More oh-eight (D): Hillary's $5 mil loan
Posted: Thursday, February 07, 2008 9:09 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats
Apparently, the DNC is urging the two states whose delegates were wiped off the convention delegate map (Florida and Michigan) to hold new elections. Obviously, without a state sanctioned primary, this would mean the two state parties holding either caucuses or conventions to elect their delegates.
Caucuses, in general, have favored Obama but with so many delegates at stake, showdowns in these two states would become huge.
CLINTON: The cover of the New York Post: “No wonder she cried… HILL’S $5M LOAN.” “The moves were revealed as Clinton and Barack Obama hunkered down for a war of attrition for the Democratic nomination after Super Tuesday failed to crown a winner. And a series of contests in the coming weeks seem likely to favor the Illinois senator.”
The Clinton campaign points out it ‘had one of our best fundraising efforts ever on the web today,’ spokesman Howard Wolfson said.”
Per NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “Sources say Clinton’s campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle spent too much in Iowa -- and ended up losing anyway. One big payout -- $4 million dollars to top strategist Mark Penn. Aides say after losing Iowa, Clinton found out about the money problems, which explains why she suddenly gave up her expensive private jet and started riding with the press. She tried to make a joke of it - at the time… But, for a candidate, there’s nothing funny about being short of cash just as the race is accelerating. Now she has to pick where to spend scarce resources.”
And as Mitchell also reported, some Clinton campaign staffers have voluntarily chosen to work without pay this month, as the campaign faces a cash crunch against Obama, who outraised her in January by a wide margin. Those working for free include Campaign Manager Patti Solis Doyle.
The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, sent around a dispatch from pro-Clinton blogger Taylor Marsh, who reports that the Clinton camp met its three-day goal of raising $3 million, and will issue a challenge of raising $6 million over the next 72 hours.
OBAMA: Per the Obama campaign Web site, as of last night at 6:25 pm, the campaign had raised $6.8 million since polls closed on Super Tuesday.
On the day that Hillary Clinton's campaign announced that the candidate had loaned herself $5 million in late January, the Obama campaign is using that fact to solicit even more funds from their own donors, NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan reports. "The Clinton campaign just announced that Hillary and Bill Clinton injected $5 million of their personal fortune into her campaign a few days ago. This is a dramatic move, and a clear acknowledgment that our campaign has the momentum," Obama manager David Plouffe writes in an email.
Plouffe goes on to ask that supporters donate to match the Clinton "infusion" of cash which he claims could go up to $20 million dollars and "will give them a huge resources for the next set of primaries and caucuses."
So why can't Obama close the deal when momentum is at his back? The New York Times’ Nagourney wonders about this today. “[O]ne of the most intriguing finding in the surveys of voters leaving the polls across the nation on Tuesday was when they arrived at their final decision. Throughout a week when Mr. Obama was campaigning with members of the Kennedy family, when there was a sense that he was creating a movement that cut across racial and generational lines, there was a steady movement of Democrats toward Mr. Obama, the survey suggested. But those who reported making their decision on the last day bucked the trend, tending to vote for Mrs. Clinton, of New York. Mr. Obama more than held his own against Mrs. Clinton: he won more states and may well have won more delegates, once all of them, including those from caucus states, are officially allocated.”
“But once again -- as in New Hampshire -- the result on Tuesday did not match the fervor that had been signaled by Mr. Obama’s dramatic march of rallies across the nation leading up to the vote. In that dynamic rests one of the central questions about the Obama candidacy, which may well go the heart of whether he can win the presidency. Is this campaign a series of surges of enthusiasm, often powered by the younger voters who form long lines waiting to hear Mr. Obama speak, that set expectations that are not met at the voting booth?”
“Or is it rather a slow-building force, one that despite faltering in New Hampshire and falling short on Tuesday in big states like California has allowed Mr. Obama to battle one of the most formidable political dynasties to a draw and will eventually propel him to victory?"
