Clinton: Not paying the bills?
Posted: Monday, March 31, 2008 9:17 AM by Mark Murray
So does Clinton have a money problem? Apparently, the campaign is slow at paying bills, particularly for events. And some of these local vendors are actually warning colleagues about getting Clinton money up front. Per the Politico, “Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.”
Moving the goalposts ... again? In Saturday’s New York Times, anonymous Clinton aides said if Clinton didn't win the Indiana primary, they'd urge her to get out. But if she narrowly wins Indiana but loses North Carolina, she'll have a hard time making up ground in the delegate count or the popular vote. There was one other quote that jumped out at us in this NYT piece: Rendell's bizarre claim on if rolls were reversed. “‘Just flip it for a second,’ Mr. Rendell said. ‘Let’s say Senator Clinton was ahead by about 110 delegates and ahead by less than 1 percent of the vote cast, and she and her supporters started to call on Senator Obama to get out. Just picture what the media would be saying. They’d be saying you’re being racist, you’re being everything in the world. It’s nuts! It’s nuts!’”
Really, governor? Really? There wouldn't be TWICE the pressure on Obama to get out than there is right now on Clinton? Rendell has been throwing around the race card easier than most folks of late.
The Los Angeles Times' Finnegan and Z. Barabak point out a fact that has gotten lost with many folks in the media who seem to have amnesia about the Clintons' role leading the Democratic Party in the '90s. "A complication for Clinton, as she courts superdelegates, is the rocky history that she and Bill Clinton have with many in the Democratic establishment. Obama portrays her as a Washington fixture, and after 15 years inside the Beltway -- eight of them as first lady -- the New York senator is very much steeped in the capital and its culture. So, too, are Clinton's campaign team and many of her political allies.”
“Even so, she and the former president have long had a more complex and difficult relationship with fellow Democrats -- especially those on Capitol Hill -- than might be expected for a couple who have reigned like no pair since Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Whether it was the botched effort to reform healthcare; tough votes on taxes, trade and welfare; the president's ‘triangulation’ against fellow Democrats; or the Monica S. Lewinsky mess, the Clintons often made life uncomfortable for their party peers during eight years in the White House.”
The New York Post has this headline: “Insult.” The story features Bosnians surprised or offended by Clinton’s sniper fire story, including the little girl who read Clinton the poem on the tarmac that day.
Bill Clinton is once again keeping as busy (if not busier?) schedule than the two candidates running: He hit Pennsylvania, California, and Oregon over the weekend, and he campaigns more in Oregon Monday and Montana Tuesday. Of course, the Montana stop is about sending the message that the Clinton campaign plans to contest the nomination through the last day of primaries -- June 3, the day of the Montana primary.
Wow, the payoff from that Bill Clinton-Richard Mellon Scaife sitdown a few years back continues. Check out this Scaife column about Hillary in Sunday's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the newspaper Scaife owns: "Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her. Walking into our conference room, not knowing what to expect (or even, perhaps, expecting the worst), took courage and confidence. Not many politicians have political or personal courage today, so it was refreshing to see her exhibit both.”
Meanwhile, Frank Rich -- per usual -- is tough on Clinton and wonders whether the Bosnia sniper-fire story is a watershed moment for HRC, which, apparently could explain the dramatic drop in her personal ratings in last week's NBC/WSJ poll.
