NYT: Spending by Clinton Campaign Worries Supporters

[writes3000]

This article confirms what I've felt for awhile. Hillary is a better candidate than her campaign team. They have wounded her.

"Nearly $100,000 went for party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucuses, even though the partying mood evaporated quickly. Rooms at the Bellagio luxury hotel in Las Vegas consumed more than $25,000; the Four Seasons, another $5,000. And top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s latest campaign finance report, published Wednesday night, appeared even to her most stalwart supporters and donors to be a road map of her political and management failings. Several of them, echoing political analysts, expressed concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s spending priorities amounted to costly errors in judgment that have hamstrung her competitiveness against Senator Barack Obama of Illinois...."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/us/politics/22clinton.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. The fucking Bellagio??!?

Oh. My. God. :wow:

If I were a supporter and had sent her money I'd be fuming at that.

[writes3000]

2. Her campaign managers have really failed her so far. n/t

[Egnever]

6. Quite the contrast to Mrs. Hukabees stay at Hooters!

[mrreowwr_kittty]

8. I think they have cheap wings at least. nt

[Barack_America]

12. Don't all grassroots volunteers stay in luxury hotels?

I mean, I'm willing to walk through the trenches to garner support for my candidate. But, when it comes to housing, a little luxury please! At least allow me room service and a full attack on the mini-bar!

:sarcasm:

[Recursion]

36. I always stayed on J. Random Person's couch

Met some nice people that way.

[misanthrope]

44. Don't worry it's not her money...

...Remember her $5 million is "a loan" that will be paid back. Clinton money is too good to be spent on her ambitions. Those blown funds belong to the folks who invested hope in her.

[Recursion]

3. Whatever happens, Mark Penn needs to be nailed up by his scrotum

This train wreck is simply inexcusable.

On edit: that was a figure of speech. Dmesg does not condone nailing anyone up by his scrotum. Dmesg approves this message.

[madrchsod]

4. and by this thumbs....

this guy is a leech and even worse, hillary did`t realize he was bleeding her dry..

[Occam Bandage]

26. Impossible.

To turn a coronation victory-lap into a slow-motion Hidenburg, and then to turn around and collect your five million dollars? That doesn't just take balls, that takes enormous brass balls. You couldn't drive a nail through his scrotum with a sledgehammer.

Though I would love to try.

[Stephanie]

27. Mark Penn doesn't deal with her finances or budget

Except with regard to what he siphons off from it.

[Recursion]

34. Those are also the least of the campaign's problems

She's been Gored and Kerry'ed: kept from being herself on the campaign trail.

[Stephanie]

37. Really?

Who is she?

[Recursion]

38. *shrug* I saw someone I could vote for tonight

Your mileage may vary.

[intaglio]

42. Nails are passe

Mark Penn needs to be screwed

[Colobo]

5. What a waste of money.

[KittyWampus]

7. Isn't Hillary responsible for her campaign and it's staff?

[Cha]

9. Buck stop with hilary? Yeah right...she won't

even own up to her mistake in not reading the NIE and voting FOR the IWR.

[bilgewaterbill]

13. I agree.

That buck stops with the candidate. If she can't ride herd on her people during the campaign, are we going to be faced with an endless stream of cabinet officials falling on their swords during her administration?

[Stephanie]

31. She should at least know what the bank balance is.

At least within a million or two.

[nomorewhopper]

10. they honestly thought they had this thing locked up before iowa

it's not spin,

they actually didn't have a plan b

they spent like they were living high on the hog. for shame.

[Diane R]

11. It's not time for her to be ready yet.

[DUyellow]

14. He was staying at the Hampton Inn in Columbia SC.

[zulchzulu]

15. How much did Bill spend on strippers in Vegas?

I'm guessing...maybe he paid his own way from the Gupta outsourcing cash he's gotten...

This is good news to me. It only elevates how arrogant and politically stupid the Clinton team is. Precisely as I would have surmised. Chumps galore.

[rjx]

16. She will spend all her money on purpose

so when Obama gets the nominee, Hillary can say she only lost due to Obama having more $$$ lol

[Voice for Peace]

17. Campaign spending/US economy, Disorganized campaign/general election

I am not sure why voters would be comfortable supporting her as president,
despite what she describes as her readiness, her ability to fix the economy,
her ability to win the GE. Although she speaks really well and seems to
have solid ideas, the general tone of her campaign, the financial chaos
and poor organization doesn't bode well for someone becoming president.
Not to mention her belief in "coercive diplomacy" which sounds too much
like our current president. I'd like to hear her explain zackly what she
means by that.

[Eric J in MN]

20. Where is the phrase "coercive diplomacy" from? NT

NT

[Voice for Peace]

53. She was interviewed by Tavis Smiley a few nights ago on PBS

and said "I believe in coercive diplomacy." I was amazed. Tavis looked a bit alarmed.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

18. $100,000 for food?

Were they eating endangered species?

[NDambi]

46. LMAOOOOOOO...ha ha funny as shiznit!

:applause: :rofl:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

51. Welcome to DU, NDambi!

:toast:

[williesgirl]

19. Yea and she's ready "Day One". She can't even manage her own campaign! rec'd

[Johnny__Motown]

21. Point #1) she hired that team, Point #2) what do you think her tax returns will look like?

[Bread and Circus]

22. I really don't think I want this person spending my tax dollars.

[Stephanie]

23. Rooms at the FOUR SEASONS?

Are you fucking kidding me? People are sending in their hard-earned $20 bills so the Clinton campaign can enjoy luxury hotels???

[Stephanie]

24. She spends like a Bush.

With no regard for who's going to pick up the bill.

[ErnestoG]

25. Hillary has spent exhorbitant amounts on "consultants".

And that is emblematic of her political worldview. She would rather employ stuffed suit consultants to win an election than come up with brave new ideas and sell them to the American people to build support.

PERFECT for her DLC limousine liberal ass.

[LittleClarkie]

28. And that's why people like Carville were pissed at Dean and his strategy I reckon

No room for high priced consultants who's advice isn't working anymore.

Hillary shoulda tried to be competative in each state and not assume she had it in the bag

[ErnestoG]

32. Exactly. But, Carville's credibility can be measured in nanometers these days.

[grantcart]

29. unfucking believable. $ 5 million for consultants in one month

ready ready ready? Christ how many billions was she going to spend on consultants to run the government?

She must think that Bill gets a standard consultant's fee at 100,000 per day lol

I would love to be a consultant and walk in to her office and tell her that in my best professional judgement she is spending way too much on consultants and the fact that I am the only one telling her this means I am the best and she should double my salary and fire the rest.

[ErnestoG]

33. That's how DLCers see "democracy"

Their definition of it is "the best political clout you can buy".

[nomorewhopper]

30. this quote is exceptionally telling

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s latest campaign finance report, published Wednesday night, appeared even to her most stalwart supporters and donors to be a road map of her political and management failings.

[Garbo 2004]

35. Meantime, "Clinton's Texas Ground Game Plunges Into Chaos" article....

Not saying this is representative of how the campaign is doing in Texas, but reading this and the article on campaign spending on makes one go, huh?

Although the Clinton Campaign has been telling the press that they have the ground operations to pull off a win in Texas, those ground operations have not been in evidence when I've traveled to small towns to see how Bill Clinton is doing on the Texas stump. Wednesday evening in Victoria, down in the southeastern part of the state, incipient chaos threatened to overwhelm the "Early Vote" Rally precisely because there was no ground operation. The well-oiled, beautifully constructed state-level HRC campaign machine, focused and determined in Iowa, Nevada and California, is beginning to break down.

"It's a clusterfuck! Just a clusterfuck!" the Corpus Christi producer for a local news affiliate shouts into his cell phone. He's telling his boss that there will be no coverage of Bill Clinton's visit to Victoria for the 6 o'clock news. "Who's running this campaign anyway?" the producer asks, of no one in particular. "And now five hundred people have stomped away mad." He shakes his head. At that moment, twenty well-dressed elderly and middle-aged dignitaries and politicians exit the back of the local arts center and walk slowly for the intersection of Goodwin and Main. Presumably, they are Hillary Clinton supporters; however, given their dazed faces, they look more like commissars who have been turned out by the NKVD and cannot believe how suddenly their fortunes have changed.

With his Secret Service agents at his side, Bill Clinton walks the short block without acknowledging the little group of eminent supporters. (They are never introduced or explained.) A rumpled Dolores Huerta (she's been wearing the same clothes for several days) trails behind. An aide helps Clinton and Huerta up onto the tailgate of a pick-up truck. Although Huerta has been feisty on the campaign trail for Hillary, she's perfunctory tonight. Few, if any, of the crowd ringing the intersection know who she is. Bill Clinton takes the microphone, which barks in the damp air. It's twilight and more rain is on the way. Bill Clinton has already spoken today at Galveston and Beaumont. He's going to be very late for his last appearance of the night at the University of Houston. Here in Victoria the former president, standing on the tailgate, at first seems to love the unplanned venue. But he never hits his stride and in disjointed fashion rushes through his speech, a shorter version (without any of the swipes at Obama) of the one I heard last week in Nacogdoches. Huerta and Clinton are on autopilot, and the crowd knows it. Only from one curb where the local organizer churns enthusiasm is there much response to Clinton's words. Most of the folks, and there must be a thousand people in all, including those hanging over the balconies of a parking garage, are merely curious.

The debacle in Victoria illustrates why a ground operation is important. The details of planning have been left to a local volunteer, and she has been overwhelmed. How was she to know the needs of the live press? Or that live press often arrive before the print media? (This confusion led to some journalists being locked out.) Or the possibility of having to entertain a restive audience, because this former president typically runs very late? Actually, the citizens of Victoria were patient, sitting quietly in the Welder Center auditorium for three hours waiting for Bill Clinton. Many people had brought their children, and they were patient, too. But when a young Clinton aide appeared on the podium and announced that the rally was being moved to the street, so that Bill Clinton could address a larger crowd from the back of a truck, displeasure was expressed all 'round. Many families left in disgust. They had arrived early to get seats--and now they were being told they had to stand on the street? But the anger of the locals was nothing compared to that of the Texas press. The press had been waiting for hours, too; it had taken time to lay cables and run through all the fussing and tweaking cameramen typically do. And when the press trudged out the auditorium doors, they discovered that their umbrellas, which had been confiscated as some kind of security measure (the only one), had been appropriated, undoubtedly by the disgruntled locals.

More at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/clintons-texas-ground-ga_b_87723.html

[Scurrilous]

39. K & R

:kick:

[Apollo11]

40. Hillary is the host. Her consultants are parasites.

The NYT article confirms all our suspicions about the people running the Clinton campaign.

They assumed that Hillary would win the nomination and then the Whitehouse, and decided to ride that train and basically milk her candidacy for every dollar they could get.

If I had donated my hard-earned money to Hillary's campaign, I would be feeling cheated.

Mrs. Clinton came into January with a cash advantage over Mr. Obama, with about $19 million available for the primary, compared with about $13 million for him. She wound up spending at roughly the same rate as Mr. Obama, about a million dollars a day, but because she performed dismally compared to him in raising money, she ended the month essentially in the red and was forced to lend her campaign $5 million, while he had $19 million for the coming contests.

Over all, Mrs. Clinton has spent more than $35 million on media, polling and consulting. A comparison with Mr. Obama’s spending is difficult because of the ways the campaigns labeled expenses, but it appears he spent about $40 million in those areas.

In other notable expenditures during the lean month of January, Mrs. Clinton paid $275,000 to Sunrise Communications, a South Carolina firm that was supposed to turn out black voters for her and collected nearly $800,000 in total. She lost that state to Mr. Obama by a wide margin. Even small expenses piled up in January: the campaign spent more than $11,000 on pizza and $1,200 on Dunkin’ Donuts runs.

www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/us/politics/22clinton.htm

[donheld]

41. Why is it all the Hillary cheerleaders are absent from threads like this?

:shrug:

[cali]

43. classic avoidance/denial

but of course you know that.

[NDambi]

45. Not only that but....

She's said...the person in charge (presidency) must be able to manage the bureaucracy


I specifically remember her slamming Obama on it in the last debate between she, he and Edwards.


So, she's failed miserable...if you look at the evidence, Obama has hit the ball out the park, af far as managing the beast!

Can't manage or control your campaign, I don't see you handling the government!

[JTFrog]

47. What money problems? She'll be 60k richer when it's over. She entitled AND inevitable

dontcha know? :shrug:

[Skittles]

48. again

who the f*** ever said she was "inevitable" ?????

[JTFrog]

50. It hasn't exactly been a secret now has it?

That's why Mr. Penn has said small states are not important. She's inevitable and entitled. You can thank him for that winning strategy.

http://www.observer.com/2008/why-clinton-s-back-against...

‘We Didn’t Put Any Resources In Small States,’ Says Finance Chair Hassan Nemazee

“What’s gone wrong is very simple,” said Hassan Nemazee, a national finance chair for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“If we had won Iowa and New Hampshire, as we had anticipated, projected, et cetera, you would not have been in a situation in which you are losing all of these small states—because we didn’t put any resources in those small states,” he said. “Obama, on the other hand, put resources in these small states.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/178650.php

So now you have Penn successively saying caucus wins don't really count, small state wins don't really count, medium state wins don't really count, states with large African-American populations don't really count, all building up to yesterday's gem: "Could we possibly have a nominee who hasn't won any of the significant states -- outside of Illinois? That raises some serious questions about Sen. Obama."

------

Clinton is ultimately responsible for putting her political fate in this fool's hands. But this is a guy who has basically one big political win under his belt and whose record in seriously contested races, particularly Democratic primary races is one of almost constant defeats. Much of Clinton's current predicament stems from Penn's disastrous, glass-jaw 'inevitability' strategy and the mind-boggling decision not even to contest a slew of states where Obama racked up huge victories and many delegates.

Campaigns are about winning votes not making excuses. There are plenty of delegates still out there for Clinton to win -- over a thousand left in the remaining primaries. But her efforts are being stymied by a campaign apparatus rooted in the belief that any new reality can be overturned by pretending it away.

Even Clinton hack Taylor Marsh wants Penn fired for running an inevitability campaign:

http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=26770

Fire Mark Penn

Somebody decided to run an inevitability campaign and because of that they let Barack Obama off the hook.

So someone needs to explain to me why the first viable female candidate to have a chance to win the presidency isn't the very symbol of change in a very big way.

Someone also needs to explain to me who pulled the "inevitability" campaign out of whose posterior.

[TexasObserver]

49. It's been an obscene waste of campaign contributions.

I have always reviled any kind of high living on the money raised from the party's contributors. I despise the many inside the beltway functions, where half of the $1000 a plate revenues are pissed away on an event that looks and feels like a Symphony or Opera fundraiser, instead of a fundraiser for Democrats. If you're wearing a tux, and expensive jewelry, and REAL DEMOCRATS are running around in tuxes serving you wine and food, you're being an asshole with the money that should go to the causes and campaigns of Democrats.

I'm a populist progressive. I don't go for that shit, and never have.

[Bullet1987]

52. Hillary Clinton has surrounded herself with some really horrible

advisors.

[donheld]

54. Kind of makes one wonder what her

administration would be like.