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Wolfson Shares Details Of Hillary's $6.4 Million Loan To Campaign

On a conference call with reporters just now, Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson offered details on her $6.4 million loan to her campaign.

"Senator Clinton gave the campaign a $5 million loan on April 11th, a $1 million lona on May 1st, and a $425,000 loan on May 5th," Wolfson said, adding that she'd lent the campaign the money to keep pace with Obama's spending on TV in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina.

"The loans are a sign of Senator Clinton's commitment to the race, to continuing the process, and to continuing to be competitive with Senator Obama on television and in other areas," Wolfson said.

Separately, Wolfson confirmed that Hillary will be privately meeting with uncommitted super-delegates later this afternoon on Capitol Hill. He declined to say which -- or how many -- super-dels would be attending.

Late Update: Wolfson, on the call, confirms that the loans came from the Clintons' jointly-held assets, as did the first loan to her campaign:

"I don't rule out that she will loan the campaign additional money out of her jointly held-assets."


Comments (65)

Why? Utter futility.

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Wow. If only that money were spent on much better things than just tv ads and campaign garbage. Anyway, I found this poll, and the results are quite interesting...

http://www.votenic.com


Will you please stop pimping your fucking Web site? I'd be willing to bet less than 10 people have been stupid or curious enough to click that link.

Did you really just try and plug your own website with a bullshit post? That is low class, sir.

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I'll click on yours if you click on mine.

http://www.amishrakefight.org/gfy/

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really? you just found that poll, eh? on the website you've been spamming here for weeks, if not months? the website that just happens to match your screen name? what an astounding coincidence.

New name for the guy -- TPM must have finally blocked him, so he's changing IDs.

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I guess any reference to a fat lady singing would make me a misogynist?
~

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Not at all, in fact there is video of them singing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaP9eiWuX3s

Thanks for that again!

♪♪♪

Clinton is investing her own money - in snake oil! (I do not recommend that stock!)

That hurt my eyes (and ears).

No wonder she was begging for cash in her speech last night. If she loaned her campaign $ on the 1st, she must be really broke. What happened to the $10mil she raised after PA?

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For all the ugly things Clinton has said and done the past few months, the next 24 hours are about to show her core character. If she continues to fight and attack Obama, she will be rightly vilified as a Nixonian pantsuit, a hollow android devoid of any semblance of responsibility to a party and cause bigger than herself.

For those bad with calendars, this seems to imply that none of these loans are part of the $10 million raised on April 23rd.

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Sigh... You mistakenly assume you can trust anything Wolfson says. Have you learned nothing?

Note: I didn't say it was true. I just said it was implied.

I wonder what the uncommitted supers are going to say to her today? It may not be pretty...

Oh, man. Wouldn't it be great to be a Flyonthewall today?

Actually, I would love to hear his breakdown of last night.

Apparently none of the Supers on the Hill will talk to her.

Where do you hear that?

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Anyone else think that as the USS Clinton goes down, the rats will start turning on each other? Sort of like all the finger pointing from ex-Busies.

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Rumor has it Mark Penn is going to write a tell all book and include naked pictures of himself as a selling point.

I'm kidding.

PS - If any of you thought about pictures of a naked Mark Penn I'm sorry. That was uncalled for.

This is the way the {Hillary}world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

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As some talking heads were pointing out last night, the fact that her campaign owes her money (and they didn't know about the $6.4M then) perhaps makes it more likely she'll want to get out on good terms, in a deal with Obama that would include his help to retire her campaign debt and repay loans.

Hmmm. "Buy me off and I'll get out, Barack." Classy, all the way.

At this point, I say hey, it's worth it.

$6.4M is $6,400. Please see http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/stephanopoulos_obama_camp_will.php#comment-2792820 for further information.

Thank you for your attention.

I'm afraid the "M" here stands for the Greek mega, meaning large, and in most modern contexts, a million.

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Did anyone ask on the call about her outstanding debts and cash on hand?

The endless enabling has got to stop!

O come on Wolfson, get real.


Although, I guess people like the Clintons can talk other people out of their money with such ease that they don't worry about not having enough in reserve.

That's the only thing I can figure, because I can't think of a bigger waste of several million dollars.

You'd do better investing in beanie babies.

Her logic seems to be that she owes this to the supporters she has. She owes it to people who endorse her, like Evan Bayh and the NC Gov. She owes it to the big donors and super dels who got on board early.

In order to continue to raise money, she had to promise things like FL and MI. She was desperate, and in that time found her economic populist message. it just came too late. so now that she's promised the world, and can't deliver, she just brings $6.4M in from Bill's Uzbeki Oil Fund.

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support hillary clinton all the way...thanks hillary/bill/chelsea

That sounds like a sign-off.

We'll miss you!

Speak for yourself.

"The loans are a sign of Senator Clinton's commitment to the race, to continuing the process, and to continuing to be competitive with Senator Obama on television and in other areas," Wolfson said.

I totally agree with the above statement.....

Hillary is for America, Hillary will win :)


West Virginia votes May 13....that is 6 days away.


Polls:

Rasmussen Report: (05-04-08)
Clinton: 56%.....29% lead
Obama: 27%

Rasmussen Report: (03-13-08)
Clinton: 55%.....28% lead
Obama: 27%

ARG: (04-02-08)
Clinton: 37%.... 15% lead
Obama: 22%

Mark Blankenship Enterprises: (02-21-08)
Clinton: 43%....21% lead
Obama: 22%

GO HILLARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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YEAH!!! GO HILLARY!! GO HOME HILLARY!!!!!

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TO: Superdelegates
FROM: David Plouffe, Campaign Manager
RE: An Update on the Race for Delegates
DA: May 7, 2008

There are only six contests remaining in the Democratic primary calendar and only 217 pledged delegates left to be awarded. Only 7 percent of the pledged delegates remain on the table. There are 260 remaining undeclared superdelegates, for a total of 477 delegates left to be awarded.

With North Carolina and Indiana complete, Barack Obama only needs 172 total delegates to capture the Democratic nomination. This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates.

Conversely, Senator Clinton needs 326 delegates to reach the Democratic nomination, which represents a startling 68% of the remaining delegates.

With the Clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors.

We believe it is exceedingly unlikely Senator Clinton will overtake our lead in the popular vote and in fact lost ground on that measure last night. However, the popular vote is a deeply flawed and illegitimate metric for deciding the nominee – since each campaign based their strategy on the acquisition of delegates. More importantly, the rules of the nomination are predicated on delegates, not popular vote.

Just as the Presidential election in November will be decided by the electoral college, not popular vote, the Democratic nomination is decided by delegates.

If we believed the popular vote was somehow the key measurement, we would have campaigned much more intensively in our home state of Illinois and in all the other populous states, in the pursuit of larger raw vote totals. But it is not the key measurement. We played by the rules, set by you, the DNC members, and campaigned as hard as we could, in as many places as we could, to acquire delegates. Essentially, the popular vote is not much better as a metric than basing the nominee on which candidate raised more money, has more volunteers, contacted more voters, or is taller.

The Clinton campaign was very clear about their own strategy until the numbers become too ominous for them. They were like a broken record , repeating ad nauseum that this nomination race is about delegates. Now, the word delegate has disappeared from their vocabulary, in an attempt to change the rules and create an alternative reality.

We want to be clear – we believe that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates will and should be the nominee of our party. And we estimate that after the Oregon and Kentucky primaries on May 20, we will have won a majority of the overall pledged delegates According to a recent news report, by even their most optimistic estimates the Clinton Campaign expects to trail by more than 100 pledged delegates and will then ask the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters.

But of course superdelegates are free to and have been utilizing their own criteria for deciding who our nominee should be. Many are deciding on the basis of electability, a favorite Clinton refrain. And if you look at the numbers, during a period where the Clinton campaign has been making an increasingly strident pitch on electability, it is clear their argument is failing miserably with superdelegates.

Since February 5, the Obama campaign has netted 107 superdelegates, and the Clinton campaign only 21. Since the Pennsylvania primary, much of it during the challenging Rev. Wright period, we have netted 24 and the Clinton campaign 17.

At some point – we would argue that time is now – this ceases to be a theoretical exercise about how superdelegates view electability. The reality of the preferences in the last several weeks offer a clear guide of how strongly superdelegates feel Senator Obama will perform in November, both in building a winning campaign for the presidency as well as providing the best electoral climate across the country for all Democratic candidates.

It is important to note that Senator Obama leads Senator Clinton in superdelegate endorsements among Governors, United States Senators and members of the House of Representatives. These elected officials all have a keen sense for who our strongest nominee will be in November.

It is only among DNC members where Senator Clinton holds a lead, which has been rapidly dwindling.

As we head into the final days of the campaign, we just wanted to be clear with you as a party leader, who will be instrumental in making the final decision of who our nominee will be, how we view the race at this point.

Senator Obama, our campaign and our supporters believe pledged delegates is the most legitimate metric for determining how this race has unfolded. It is simply the ratification of the DNC rules – your rules – which we built this campaign and our strategy around.

I love the optimism (seriously), but have you considered what it would happen next, even if she did win West Virginia by as much as 30 points?

West Virgina has only 24 pledged delegates. They won't make a dent in Obama's now-insurmountable lead.

"Hillary is for America, Hillary will win"

Win what? Shot drinking contests? Pander fests? "as-far-as-I-know" competitions? "caucuses, black votes, and states where the people have above room temperature I.Q's don't count" spin? Possibly. But she won't win the nomination.

Rasmussen has Obama over Clinton, 47% to 43%

Thank you for your attention.

Polls are always right. Survey USA nailed IN didn't they? 54-42 Clinton? Hmmm...The CLinton psychological warfare isn't working. Hell, McGovern just asked her to get out of the race!

Clinton now has to get over 80% wins in every remaining contest to catch up to Obama in pledged delegates. 56% means she's still 24% short -- and then comes Oregon.

As an aside: I do hope a priority of Obama's administration will be to raise education standards in the country -- we've got to diminish the possibility of candidates like Clinton getting so much support in the future!

OK, so can we admit that the Clinton campaign has a serious credibility (and credit) problem, and that Harold Ickes' announcement last night that they've got superdelegates just waiting to move is probably bunk?

And HillaryClinton08? You're hilarious.

West Virginia, and Kentucky, in the delusional world known as the Clinton campaign are now the MOST.IMPORTANT.STATES.EVAH!!!!

GO HILLARY, INDEED! Please. Just go.

Clinton friend George McGovern just called for Hillary to drop out. McGovern gave a young Bill Clinton his start in politics.

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I wonder what Bill promises in exchange for that money..

I like what Markos said last night:

Hillary don't drop out (yet)

Wait until Oregon, so Obama can get closer to the 2025 before the supers move in. Let Oregon decide this for Obama.

Plus, it gives Hillary some time to make up that $6.4 mil she'll need for her Senate campaign!

On to Oregon!!!

I'd agree with you if she would just STFU about Obama and go through the motions about her "superior" policies.

But it seems she cannot go through the remaining contests without further attempting to destroy democratic chances in the fall.

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Keep your guard up. Hope for the best, but expect the worst out of Hillary. Think about it in a Fatal Attraction context. This is a very dangerous period. Do not get lulled into a false sense of victory. Do not lay down your arms until she has surrendered.

For those who can spare it, keep sending in donations to Obama. You have to make sure that he does not get caught short, should Hillary continue to wage an all out war. Her talk of raising the nomination delegate count required, and her ongoing efforts to count Florida and Michigan in her favor convinces me that she will continue with a scorched earth campaign.

What Hillary has done up until now is your best guide as to how she is likely to behave in the coming weeks.

Think: Fatal Attraction and keep your guard up at all times. Donate to Obama and keep on lending a hand.

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"perhaps makes it more likely she'll want to get out on good terms, in a deal with Obama that would include his help to retire her campaign debt and repay loans."

Why Obama might pay money from poor people ($25, $50, etc) to the Clintons Millionaires, to get out on good term. They ran out of steam and can not cause any more damages. Their media pundits soon will abandon them. The financiers recognized that their failure is a sucking bit. Super delegates are realizing that she was as good as dead even before PA. She is the same now but a little bit more visible.

I read from her campaign "she is contemplating the motion to "request" a VP position". Do you see the entitlement? She has no right to request or demand anything. A dignified loser should gracefully concead and withdraws. Obama will gracefully thank her regardless of all the damage she has done for him and for the Democratic Party. It is that simple.


I read from her campaign "she is contimplating the motion to "request" a VP position". Do you see the entitlement. She has no right to request or demand anything. A dignified loser should gracefully concead and withdraw. Obama will gracefully thank her regardless of all the damage she has done for him and for the democratic party. It is that simple.

At least she'd be able to loan the ticket a lot of cash...

Where's gotalife?

I knew that 10 mil in one day was pure BS

and the dates don't matter (I don't think they have to report dates other than month outside donations received).

if she could raise cash hand over fist like that in one day, she wouldn't have to lend herself money

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Maybe Obama should just ignore her, open his general election campaign right now, start speaking in states that don't have upcoming primaries. He'd still have to campaign in states he's assumed to win, but why give her fantasy life any credence by actually engaging her in WV, KY or PR? Why not do a national tour of local volunterr offices, for example, to start getting people pumped up for the next stage.

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Oops - that's already the plan. Hadn't seen this:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Obama_to_hit_general_election_states.html

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so the fact that this money is a "loan" means that they want to be paid back right?

so, Hillary in her speech last night touts her webpage so that struggling middle class families can donate money to repay the the 6.4 million back to the 100 million dollar clintons. how populist indeed.

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The Clintons want to pay themselves back (plus interest) using your money. At this point, donating to her campaign is giving your money directly to Hillary.

Let's see... you make, say, $60K per year and your 401K is sputtering. You drive a Toyota and pay rent. You clip coupons and shop at WalMart.

The Clintons have a hundred million bucks and ride around in limos and private jets. Hillary doesn't even remember how to use a gas pump.

Hmm, let's see, you donate $100 and it goes straight into their pockets. Hmm.

Kind of offends your conscience doesn't it?

Worse than that, Clinton wants to continue her campaign to alienate white voters from Obama, at lavish spending rates of $1M per day, adding daily to a debt that the Clintons will ultimately press Obama and the Democratic Party to settle. She will threaten to wreck the convention if her debt isn't paid, a debt that was incurred in the process of her efforts to wreck the front-runner.

FULL SPEED AHEAD!!! ONTO THE WHITE HOUSE!!! HILLMENTUM!!!

Hey folks, it's not 6.4 million and change it's closer 11.6 million the campaign owes her, not including 10 plus million in vendor debts...
Now that's what I call a balanced budget...Sheeesh, I saw this coming 2 weeks aga after their so called 10 million dollar day!

Oh, but wait! Isn't she the policy wonk who is going to fix our broken economy?

So Wolfson is saying that the $6.4 million is the five she lent herself a while ago, plus another 1.4 she just plopped down? Rather than a new, additional 6.4? I don't buy it. There's no way she raised $10 million online after PA like she says she did. Her site's traffic stats don't support that.

Obama should not give a penny towards retiring Clinton's debt. Clinton knew from the time of the Wisconsin primary that she was done barring a surprise. She could have decided to stick around as a loyal democrat (like Huckabee in the R primaries) and join Barack in campaigning against Bush/McCain, but instead she chose to lie and smear in OH/TX and beyond. Now she wants Barack's small donor base to bail her out the expenses of her race-baiting campaign? Her campaign that kept going by stiffing small vendors? That owes most of its money to Penn and his fascist-supporting propagandists? NOT ONE CENT TO THE CLINTONS. Let Bill try to make it back with his 200k$ speeches to former Soviet warlords and war profiteers, or siphon it from the still undisclosed sponsors of his "foundation".

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