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COLUMNISTS
TODAY'S STORIES
06.02.2008
Clinton Cash Problem, Cont'd.

Sticking with the theme du jour, this Mark Halperin nugget seems pretty remarkable if true: Apparently several senior Hillary staffers, including campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, are working for free this month.

Two quick thoughts come to mind:

1.) My hunch is that, for all the spin leading up to last night--about how the Clintons were prepared for a long slog, possibly to the convention--all the concrete planning, much of it admittedly done weeks if not months in advance, basically operated from the assumption that this race would end on February 5. Obviously that's proving to be a pretty disastrous assumption. (Though I'm not sure what the alternative was. Presumably they'd have raised more money if it was possible...)

2.) If Hillary had come up short in California or Massachusetts last night--obviously a big if given her comfortable margins in both places--I think her campaign might very well be dead right now. The fundraising situation has really left them with no margin for error.

--Noam Scheiber

Posted: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 6:03 PM with 9 comment(s)

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primwallflow said:

I never would have thought back in December that a war of attrition would favor Obama, but it's looking like it might.

I guess the question is, how far are the Clintons willing to go to play the victim/insurgent card? Because I think an appeal that's straightforward about their financial difficulties would actually drum up a lot of sympathy donations. But I cannot imagine the Clintons swallowing their pride in that way.

Obama should go into heavy spin mode about how his campaign largess is from small donors, etc., because the "Obama-as-establishment-candidate" storyline just got another talking point, albeit one that maybe HRC can't really use directly. I'm sure Obama is on the phone right now telling Gore to hold off on his endorsement.

February 6, 2008 6:22 PM

arsonplus said:

Well where does she rack up a win to raise cash with in the the next month or so? Especially since Texas is both a Caucus and a Primary?  

February 6, 2008 7:20 PM

haeryung said:

I'm assuming Clinton will get a "bump" our of last night, and a lot of supporters who have not given money will start donating?  (A few well-placed tears and she could be drowning in cash.)   Bottom line:  Obamamaniacs cannot assume their job is done.  So please donate now!  my.barackobama.com/.../Haeryung

February 6, 2008 8:12 PM

Bukharin said:

This cash problem explains Hillary's willingness to appear on a Fox News debate - and all other debates - FREE exposure.

February 6, 2008 8:44 PM

boxofrox said:

With the Clintons one always has to consider whether or not this little tidbit is an angle of sorts.

February 6, 2008 8:53 PM

BHLnyc said:

Bukharin, you are sooooo right about that debate. It never occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense.

February 6, 2008 8:54 PM

haeryung said:

This "free press" they're receiving about how they need campaign donations also works in their favor (and is probably another conscious strategy of theirs).

February 6, 2008 9:40 PM

virginiacentrist said:

haeryung -

Yeah, it's hard to say. On one hand, the $5 million loan ensures donors that their money is being matched and alerts donors that there's a problem...on the other hand...the negative press hurts...

See here for the current numbers:

my.barackobama.com/.../graphic

February 6, 2008 10:15 PM

2736298 said:

It's scary to think of idiots matching gifts to loans. Particularly the under served matching the uber rich.

That is an insult to anyone's intelligence.

On the other hand, that is the scam that the worst predatory lenders just got finished pulling on plenty

of people in this country. Lend them down payment, interest and principal to get and edge on a piece

of real estate that you collect on for a couple of years and then pull the switch, sell them out and bank

the profit.

The Senator herself described this 'loan' as an investment. Not my words. What they are doing is buying an annuity (with a loan of your money) that will pay 20 million plus per year in four years. More if they were to make a bigger mockery of the office than they did the last time.

The other insult is that if these experts with all of their experience and savvy were as wrong at this post

suggests in estimating where this piece of national business would be today, How right could they possibly be on any other piece of business that this country has to transact? How much closer could they be to anything than this?

If you were planning on putting this pair of grifters back into the highest office in this country. Think again, they have the shears out, sharpened and ready to shear you again.

As individuals and collectively as a nation, America is smarter than the Clintons. If you are awake and this is not news to you, you owe it to yourself and to your children if you have any to buy the next dope you meet who is still under their spell a cup of coffee. It's not to late.

February 7, 2008 12:45 AM