Campaign cash: Obama is flush, Clinton in debt (10.3 million)

[truthpusher]

Source: AP

Barack Obama began the month of April with a 5-1 cash advantage over a debt-saddled Hillary Rodham Clinton, setting the stage for his lopsided spending in the crucial primary state of Pennsylvania.

Financial reports filed Sunday by the Democratic presidential candidates with the Federal Election Commission show Clinton had $10.3 million in debts at the start of the month and only about $9 million cash on hand for the primaries. Obama reported having $42 million for the primary.

Clinton's red ink poses yet another obstacle to her campaign as she seeks to end the primary season with a string of victories. She trails Obama in delegates, states won and popular votes. And she can't dent Obama's superior fundraising.

(snip)

Clinton, who had kept pace with Obama financially throughout last year, had even less cash on hand than Republican John McCain. McCain raised $15.2 million in March and had $11.6 million in the bank at the start of April. It was his best fundraising performance of the campaign, coming after he had essentially secured his party's presidential nomination.

With the Democratic contest still in full boil, McCain has been on the sidelines, saving his money and completing payments on a loan.



Read more: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/NEWS01/80421009

[C_U_L8R]

1. Hillary is a poor manager

I don't want her near our economy... can you imagine?

[truthpusher]

2. she is un-electable.

[evolvingsteve]

31. exactly!!!

she can't even keep up with McCain on fundraising so how does she expect to be electable and beat him in Nov., this could finally be the tipping point folks, one more day maybe?????


hmmmmmm.....:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

[ooglymoogly]

41. And that is exactly what the pukes were planning and manipulating

into place with the help of corporate media. What they did not expect is that an upstart like Obama taking the country by storm and now they are panicking and showing all of their dastardly cards alla NBC debate for all to see. The backlash cometh.

[lisa58]

3. Here's the real reason she (sorta) fired Penn:

Nearly half of Clinton's debt in March is money owed to the firm of her demoted former chief strategist, Mark Penn. The report shows that the campaign owes $4.6 million to Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates. The campaign has already paid the firm $14 million, including $3 million in March for polling and direct mail.

[truthpusher]

5. That was a very big mistake.

[Botany]

6. 14 million to run a campaign into the ditch?

As Mark Penn's company does work for McCain, Wal Mart,
Blackwater, Union Busting, and the Columbian govt. so
more work can be outsourced from the U.S.A..

Hillary "picked a good" one in Penn.

I will always remember when Axelrod, Trippi, and Penn
were on the tube around the Iowa primary and Penn
just looked God-awful.

[yourguide]

7. I could have run her campaign into the ground for half that amount. lol

again showing what a poor manager of money that campaign is.

[Botany]

10. $500,000

And I could have had it in the shitter in not time .... Penn just
didn't work hard enough.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

11. Ha ha, me too!

[jjr5]

22. And think of all the people who donated money to her campaign

Not the PACs or Lobbyists, or whatever, but the small donors of $5 or $20 dollars. That's sad that she can't even hold on to that money at such a crucial time.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

26. Knowing big corporations were backing Hillary, a lot of us average folks never donated to her. n/t

[ClayZ]

4. K and R

[raystorm7]

8. K&R "If you lie down with dogs, you are going to get fleas"

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. The quote is: He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas - Benjamin Franklin

And honestly, I see no indication that Clinton has risen up yet. She has gone down, and stayed down.

Edited to correct a misspelling :blush:

[raystorm7]

16. Same difference :p

[Divernan]

9. HRC's big donors have maxed out; Obama's small donors keep sending in $$$

We can keep up our steady stream of $25-$50 a month throughout the General Election, and everytime HRC tells another lie - oh, EXCUSE ME - "misspeaks", or otherwise pulls something snarky, or one of her supporters is particularly obnoxious, we just get out our checkbooks and send in another "small" donation to Obama.

Also, unlike Romney, HRC is not willing to spend any of her millions - only a (for her wealth) small loan which we have no doubt will get paid off while all her debtors are wending their way through small claims court. Once the Clintons' wealth was at least partially revealed by their tax returns, many of her supporters must be thinking twice before sending her $$$.

[goclark]

12. She should not be trusted with her own checkbook!

How ns God's name can she be trusted with the Economy! :mad:

[Debi]

30. Guaranteed she doesn't manage her own checkbook

she has people she (doesn't) pay to do that x(

[Name removed]

14. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[momster]

15. WaPo says McCain

has about 11.6 million in his pockets at the moment. Once Sen. Clinton is out (hurry, Wednesday!) we can turn our attention and our big-money-cannons towards McCain.

[geiger]

17. DONT OVER-ANALYZE,folks! IT'S CLEAR THAT PEOPLE WANT OBAMA, NOT HILLARY, THAT'S IT.

Nothing else to read into it. Period. It's over.

[Zachstar]

18. And because Clinton had to air TV ads. She likely has used the warchest to slow Obama in PA

Meaning she will have very little to go into May with!

Sure she may be able to scrounge up a Million or 2 from donors after PA. However, I do not think that will last long as people realize what anything but a 20 point blowout for Clinton means. Also the hearing later in the month will determine many things.

She has no effective warchest for May. Obama may have spent 20 million overall and still have an effective warchest if he got zero donations in April (He has as within 48 hours tens of thousands of new donors have donated)

So when he goes into May he can spend what he has left and put effort WELL downstream when Clinton has to focus on trying to slow him in Indiana.

She did not spend her endgame money well in my view. She threw out an attack ad that was EASILY defeated and reversed on her with the reversal ad getting ALOT more airtime. She has shown no ability to use low amounts of funds effective and has basically been reduced to plugging her website all over the place to try to find new donors who have not maxed out.

So will donors in PA worry about donating into a black hole? I don't know.

[bread_and_roses]

19. How likely is it that the SDs will ignore BO's unprecedented fund-raising -

and most of it from small donors? Amid all the other parsing of each campaign, this stands out for me as the most concrete evidence of his electablility and his impact on politics as usual.

It is also, to my mind, a major reason why we should all be behind him - the first question to ask of any candidate is "who will s/he owe?" In BO's case, the answer is....us - the people. Now that is revolutionary. (yes, i know it should be "we" but that sounds pretentious in this context).

[mcollier]

20. Doesn't seem like Hillary

will be "Ready on day one"...

[hisownpetard]

36. I think what she's really been saying is, "I will be a deadbeat on Day One."

[DeSwiss]

42. You make an absolutely...

...astute point!!! And Hillary's owing all those big donors is the reason I think she's motivated to stay in the race as well.

But your comment: "the first question to ask of any candidate is "who will s/he owe?" In BO's case, the answer is....us - the people." ...this has been the main sticking point for me about Hillary's campaign going back to last year when all the Fatcats began lining up to pay homage.

- The cycle must be broken...

[disndat]

21. I think her first mistake

early on was accepting money from Rupert Murdoch. That accentuated her negatives, raised alarm bells to her base, and it's been downhill for her since.

[CANDO]

23. Would she have run the country as she's ran her campaign?

Please fellow Keystone Staters, let's put her out of her misery.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

24. K&R

:kick:

[Mountainman]

25. Damn I wish she would wake up and smell the coffee!

[Selatius]

27. She is a weak campaigner. One wonders if she will govern as weakly as she campaigns. nt

[Debi]

28. Wow, didn't see THAT coming

Well, actually I did x(

Glad she finally paid SOME of her Iowa bills.

I wonder, how many of us are allowed to NOT pay the interest we owe on loans??? Yep, another round of 'special' treatment for your averge working class Hillary Clinton.

MORE $$$ IN DEBT THAN CASH ON HAND!!!

[truthpusher]

48. maybe this is how she will drop out... once she hits 20-30 mil, maybe she'll get cold feet?

[Debi]

49. Doubt it - she doesn't have to pay it back.

The little people do x(

[returnable]

29. Her managerial skills are almost Rudy-esque.

Take all the advantages of name recognition and fundraising connections, and still run a campaign right into the ground. Brilliant. I wouldn't trust her to run a lemonade stand, let alone the country.

[evolvingsteve]

32. I want to sing!

"....I like coffee and I like tea, but to able to enter into a final plea...."



take her off the grill because she is.....




:toast: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :toast:

[JBoy]

33. If this story gets lots of media play, her donations will dry up fast.

Nothing would turn me off donating more than knowing my money wasn't going to furthering the candidate's chances, but to just paying off their debt. And most of that gone to Penn.

[pjt7]

34. Hillary needs to be a lion in the Senate

eom.

[The Stranger]

35. Please, God, save us from Hillary.

Please bless her with just a mustard seed of humility. Please -- so that she won't send us all deeper into Hell -- damned by her own hubris and personal ambition lost.

[Javaman]

37. Fork meet done. nt

[iamthebandfanman]

38. she should just drop out

before she loses all her dignity and respect.

it may already be to late for that.

i hate to say it, but if the popular vote total isnt honored...ill be registering with another party.
i dont like cheaters.

[mrJJ]

39. Vendor's will get the shaft

Bill Clinton's old campaign still owes -$319,630 !!!

http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/cancomsrs/?_08+P20000642

Sen Hillary Clinton:

The campaign's biggest debt remains to be the $5,000,000 loaned to the campaign by Senator Clinton

The campaign, to date, owes Senator Clinton $10,879.89 in interest on the $5,000,000 loan (at a rate of 1.26%)

The Campaign's second largest debt is to Penn, Schoen & Berland Assoc. LLC
Amount: $4,577,820.61

Harold Ickes firm, Catalist, LLC, is owed $240,000. The firm provided no billable services nor did it receive payments during the month of March 08.

Top to-date Press Reimbursement comes from CBS News for a total of $112,016.27 on behalf of Fernando Suarez. Fox News' Aaron Burns is second with $107,173.41 and ABC's Eloise Harper is third with $98,948.05

Total Salaries paid: $1,589,226

Patricia Solis Doyle got paid $11,687 in March 08

Total Employee Benefits paid: $489,980.64
(Paid to Aetna Healthcare, and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield)

$138,182 in advertising with Google. $2054 with Microsoft!

Phone Banking: $1,921,124
Mail Expense: $1,588,837
Polling: $1,348,000
Media: $885,434

New York Post subscription: $40.8
New York Times subscription: $25.6

Travel: $5,102,905

Debt too vendors
http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2008/M3/C00431569/D_DEBTS_C00431569.html

thanks to lizardbox for the preliminary breakdown

[LibGranny]

40. HRC's Campaign Broke?

I've noticed in the last several days that every left-leaning blog I check has an ad asking for donations for her campaign! Makes me think she is low on cash (among other things, like scruples).

[DeSwiss]

43. Since McSame has the money...

...maybe he can spare some for Hillary. She's already helped his campaign immensely.

- He owes her...

K&R!!!

[BearSquirrel2]

44. Division by 0 is undefined ...

5-1 cash advantange? If Clinton is 1.3 million in the whole, she has ZERO dollars. 42,000,000/0 is undefined.

But I suppose if you allow some contextually invalid math and you assume Clinton is raising money, Obama's advantage is approaching negative infinity on the left.

[NC_Nurse]

45. Woohoo! This thing is about to be OVER!!

Hallellujah!!!


:woohoo:

[IndyOp]

46. Well....

Did you do it? Today? Did you?

:D

[NC_Nurse]

47. Yes I Did!

My husband did too. Two more votes for Barack!!!!

Gobama! :D

[Canuckistanian]

50. Money trumps everything

Ideas, policy, integrity and true leadership are as irrelevant as flag pins.

The almight buck RULZ!

Good luck with that.

[truthpusher]

51. this is one of the few cases where $ does equal free speech.

[Canuckistanian]

52. Nonsense

Here in Canada, it's unlikely that a candidate could spend more than a few million because of our strict spending regulations and ALSO because Canadian TV and Radio stations are REQUIRED to provide free and equal time for all qualified political parties.

I hardly think we're lacking any "freedom of speech" merely because candidates don't get to spend multiple hundreds of millions on a campaign.