Some of Hillary’s Staff Working for Free
by Big Dog on Feb 6, 2008 at 19:03 Political
With Barack Obama collecting $32 million in January and on pace to collect another $30 million in February, Senator Clinton is feeling a bit cash strapped. The heir apparent to the throne has evidently run low on cash and has taken two measures to try and remain competitive. She loaned her campaign $5 million of her own money. Clinton also has several staffers working for free. Seems to me with a net worth of about $41 million (not including the $20 million Bill is set to get from a deal) she could have loaned her campaign a bit more so she could pay her workers.
When the presidential race started out Clinton raised millions of dollars with relative ease from the collection of friends she and Bill made over the years. Then, Barack Obama started raising cash and people started giving even more to him. He has been able to raise astronomical amounts of money while it appears as if the Clinton machine is sputtering along.
This season we are sure to see the first $1 billion dollar president. Imagine that, 1 billion dollars to become president. That is absolutely obscene and only reinforces the idea that the average person could never hope to run for that high office. Amazingly, the money is being raised while we are supposed to be heading for recession.
I imagine the economy is not as bad as the media makes it out to be though it is having troubles. However, just like when Bill ran, the media is ginning up a bad economy to help a Democrat win. Let’s face it, if it were as bad as they say, people worried about gas, food, and electric bills then they would not be able to donate the huge amounts of money they are giving.
As for Hillary, she had millions of dollars and now she is running low on cash. She does have a history of spending as she did on her last Senate race. She spent 10 million dollars on a race she was going to win handily in order to get an even larger margin of victory so she would appear more appealing as a presidential candidate. Now she has spent so much that she loaned her own money to the campaign.
But why only $5 million? Why not more? I mean, if she is the best thing for this country and ready to lead from day one then wouldn’t she want to get as much money out there so she could win? Id she truly only cares about the American people (and don’t forget the children) then why does she not spend her entire fortune to get elected?
Of course, she will get a bump in donations after yesterday’s primary but it will not match what Obama raises. He won more states and he won more delegates and she only won the popular vote total by a little more than 53,000. Obama is on a roll and it is possible he will beat her for the nomination. If he leads in the delegate count (not including Super Delegates) going into a brokered convention the DNC is going to have one hell of a time if they decide to go with Hillary.
This campaign was supposed to be a cake walk for Hillary. She was the front runner for quite some time and she raised a lot of money. This was all supposed to be wrapped up after yesterday’s multi state primary and yet she is locked in a virtual dead heat with an opponent who has much more money on hand and is getting even more. After watching the supposed next president blow millions of dollars for a dead heat, after watching her get little bang for the buck, one needs to ask:
Is this the person we want managing our money at the federal level? Imagine the damage she could do if she got her hands on the huge budget of the United States…
I guess her 35 years of experience did not teach her how to manage money. That is what happens when nearly all your life you spend other people’s money.
But hell, the least she could do is dig into her bank account and pay her staff.
Tags: broke, campaign funds, free workers, Hillary, obama winning
I think Hillary’s money crunch is no surprise considering she had such a headstart on collections, outraising Obama in 2007. Hillary’s donors are pretty much tapped out at this point ( I know I am) while Obama gains momentum and money from new donors.
She out raised Obama in 2007 by about $15 million and spent $5 million less, and with the candidates spending virtually the same amounts in January I’d say money on hand evens out to about the same.
But who wouldn’t want $33 million a month? That’s nothing to write off. Still, I think the impressiveness of her own fund raising in Jan is simply dwarfed by Obama’s insane numbers, and the staff going without pay is more of a show of support than of a call for a life preserver.
Each candidate spent millions on Super Tuesday but things slow down a bit and money will stretch a lot further this month. Hillary has virtually written off the next 10 states knowing that she’ll most likely collect at least 45% of the vote in most of the states even if she doesn’t show up and that would run her only down by 50 or so delegates going into states she’s more likely to win in March like Ohio and Texas.
I think she’s hoping by March she’ll have lot more money on hand from cutting back and that Obama’s fund raising will have slowed while he still spent on those 10 states in between to keep his momentum going.
It could all blow up in her face though if favor swings Obama’s way even more in Feb due to several decisive victories followed by failure to get the wins she needs in March after all that wait. It’s a pretty big gamble…
Think the Giuliani strategy. If voters get pissed because she does not show up or has a small presence they might take it out on her by voting for him.
Here’s an idea. Why don’t they take that billion dollars and help the poor instead of blowing it on getting elected?
How come Americans won’t give this kind of money to charity but they will part with it for a politician?
The problems is, regardless of what states they play in, the proportional allotment of delegates almost means there will be a brokered convention. I can’t imagine either one getting blown out so badly to not come up nearly even in delegates. She won some states by big margins as did he and they are real close in delegates.
Actually, I was wrong in what I said about the next 10. Her money focus is on Ohio and Texas in March but she will in fact be campaigning in Virgina and Maine. It’s just that the crunch is making her be more selective. She will most likely have some kind of presence in each of the 10, but it won’t be as much as she’d like I’m sure. She will be sending out Bill and Chelsea though, so that could go either way depending on what mood Bill wakes up in that day. He should probably put more focus to raising money and less on wagging fingers…
I hear commercials for here her but they are not from her. They are from some teacher’s union.
He has $20 million from his shady dealings so why not just transfer it to the campaign?
I think they don’t want to give the perception that they need to finance their own campaign to compete, but they’ll do what they gotta to do win really in the end even if it means breaking the bank. They can always get more money but if she has to wait 4 or 8 more years to run for President I think she’s out of luck…
That’s why I root for Hillary and not Obama. I like them both a lot and I want them both to be president, I just think that Obama has a little more time he can afford to wait with…
Anyway, Hillary’s numbers are looking good again and she had a better Super Tuesday bounce than I thought she would. She’s raised $6.4 million since then, just down from Obama’s $7.2 million. Her staff is 100% paid, and money is still rolling in, so I think she’s fine for now.
She’ll set her sites on a couple of the states she can win like Maine and Washington and not states with heavy black voters or states that are in Obama country. Small radio and TV spots and a few stops in the other states should be enough to keep it close and win 30-45% of the states she loses which will keep her in the race…
Or the law.
But they do need to finance their own campaign to compete. Are you saying it is Hillary’s turn?
$5 million is a fraction of what they have themselves, and a fraction of what they have earned so far through fund raising, so giving a few times like that won’t hurt their image too much, but if Bill was to lay down $20 million it would send the wrong message for sure, that’s all I mean.
I guess I don’t know what you mean by your question about Hillary’s turn…
Why not go back down to Arkansas and partake in a little of that ole fashion cocaine smuggling. Take the profits from the drugs and invest in a good land deal. Anybody complains or gets the goods on you, Hillary, well, you know what to do. Put Bill on it. Aint nothing that a plane-crash, two bullets to the head/suicide or a car running into a telephone pole can’t solve. If that doesn’t work maybe your friend Vince Foster opps no he’s dead; or William Colby. . .oh nope that’s right he’s dead too, how about that banker friend of your’s that helped you with the White Water deal, Jim McDougal. . .oh that’s right dead. . . .Paul Tully, Ron Brown. . . .oh God I give up. . .maybe you should too.
You said you wanted Hillary to win first and then Obama. I wanted to know if that means you think it is Hillary’s turn.
Well, if you mean in reference to what you’ve said before about it being Bill’s turn first now it’s Hillary’s, then no…
Speaking from the standpoint of having to choose between Obama and Hillary I’d rather send Obama back to Chicago and Hillary back to DC. Sooner or later though Obama is going to run and win, he’s just got a little better window of opportunity than Hillary who would be about 70 years old when the new Democratic president leaves office in 2016.