Clinton's Dilemma: Awash In Both Cash And Debt

McClatchy Newspapers:

The climactic end of the Democratic presidential race left loser Hillary Clinton in an odd position: Her campaign is both awash in cash and buried in debt.

The decisions she makes in how to handle that predicament could affect her future political prospects. Similarly, Barack Obama might seize an opportunity to make peace with his vanquished rival by helping her pay off some of her $21 million in loans.

Clinton's latest report to the Federal Election Commission showed an April 30 cash balance of nearly $29.7 million, but that was deceiving. FEC spokesman George Smaragdis said the figure included $6 million in primary-season cash and $23.7 million in donations designated for the fall general election campaign. None of the general election donations can be used to retire debts accrued during the primary season.

Clinton's biggest problem, of course, is the $21 million in IOUs, which include $11,425,000 she is known to have lent her campaign through the first week of May and possibly millions of dollars more in yet-to-be-disclosed loans during her last-ditch primary campaign efforts.

Read the whole story: McClatchy Newspapers

Comments

[condew]

Maybe she should just act like McCain, as she says they are alike. McCain blatently violated FEC rules by taking public finance, receiving some benefit, then spending way in excess of the spending limit. He faces the possibility of a 5 year prison term,but seems unafraid because Bush won't appoint acceptable members to the FEC.

So Clinton should just take the general election funds and pay her bills, blatently ignoring the rules just like Florida and Michigan did.

[Moebius]

Uh 21 million and my Hillary thermo travel cup, thank you very much! >.

[HerbTee]

IWhy don't HRC ask her 18 million supporters she prepared to bludgeon Senator Obama and the DNC with to send her money to pay off her debts? After all, she planned to use those same supporters to force herself onto Obama's ticket as VP. She was planning to use them to back her up for a convention floor fight over 4 delegates to steal the nomination from Obama! Let her supporters help pay off her debits.

I always thought that if you run out of money attempting some goal, you simply STOP doing it! HRC knew her campaign was broke right after Super Tuesday. But she kept on spending and loaning herself money anyway. Does this woman not understand the meaning of a spending limit? We all understand that concept, right folks? We certainly can't go over our credit card spending limits before the banks or credit card companies cut us off and charge us huge fees. And she had the nerve...the gall to call Obama, "elitist".

Sounds like that quote from Slick Gun Willie is now coming back to haunt them: "This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." As I've said before in using the old street adage, "payback is a motherf****r!"

[keepemhonest]

Hillary is also refusing to release her delegates from primaries. Why is she refusing to release those delegates so they too can support our dem nominee in Denver?

I've been democrat my whole life. Whether you all want to admit it, our party is divided, for lots of reasons, our party IS divided.

Unity is urgent. I think if Hillary keeps her delegates & refuses to release them so she can get their votes in Denver, it will NOT provide the right recipe to unite our party.

In fact, if Hillary does not release those delegates it will further divide our party by not allowing her strong supporters time to 'heal' and get on board with the Democratic nominee.

I hope the DNC helps to unite our party so we can go to our convention unified as opposed to 'hoping we unify after our convention."

I think if our nominee has 100% unifed votes at our convention it will speak VOLUMES to the voters of this country. The republicans were foaming at the mouth for a food fight at our convention ... how AWESOME & UNIFIED if 100% of our delegates back our nominee 100%.

Hillary should STOP trying to stay on the stage. She lost and she should do what Edwards, Biden & the other wonderful candidates did & release her delegates.

Send your comments to Nancy Palosi & let her know what you think. http://speaker.house.gov/contact/

[adzeman]

Somehow, she'll get by.

[Keith52]

I hope she goes broke.

[edhillfiker]

A good deal of Obama supporters here ARE NOT true Obama supporters!

Why?

They are merely talking heads who claim to be behind this candidate, but do not practice what Obama espouses and that is "unifying change".

Of course, it's an age old story. How many so-called Christians practice the actual teachings of Christ?

No, the bulk of the so-called Obama supporters here continue in spewing vehement hatred of the Clintons and their supporters.

Instead of focusing on closing the door to 8 endless years of Republican rule, they continue to focus their anger and, yes, hatred of the Clintons, who lest we forget, despite their faults (and who doesn't have faults?) did their bit in putting an end to 12 years of Republican rule!

Obama has repeatedly praised Clinton after his victory and has asked his supporters to do the same, to heal, to unify and to make possible the change he desperately seeks.

A good number of his supporters, here and elsewhere, remind me all to well of the Jerry Springer trailer trash who just "have" to get one last hate-filled insult in and then compound it by using the lame excuse, "well the Clintonites do the same"

Like a dog chasing it's tail, it's sort of amusing but serves no purpose whatsoever, as a matter of fact, if unchanged it will undoubtedly do great harm to the party.

Cease with the hypocrisy already.

[jimmy2001]

she wasn't even in the oval office yet and already cooking the books... I would like a Hillary supporter to tell me just how she was going to handle the financial problems of this country.

[globality]

Obama's campaign can donate 2300$ maximum

If you donated money to Hillary's general election campaign (not primary) you should be reimbursed that money in less you specifically turn the money down. You would be crazy because your money will be used to pay off her own loan. The Clntons have 100 million $ yet they want you to pay off their debt

[bygollymissmolly]

So, does that mean that Clinton has to return the 23.7 million she collected in general election donations?

I really hope that someone helps her pay off her debts. And I hope that she does the right thing and pays back her vendors before she pays herself back. Here in Oregon, the Clintons owe schools over $40,000. That's a lot of money that could be spent on books and other things schools need to survive. If she pays herself or Penn before she retires these debts, it will show the world what kind of a person she really is.

http://wweek.com/editorial/3430/11055/

[SethBLiNK]

Her surplus of unusable general election money is a result of having too many donors max out. In other words the elitist Obama had millions of $100 donors, while Hillary subsisted (or failed to subsist) with thousands of max donors.

I hope when she refunds the general money she urges the donors to redirect it to Obama's campaign.

I hope that if she insists on being a drag on his fund-raising (syphoning money that would otherwise go to his general fund) she makes a positive contribution to the campaign going forward.

He's got money to burn from small internet donors and he won. She's got debt inspite of donations from fat cats and she lost. What a telling indication of the old way of doing business and the new way.

[jade7243]

Bill and Hill made a decision to run this campaign, spend their own money and run up the debt with their buddies Mark Penn and Mandy Grunwald and company. Bill can go out on the lecture circuit -- as can Hill -- and pay off their personal debts with just a few trips to Kazakhstan and Wazirisstan and Hokey-Pokey-stan.

Given the disrespectful wany Bill and Hill have acted, Obama doesn't owe them anything. By suspending her campaign and reformulating it as a Senate campaign, she should be able to rollover her debt and pay it out of new fundraising for her re-electionto the Senate when the time comes.

Bill on the campaign trail for Obama is a timebomb waiting to go off: first he talks about himself, then how great Hillary is and then"oh yeah, the kid... isn't this the biggest fairy tale you've ever seen!!!! " Bill will be way off message and not a good thing....

[WasteNJ]

What's the debate? She should pay her vendors and staff, and if there's any left, give it to Obama.
And if she's got millions in debt left after all is said and done, she can write them a check out of her personal account and "pay herself back", whenever. Why should anybody else pay back loans she loaned HERSELF? That's like paying her off to support Obama.

[snarkopolitan]

My 86 year old Mom, newly widowed, sent her friend Hillary $200. AFTER it was obvious to any rational person that Hillary would never win the nomination. Mom bought the "only chance in my lifetime to vote for a woman" line with money she could ill afford. The onslaught of campaign begging letters and phone calls launched AFTER Hillary should have bowed out is disgraceful.

The Clintons have $79 million left AFTER Hillary lent herself 11 million. She should eat the debt herself.

Bill will still be able to collect hefty speaking fees, though now that Hill's out he may get less.

[queenisabella]

Come on, it is normal practice to pick up those kind of debts for the Nominee and the party, they do it through fund raising, and not our personal; donations, who cares? Except for the fact that this debt was a huge waste of money on a dead campaign
Obama does want to unify and he can only do it by embracing the Clintons, he will throw a bone to Ole Bill, have him campaign or something with the hillbillies, Hill will have more options or even a cabinet presence, maybe Secretary of Heath....We also know by now that she will not be VP, her "bargaining" approach caused shock as it should and was slapped down real fast....what happened yesterday is major, The Clintons no longer have support from the party, or even from their own supporters, they crossed a line on Tuesday night, big and last mistake..they are now boxed in, they will be embraced, included only if they are reasonable, they are now tightly reigned in..
The fact that she keeps her pledge delegates is only technical and means nothing
She really blew it and had to be publicly forced out, how dumb and self damaging...she jeoardized her own leverage in the process.

[HarryTheHat]

It's difficult to have much sympathy for HRC's financial predicament - no, strike that - it's impossible. If she had the incredible grassroots support she claims, they'd already have donated, right? If both sets of supporters are roughly equal in number, then surely there should be something approaching fundraising parity. So why are Clinton supporters not reaching into their pockets to support their candidate to the same extent? Why the disparity?

Just about every political commentator has been saying for a while now that given the electoral math, even with full voting rights for FL and MI, Hillary could not get the nomination. Superdelegates have been deserting her for months now and there was no heavenly reason to see why this trend would change.

Lo and behold, they were right. This comes as no surprise to anyone except the most reality-challenged Clintonistas. So any campaign debt accrued is now down to her. Why should Obama dip his hand in his pocket to help her out? (a) She and Bill still have $100m in loose change and (b) Any money that Obama gives to HRC to salve the wounds of the world's most expensive vanity project is money taken away from the GE campaign.

The last straw for me was her speech after the final primaries. She had a golden opportunity to make good and create a night of unity. Instead, she's jonesing for one more night in the spotlight. The woman is pure, unmitigated poison.

[StateofTaxes]

It's a little hard for me to feel her pain; I must go buy gasoline later today....

[piper1233]

do you know how to pump it yourself, if the answer is yes maybe you should be VP