Clinton Fundraisers Swinging Behind Obama
As we first reported here, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wooed top Clinton donors at a private presentation in Manhattan yesterday, and the early indications are that such efforts are paying off.
Top Hillary supporter Ed Rendell is hosting a fundraiser for Obama tonight in Philadelphia. My sense from talking to Hillary donors is that from their point of view, there's just no percentage in not getting behind Obama, and while there's definitely still a bit of grumbling in these circles, they're basically falling into line.
One thing driving this is that Obama, according to Rendell, is privately signaling to the leading Clinton fundraisers that it's urgent that the Dem fundraising establishment come together and raise huge sums to combat the McCain-GOP apparatus -- right now. And the fundraisers are heeding the call.
Beautiful.
June 13, 2008 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
They see the party consolidation going on. They want to have the ear of party leaders, just as they did with the Clintons.
June 13, 2008 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
From yesterday's NY Times:
She'd consider "working for him"?
Greg, do you know if she was at yesterday's little affair?
June 13, 2008 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
For "big donors", I always assumed it was not about the candidate, but the influence.
Sure, they prefer the candidate where they have years of influence by contribution, but when push comes to shove, you can't play if you don't get a dog in the game.
That being said, I'm sure there are some who might take the primary personal.
June 13, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tennessee Democratic Party steps in it again regarding Senator Obama.
Even Beecher Frasier, Davis's chief of staff, didn't bat down the "terrorist ties" rumor.
Hobbs' e-mail is: hobbsf@realtracs.com
Frasier's e-mail is: Beecher.Frasier@mail.house.gov
link to Nashville City Paper story:
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=60813
June 13, 2008 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow.
June 13, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently the Hobbs guy is going to issue a retraction, which will appear on the Nashville City Paper.
June 13, 2008 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
You'd have to consider this person a "high information" voter, wouldn't you?
This illustrates the challenge facing Obama's campaign.
June 13, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Definitely a challenge.
This guy would def be a high info voter, which makes his statement more of a smear tactic, than an actual concern.
June 13, 2008 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good God, I just got home and read this!
I just got off the phone with these guys in DC. In addition to expressing by disappointment that Davis would not endorse, I told them I was outraged at the statements from his chief of staff (you have to read the whole article) and I told them that if they were trying to make us all look like a bunch of backward hicks, they had succeeded.
Davis is thinking of running for Gov of Tennessee in a couple of years. No thanks. And get this - I have in my very possession a photo of this bozo standing on the stage smiling and clapping with Obama at a rally for Ford from two years ago. Funny how he suddenly wants to pretend he doesn't know him.
Big Mistake.
June 13, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Telecommunications? Methinks she meant "love my COMPANY" more than my party, perchance. Verizon, AT&T anyone?
June 13, 2008 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
sorry. above in response to CT Voter
June 13, 2008 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's refreshing and encouraging to see there are superdelegates with integrity like Davis and Hobbs, who make truthful comments about cult leader Obama.
HRC supporters will not surrender in "unity" to the cult powers of Obama. HRC supporters will campaign and vote for John McCain in swing states Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida. Losing any two of these swing states means Obama's defeat in November. I will be volunteer and vote in a swing state. In 2012, Sen. Clinton will be the presidential candidate to get America back on track.
Obama did not get the nomination fair and square. He clinched a stolen nomination with Howard Dean's FL and MI shenanigans, and de facto Obama surrogate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rigged the nomination for Obama. Cult leader Obama is an unelectable radical left wing liberal who is unqualified and inexperienced, lacking in character and consensus building record.
Sen. Clinton should be the Democratic nominee as the best qualified and the strongest candidate to win the general election in a landslide victory hands down.
June 13, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Its your devotion to a person over a cause that is what appears cultish.
June 13, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, your cult is showing.
June 13, 2008 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama can lose two of those states you mention and still win.
June 13, 2008 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
If Obama loses, Senator Clinton's future in national politics will be nonexistent, because fairly or not, the resistance of supporters like you to Obama will be blamed for Obama's loss. So if you really care for Clinton's future chances at the Presidency (and I don't think you actually do, but hey, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt) then you get out there in your swing state and work your ass off for Obama, ok?
June 13, 2008 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
What the cat said. If Obama loses, Hillary will get some of the blame for fracturing the party with some of her gambits, including the mind-boggling attempt to get her supporters to think this was somehow stolen from her. (The MI FL "gambit" was in fact done by the Rules Committee, including Harold Ickes and other Clinton supporters.) Her best chance to be president is to help Obama win.
June 13, 2008 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I remember rather fondly the days when the performers on this illustrious stage brought only their highest caliber material and took the time, at the very least, to adorn a modicum of an inflammatory avatar wardrobe. There were, as they say, certain Standards and Practices that made TPM a Must See for fine trolling.
The Endless Reruns of the Post-Primary age meander onward, though - and with them a new generation of would-be Leading Trolls who know even less about their craft than the Borrowed Lines they bring set forth, wholly unaware of the long shadows they stand within.
Are the halcyon days of Seekrit Musselman or 30 Point Prognosticator truly behind us, lost to the Archival Ether like so many Real World: Montgomery's that have come before? Or will one of these Young Turks rise to take the Trolling Giants gauntlet and return the spark back to TPM ahead of November's election? Your humble critic, for one, has adopted a Wait and See approach in the face of so many disappointing performances of late.
June 13, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
crat3, please quit being a damn baby about this "stolen" bs. you're right this WHOLE electoin process was RIGGED. FOR HILLARY.
you REALLY think that harold ickes voted to strip the delegations of michigan and florida because he wanted to RIG the election for obama? U REALLY THINK SO? u REALLY think that they had super tuesday STACKED with 22 states so that obama can win the nomination??/
GET OUTTA HERE! your candidate screwed up ROYALLY with eveyr damn advantage in the book before even a vote was cast. ALL the superdelegates lined up behind clinton. 100+ of them. yet she STILL lost.
so quit your whining and be a damn adult for once. BE A DAMN ADULT.
im sure hillary is SO GLAD to have your support. this just goes to show how irrational ppl can be and that they don't believe in anything hillary has done or said.
June 13, 2008 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
You should not atribute those statements to Hillary supporters. They are trolling for reaction.
June 13, 2008 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Right. Sorry.
June 13, 2008 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Correct. No way is that an HRC supporter. Simply a nazi-lican looking to get a reaction. Set your phasers to "ignore"...
June 13, 2008 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink