Clinton Faces Steady Erosion Of Support

With the Pennsylvania primary only days away, the New York Times delivers a look at the challenges the Clinton campaign faces with regards to maintaining support among past supporters and increasing its fund-raising capabilities.

Former Supporters:

After nearly two decades building relationships with a generation of Democrats, Mrs. Clinton has recently suffered a steady erosion of support for her presidential campaign from the party stalwarts that once formed the basis of her perceived juggernaut of "inevitability."

Some of it is just business, practical politicians putting aside ties to the Clintons to follow the will of the voters in their states or making a calculation about who seems best positioned to win.[...]

But there is something more wrenching at work as well, a reckoning of whether the Clintons, on balance, have been good or bad for the party. It has the feel of a very personal testing of loyalties to a former president who once always seemed to be adding to the "Friends of Bill" list, and to a sitting senator who, if not so driven as her husband to win over everyone, used her fame to help elect other Democrats.

Fund-raising:

Senator Barack Obama is swamping Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton with television advertising in their prolonged battle for the Democratic nomination, putting fresh pressure on Mrs. Clinton's fund-raising machine to find new sources of money to help her keep pace.

But her big-dollar fund-raising apparatus that was once the envy of the political world is encountering obstacles as many of those in its regular networks of donors have reached the maximum on their personal contributions or grown tired of the relentless press for donations.

The campaign is actively hunting for new wellsprings of cash, while tapped-out donors who want to give more are contemplating financing independent efforts on her behalf that are not bound by contribution limits. So far, however, the independent efforts have been halting at best.

Comments

[criticalthinktank]

01:40 PM on 04/23/2008

The erosion of support is due to prejudice.­...Blacks showing their true racist selves vote Black no matter what the man says or does; Men don't want a woman in the white house or a woman controllin­g them so they are against her, again, gender racism....­voting for the only Male...Oba­ma. Now the women who are against her, well that it is easy...The­y are CATTY! Women are the worst towards each other and have always been..Catt­iness is the only reason they dislike Hillary...­probably jealousy too. Why women are against women is one of the biggest mysteries to me but so very true.

[bmnehls]

08:18 AM on 04/23/2008

I love how the media is always talking about the Obama endorsemen­ts, but when Hillary received the endorsemen­t of Congresswo­man Betty Sutton, Ohio's 13th District, it was nowhere to be found in the media. Hopefully

[goodbyetoallthat]

11:51 AM on 04/22/2008

Hillary Clinton is, unfortunat­ely, just a conniving old pol. Isn't it time to say good bye to all that?

[dora rice]

06:22 AM on 04/23/2008

NEW YORK TIMES. YOU JUST MADE MY DAY. SHOWS AGAIN HOW A LEFTIST PAPER CAN BE SO WRONG. HA HA HA

[DoninJoisey]

07:07 AM on 04/22/2008

All you need to know about HRC - in her own words....
http://au.­youtube.co­m/watch?v=­exsmFDYyK4­U

[rthom]

11:45 PM on 04/21/2008

Old CW: Clinton needs double digits in PA. New CW: Winning against 4 to 1 spending is incredible­! Clinton will win by 6. Obama gets his money the same way as the banks, the oil compainies and the pharmaceut­icals--con­sumer fraud, aka kool-aid.

[brrichter]

02:41 PM on 04/22/2008

HUH?
So it is grassroots donations funding the banks and the oil empire??? What glue are you sniffing? Oh, you're saying it is Barack who is getting his money from tax breaks and price gouging... HUH? that don't seem right either...

rthom, so you now what the hell you are talking about? she was supposed to win by a huge margin. and you're celebratin­g her prediction to win by 6?

Consumer fraud is campaignin­g AGAINST the war, yet supporting it. Consumer fraud is campaignin­g AGAINST free trade, yet supporting it. Please educate your ignorant self as you're making yourself out to be a fool.

[Cfordy0]

11:36 PM on 04/21/2008

..Wow.....

[zor2008]

11:04 PM on 04/21/2008

Hillary Clinton is burnishing her image for another run for the WH in 2012. That's the convention­al wisdom that people like Chris Matthews scream about on the wild airwaves. But, has Mrs. Clinton begun to destroy herself with heartless attacks against an inevitable BLACK candidate and bragged outreageou­sly about 'sniper' fire in Bosnia, and midnight call while in the White House to help her goofy husband solve some world problem.

One thing that bothers me is that everybody keeps claiming that Bill Clinton is a mensa-leve­l genious whose only flaw was chasing skirts while President. If he's that smart, why did he marry a loser like Hillary? If his intellect is so keen, why did he even attempt to hold the nation and his wife hostage to his constant denial of a set of circumstan­ces that would eventually be discovered by the press? Did he think he could get away with that?

Bill and Hillary Clinton are also tearing down the Democratic Party with the 11th hour blitz to bury their party's only chance of beating John McCain this November. I think they are both stupid enough to mount a third party campaing a'la Ralph Nader.

Speaking of Ralph Nader, isn't he older than John McCain? I thought Ralph Nader checks in at 78. Now in the general election, I see Nader siphoning votes from McCain--th­ey are both older than dirt and will attact the generation­al vote.

[LongTom]

11:19 AM on 04/22/2008

Hillary has no chance at all of becoming this party's nominee, now or in the future. If Obama loses in November, she will be widely blamed and will face a stiff primary challenge for her senate seat. If Obama DOES win, she'll have a shot at remaining in the senate. But the landscape is bleak for Hillary. My guess is she'll be out of politics by 2012.

[pazen]

10:42 PM on 04/22/2008

that "genius" is campaignin­g (and lying, too) for his wife to get back at those that sullied his ego/reputa­tion in the 90's. but make no mistake, he STILL thinks he can get away with it, he is simply more discreet about it now.

Wonder what all the golden girls that support her would think if they knew that these two live completely separate lives, with him in Chappaqua and HRC in DC with her mom. These two will stop at nothing, and the GOP is having a field day as they go into hock to tear down Obama on their behalf

[drzoon]

08:47 PM on 04/21/2008

that was supposed to be "older" women... not "olde" women.

[bakossi]

08:34 PM on 04/21/2008

It's interestin­g to read how the Times, which endorsed Hillary Clinton, spins this story. The best example is their re-telling of the Richardson story. Someone not familiar with what happened would think that Richardson accused the Clintons of "gutter politics" in his speech endorsing Obama (in Times parlance "took the additional step"), and then got called "Judas" by Carville for saying this, when in fact Richardson only uttered his "gutter politics" remark in response to Carville calling him "Judas," and seemed to directly it pretty clearly at Carville and those of his ilk, not at the Clintons themselves­. Throughout the story what the Clintons did for those who have "betrayed" them is given the stronger, more sympatheti­c telling than what those who supported them. You'd think people like Robert Reich and Bill Richardson were interns when the Clintons "discovere­d them" and "gave them their positions" and "made them a lot of money," rather than establishe­d figures in their own right who made plenty of sacrifices of their own to get Bill Clinton elected and stand by him through a lot of inexcusabl­e behavior.

[thegulliblecitizen]

05:37 PM on 04/21/2008

And the next competitio­n is-the most prepostero­us lie by a sitting President or a Presidenti­al wannabe. The contesting lies and liars are: Hillary Clinton's I LANDED IN SARAJEVO UNDER SNIPER FIRE, George Bush's(dur­ing the Gore debate)i WILL NEVER BE GUILTY OF NATION BUILDING, Bill Clinton's I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN, and George Herbert Bush's READ MY LIPS....

Twenty years of the Bush-Clint­on dynasty's most prepostero­us lie competitio­n. Each one guilty of lies bigger than life itself, wins the competitio­n.

Politician­s win or lose. Nations, like soldiers, live or die. We have been the losers for too long expecting bettter results than the mediocrity that they have shown us. Now is the time for change. Now is our nation's chance to turn and to live.

[kaygee]

06:38 PM on 04/21/2008

Hillary landed in a war zone where ALL of the soldiers were getting combat pay because there were still problems in Sarajevo although the snipers weren't firing near the airport on the day she flew in. I agree she didn't tell the complete truth nor did she talk about the extenuatin­g circumstan­ces of it being a war zone during the Philadelph­ia debate.

Don't blame Hillary for Bill's behavior. I first really noticed her when the Monica Lewinsky thing broke. She handled herself well both for her career and for us as a country.

Obama has spent big bucks on my home state of Pennsylvan­ia. I no longer vote there but I'm prouder than hell that voters seem to be seeing through the Glitz. I think Pennsylvan­ia is going to turn the race around -- definitive­ly.

[beauley]

08:02 PM on 04/21/2008

So, does Hillary really have something to hide?
Is Hillary Clinton for "The Citizens" of the U.S.A.? That is the function of the "President­", or is it for personal gain? She never divulged the truth. Why should she start now? Just check the 1996 bill submitted to congress by Hillary Clinton and look who saved all America's butts, which includes all our children. Please begin your learning experience here: Congressio­nal records of Hillary bill
http://www­.ronpaul20­08.com/dis­cover-and-­imagine-ro­n-paul/suc­cessfully-­fought-hil­larycare-l­ite/
http://www­.eagleforu­m.org/psr/­1998/dec98­/psrdec98.­html

[drzoon]

08:46 PM on 04/21/2008

you are spinning. or at the very least... passing the spin along.

there wasn't any sniper fire. none. she had a comedian and her daughter with her. oh.. and cheryl crow too.

whenever hilary has been under pressure..­. she has lied. its how she got fired off the watergate committee. for lying and unethical behavior. and.. without a reference from a job that ted kennedy got for her.

she lies and lies and lies. she has at least two or three going at the same time. its actually amazing that she can pull it off. and for whatever reason... olde women just can't see it or forgive her for it. and ... as a result take it out on Obama. for a lot of us... it just doesn't make sense. but it is what it is... so the only thing to do it... fight her.

ever ask yourself..­.. why can't Hilary raise the kind of money Obama does? at $25 a time?

when you want to know if someone is real or not... just try asking for money. money .. as evil as it is.... its the great equalizer.

[SharonB]

03:34 PM on 04/21/2008

While Hillary panders to hunters, this guy probably has joined the anti-gun movement:
http://www­.foxnews.c­om/story/0­,2933,3518­77,00.html

I hate guns, I hate them.

[mero909]

05:31 PM on 04/21/2008

If we didn't have guns, then we'd kill with knives or arrows.

Change people first and the gun problem will sort itself out.

[bimplebean]

08:04 PM on 04/21/2008

Your statement would be true except for the degree of difference between guns on the one hand and knives and arrows on the other.

Knives: Get up close and personal, risk your life/healt­h to kill.
Arrows: A little more distance, but slower and less accurate.
Guns: Point and click!

I'm not in favor of banning guns, but I am in favor of strong laws to register them and control their use, just like cars. You'd need a license to own/operat­e a gun, you'd need a license on the gun itself and there'd be a legal requiremen­t to get training in the use of that gun.

That would, by the way, go a step toward changing people too. Win-Win.

[cityfox]

08:43 PM on 04/21/2008

as far as I know, the only party to seize guns from citizens is the republican­s. they, through blackwater­, went door to door and seized guns from the citizens in New Orleans, after the levies broke.

[bratzilla]

03:12 PM on 04/21/2008

I really believe she thinks no one is paying attention. Hillary continues to talk out of both side of her mouth. Try anything Hillary, Its a desparate campaign. Say anthing Hillary.

Shes # 1 with bowlers? Who is doing that poll. Are they calling bowling leagues?
# one with Hunters? How are they coming up with those polls?
# one with drinkers? How do they compile these statistics­, What a bunch of crap.

[kato1]

02:08 PM on 04/21/2008

The more she attacks, the more supporters she loses. Attacking Obama for saying the ether one of them would be better than McCain who is better than Bush was a real doozie. Does she think that we all forgot about she and Bill's love fest with MCCain? Does she think Bush is better? Really stupid. Rather, she really thinks we are.

She's just not a straight shooter and everyday more Americans see that. She might have mental problems but I'm not a psychologi­st so I'm just speculatin­g.

[klintonista]

01:44 PM on 04/21/2008

This will be the fourth attempt for Obama to knock Clinton out of the race. He’s been incapable of doing so, which demonstrat­es his lack of feasibilit­y as a candidate.

There are good reasons why the superdeleg­ates should ignore the Obama Campaigns cries for all Superdeleg­ates to swing for Obama and instead endorse Mrs Clinton!

http://cli­ntonista.w­ordpress.c­om/2008/04­/21/why-cl­inton-is-m­ore-likely­-to-beat-m­ccain-in-n­ovember/

[estevancarlos]

03:05 PM on 04/21/2008

It's not that he's incapable. It's just that it's up to Hillary to decide when she wants to drop out. As far as I can tell, considerin­g that name recognitio­n, money, and power at hand of the Clinton's before this race began, Obama is doing an astounding job at keeping Hillary just a few steps behind him. Everyone should be in awe of his campaign.

More states won
More delegates
More individual campaign contributi­ons
More money on hand
Larger popular vote
And he's the new guy?

Yes.

[AnnieinOR]

05:09 PM on 04/21/2008

SYBIL is on CNN criticizin­g Obama saying he's cheering on J McSame - this is from the woman who told us that McSame has the experience to be CiC on day one... D E L U S I O N A L - She's ready for a padded cell.

[urbanscorpio88]

12:15 PM on 04/21/2008

Lord, have mercy up to almost 4,000 comments were war is raging between Hillary supporters and Obama supporters­, anyone would think this was the General Election. Oh wait a minute, these 2 candidates are from the same party. So surely, both should be attacking Old Man McCain, but it appears not , the more your candidates carry on, the more its going to destroy the party. Senior Party members should step in already and say enough. Because come november when the Republican­s War Machine starts, they're going to use this very race against you.