Why Hillary is still in the race

During the Watergate investigation, the shadowy Deep Throat advised Woodward and Bernstein to “Follow the money”. If we took that advice today, with the Hillary camp, what would we find?
We would find a raft, a herd, a veritable jungle of High Priced Consultants. These include

Mark Penn – 10 Mill plus
Harold Ickes – into the 7 figure range
Carville – no idea, but I’m sure it’s good money
Laney Guinier – again, big bucks

These people are telling Hillary the kind of advice that dropped her from the sure, certain win she had in January to the distant second place she is in now. They make big bucks.

If Hillary quits, the paychecks end.

So, if you were a High Priced Real Talented Political Pro, what would you do? Same thing as them – “You go, girl. You’re in it to win it!! You can do it!!! You are so brave and true, Hillary, that you will win somehow!!!!! !! !!!! Is it payday today?”

That’s what’s going on, folks. She is being advised to continue to run by people making big, big money by her following that advice.

Is this good for the Democrats, instead of Harold Ickes? Nope. Harold and Laney and James win big, and the rest of us lose.

6 Comments

on May 10, 2008 at 1:40 pm

you are out of a job.

So, why would they tell the truth?

idredit on May 10, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Why you ask considering she’s cash-strapped?

Hillary will write herself another check – she needs to continue Sowing seeds of Destruction

The Clintons have never understood how to exit the stage gracefully.

Their repertoire has always been deficient in grace and class. So there was Hillary Clinton cold-bloodedly asserting to USA Today that she was the candidate favored by “hard-working Americans, white Americans,” and that her opponent, Barack Obama, the black candidate, just can’t cut it with that crowd.

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” said Mrs. Clinton.

There is, indeed. There was a name for it when the Republicans were using that kind of lousy rhetoric to good effect: it was called the Southern strategy, although it was hardly limited to the South. Now the Clintons, in their desperation to find some way — any way — back to the White House, have leapt aboard that sorry train.

He can’t win! Don’t you understand? He’s black! He’s black!

[.]

The last time the Clintons had to make a big exit was at the end of Bill Clinton’s second term as president — and they made a complete and utter hash of that historic moment. Having survived the Monica Lewinsky ordeal, you might have thought the Clintons would be on their best behavior.

Instead, a huge scandal erupted when it became known that Mrs. Clinton’s brothers, Tony and Hugh Rodham, had lobbied the president on behalf of criminals who then received presidential pardons or a sentence commutation from Mr. Clinton.

[.]

So class is not a Clinton forte.

But it’s one thing to lack class and a sense of grace, quite another to deliberately try and wreck the presidential prospects of your party’s likely nominee — and to do it in a way that has the potential to undermine the substantial racial progress that has been made in this country over many years.

The Clintons should be ashamed of themselves. But they long ago proved to the world that they have no shame.

Oui on May 10, 2008 at 1:57 pm

Why Clinton Stands to Lose Millions

(US News & World Report) May 8, 2008 – Thanks to a little-known provision in 2002’s McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill, a campaign must repay the loan to a candidate before Election Day. In this case, that’s the nominating convention. After the election has passed, a bankrupt campaign is limited to gathering just $250,000 from contributors, which means that modest sum is all it can give back to a candidate. In short, Clinton stands to lose $11,150,000. “If she wants to be repaid, she’d have to move on that between now and the national convention. Otherwise, it just becomes another contribution,” says former FEC chairman Michael Toner. The campaign, meanwhile, has other debts to consider as well. According to her latest FEC filing, the Hillary Clinton for President campaign committee owes millions to vendors, including more than $4.5 million to Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, the consulting firm of her former chief strategist Mark Penn.

That adds another wrinkle to her decision to stay in the race. Time is running out to pay off friends, allies, and vendors. Plus, by all accounts, Clinton’s most ardent supporters are tapped out, either unwilling or unable by law to donate any more. If she’s going to continue competing, she has to ask herself how many more millions she’s willing to spend in a quest many describe as increasingly quixotic.

MENDING FENCES

How will the candidate pay off her debt? The best shot, paradoxically, is seeking the help of her chief rival. It’s more than probable that she and Obama could work out a deal: She gets out of the race, saving him the millions he would spend in the remaining primaries, and he would help put her campaign back in the black.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

on May 10, 2008 at 2:02 pm

That way, the problem of Hillary in 2012 is solved today.

idredit on May 10, 2008 at 4:01 pm

Hillary isn’t listening: “It’s not Over” she said.

Hillary Holds Private Conference Call With Her Super-Dels: “I Know This Is Not Easy”

“Hillary held a private rally-the-troops conference call with her super-delegate supporters this afternoon, urging them to believe that “this race is not over,” vowing to them she’d promote Dem unity after the primary, and conceding that she knows what they and the party are going through “is not easy.”

Somewhat tantalizingly, Hillary also claimed that there were back-channel talks of some kind going on between the two campaigns, possibly about how to maintain Democratic unity after the primary. Asked by a super-delegate whether there were discussions going on between the two camps about what would happen after the voting concluded, she said:

“There’s a lot of communication between both of the campaigns all the time. I don’t know how specific it is, but we have very open lines of communication…I know that both Senator Obama and I are committed, and the campaigns are as well, to making sure that when this is resolved” we will do everything we can to “unify the party.” She didn’t elaborate further.

The call — convened for super-dels committed to supporting her — provided a glimpse into the campaign’s behind-the-scenes efforts to prevent supporters from bolting even as her prospects grow bleaker by the day.

I was able to listen to the call in its entirety.

Hillary projected a surprisingly cheerful tone despite recent events, and if she is having doubts about what’s going to happen, she didn’t show it on the call. “Despite what some in the media are saying, this race is not over,” she said.

Hillary top adviser Harold Ickes was on the call, too. Some noteworthy tidbits from the call:

Ickes claimed that there was no discussion internally on the campaign of the possibility that she would angle for a veep slot. “There’s no talk within the Hillary campaign about that,” Ickes said in response to a questioner.
Ickes came under questioning from a super-delegate who said he would have “a problem” if she didn’t win the pledged del count or the popular vote, and declined to say what she would do. Indeed, he repeatedly maintained that she would still be ahead in the popular vote at the end of the contest, Florida and Michigan included, and predicted flatly that she would be behind by less than 100 delegates at the end….

Salunga on May 10, 2008 at 4:40 pm

I think she wants to have her delegates counted at the convention. She has a lot of ardent supporters and she’ll want her time in the spotlight. There is no way Hillary will bow out before convention time. Thats her only reward. No matter how much she wants the VP it will never happen. The only way to go out with pride is to have her delegates counted and show off her support. Its her due after that kind of fight. Hopefully she will have the good sense to be a unifying force. I think she will.

on May 10, 2008 at 1:40 pm

you are out of a job.

So, why would they tell the truth?
idredit on May 10, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Why you ask considering she’s cash-strapped?

Hillary will write herself another check – she needs to continue Sowing seeds of Destruction

The Clintons have never understood how to exit the stage gracefully.

Their repertoire has always been deficient in grace and class. So there was Hillary Clinton cold-bloodedly asserting to USA Today that she was the candidate favored by “hard-working Americans, white Americans,” and that her opponent, Barack Obama, the black candidate, just can’t cut it with that crowd.

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” said Mrs. Clinton.

There is, indeed. There was a name for it when the Republicans were using that kind of lousy rhetoric to good effect: it was called the Southern strategy, although it was hardly limited to the South. Now the Clintons, in their desperation to find some way — any way — back to the White House, have leapt aboard that sorry train.

He can’t win! Don’t you understand? He’s black! He’s black!

[.]

The last time the Clintons had to make a big exit was at the end of Bill Clinton’s second term as president — and they made a complete and utter hash of that historic moment. Having survived the Monica Lewinsky ordeal, you might have thought the Clintons would be on their best behavior.

Instead, a huge scandal erupted when it became known that Mrs. Clinton’s brothers, Tony and Hugh Rodham, had lobbied the president on behalf of criminals who then received presidential pardons or a sentence commutation from Mr. Clinton.

[.]

So class is not a Clinton forte.

But it’s one thing to lack class and a sense of grace, quite another to deliberately try and wreck the presidential prospects of your party’s likely nominee — and to do it in a way that has the potential to undermine the substantial racial progress that has been made in this country over many years.

The Clintons should be ashamed of themselves. But they long ago proved to the world that they have no shame.
Oui on May 10, 2008 at 1:57 pm

.

Why Clinton Stands to Lose Millions

(US News & World Report) May 8, 2008 – Thanks to a little-known provision in 2002’s McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill, a campaign must repay the loan to a candidate before Election Day. In this case, that’s the nominating convention. After the election has passed, a bankrupt campaign is limited to gathering just $250,000 from contributors, which means that modest sum is all it can give back to a candidate. In short, Clinton stands to lose $11,150,000. “If she wants to be repaid, she’d have to move on that between now and the national convention. Otherwise, it just becomes another contribution,” says former FEC chairman Michael Toner. The campaign, meanwhile, has other debts to consider as well. According to her latest FEC filing, the Hillary Clinton for President campaign committee owes millions to vendors, including more than $4.5 million to Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, the consulting firm of her former chief strategist Mark Penn.

That adds another wrinkle to her decision to stay in the race. Time is running out to pay off friends, allies, and vendors. Plus, by all accounts, Clinton’s most ardent supporters are tapped out, either unwilling or unable by law to donate any more. If she’s going to continue competing, she has to ask herself how many more millions she’s willing to spend in a quest many describe as increasingly quixotic.

MENDING FENCES

How will the candidate pay off her debt? The best shot, paradoxically, is seeking the help of her chief rival. It’s more than probable that she and Obama could work out a deal: She gets out of the race, saving him the millions he would spend in the remaining primaries, and he would help put her campaign back in the black.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
- on May 10, 2008 at 2:02 pm
  
  That way, the problem of Hillary in 2012 is solved today.
idredit on May 10, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Hillary isn’t listening: “It’s not Over” she said.

Hillary Holds Private Conference Call With Her Super-Dels: “I Know This Is Not Easy”
“Hillary held a private rally-the-troops conference call with her super-delegate supporters this afternoon, urging them to believe that “this race is not over,” vowing to them she’d promote Dem unity after the primary, and conceding that she knows what they and the party are going through “is not easy.”

Somewhat tantalizingly, Hillary also claimed that there were back-channel talks of some kind going on between the two campaigns, possibly about how to maintain Democratic unity after the primary. Asked by a super-delegate whether there were discussions going on between the two camps about what would happen after the voting concluded, she said:

“There’s a lot of communication between both of the campaigns all the time. I don’t know how specific it is, but we have very open lines of communication…I know that both Senator Obama and I are committed, and the campaigns are as well, to making sure that when this is resolved” we will do everything we can to “unify the party.” She didn’t elaborate further.

The call — convened for super-dels committed to supporting her — provided a glimpse into the campaign’s behind-the-scenes efforts to prevent supporters from bolting even as her prospects grow bleaker by the day.

I was able to listen to the call in its entirety.

Hillary projected a surprisingly cheerful tone despite recent events, and if she is having doubts about what’s going to happen, she didn’t show it on the call. “Despite what some in the media are saying, this race is not over,” she said.

Hillary top adviser Harold Ickes was on the call, too. Some noteworthy tidbits from the call:

Ickes claimed that there was no discussion internally on the campaign of the possibility that she would angle for a veep slot. “There’s no talk within the Hillary campaign about that,” Ickes said in response to a questioner.
Ickes came under questioning from a super-delegate who said he would have “a problem” if she didn’t win the pledged del count or the popular vote, and declined to say what she would do. Indeed, he repeatedly maintained that she would still be ahead in the popular vote at the end of the contest, Florida and Michigan included, and predicted flatly that she would be behind by less than 100 delegates at the end….
Salunga on May 10, 2008 at 4:40 pm

I think she wants to have her delegates counted at the convention. She has a lot of ardent supporters and she’ll want her time in the spotlight. There is no way Hillary will bow out before convention time. Thats her only reward. No matter how much she wants the VP it will never happen. The only way to go out with pride is to have her delegates counted and show off her support. Its her due after that kind of fight. Hopefully she will have the good sense to be a unifying force. I think she will.

Why Hillary is still in the race

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