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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Clinton loans campaign $6.4 million more

Posted: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 11:27 AM by Mark Murray

From NBC's Andrea Mitchell and Mark Murray
This morning's big campaign news comes from the AP: "Clinton has lent her presidential campaign $6.4 million over the past month, a campaign aide says. The money more than doubles Clinton's personal investment in her bid for the Democratic nomination. She gave her campaign $5 million earlier this year."

Per a Clinton campaign conference call (more on that in a few minutes), here's the breakdown of that $6.4 million:
-- $5 million on April 11
-- $1 million on May 1
-- $425,000 on May 5

The total that she has loaned her campaign so far is $11.425 million.

Legally, the campaign said on the call, Clinton is entitled to use up to 50% of the couple's jointly held assets for her campaign. Communications director Howard Wolfson confirmed that she has made a total of about $11 million on her books and Senate salary, acknowledging that her loans now exceed everything she has earned as an individual.

Wolfson also wouldn't rule out her loaning the campaign additional resources.

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Comments

I just went and joined the John McCain Camp.

I will do everything I can to make sure Obama doesn't win in November.
Breaking:  George McGovern calls on HRC to quit:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90GS75G0&show_article=1
Obama supporters, take a signal from our candidate and take the high road. Senator Clinton has run a good race. She has energized and won the hearts of key voting groups, and she has made Barrack Obama a stronger candidate for the fall by being such a tough competitor.

I have never supported the Clintons, but I don't think anyone benefits by taking cheap shots. I'm not a democrat, but as an Obama supporter I want to see graciousness and healing rather than gloating and low comments from my fellow Obama supporters. Follow Obama's lead, reach out to Clinton supporters.
If she loans her campaign more than she has personally made, that means she is using her share of the monies that Bill has earned. Extending that logic means that she is using Colombian lobbyist money for her campaign. Isn't that a conflict of interest?
How much did her campaign pay Penn and his company? It would be some sort of poetic justice if it was close to 11 million.
I didn't like the comment last night that Clinton could make a back door deal with Obama to get out of the race IF he paid her debt. I will NOT donate any more money to his campaign if it's going to Mark Penn. No way, no how. What happens with the money she had for the General Election? Anyone know?
NEW NEWS:

Former Sen. George McGovern, who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton, is urging her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race.

McGovern said Wednesday he has decided to endorse Barack Obama.

After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern says it's virtually impossible for Clinton to win the nomination.


McGovern says he is calling former President Clinton to tell him of the decision and adds that he remains close friends with the Clintons.

1) Let's hope she still has enough money for the "big girl panties" she's about to need.
2) even after last night, it's all about "me, me, me" not Democrats, not even American voters. VERY revealing.
I am looking forward to an adult conversation between Obama and McCain devoid of drama.
If Hillary (and by default Bill) continues to loan her campaign more money, then I would start to question her judgment on a number of levels.

Hillary needs to recognize that she can NOT win this now.  It's time to cut her losses (and according to this new information, there has been about $11.4 million in losses) and bow out gracefully.

But, ultimately it is her decision.  The problem becomes an issue of perception.  Does Hillary seem like she is staying in the race simply to hurt Barack Obama?  If so, that may hurt her future chances of being elected president - or even RE-elected to the Senate.

http://thepajamapundit.com/
Shouldn't reporters now start asking about who Bill got his money from?


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