines connection

The Washington Post Fact Checker today reported:

"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. "

It was WaPo reporter Anita Huslin, who while writing a profile of Raines reported that Raines, who retired from Fannie Mae four years ago, had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."

Time claims that the McCain campaign played the race card, calling the McCain ad that claims a link between Obama and Raines racist because of the juxtaposition of two black men and a little old white lady (who gets stuck with the bill.)