On Private Conference Call, Hillary Urges Major Donors To Throw Weight Behind Obama
On a private conference call moments ago, Hillary urged her top fundraisers in no uncertain terms to throw their weight behind Barack Obama, and directly asked them in surprisingly candid terms to give or raise money to help her pay off her campaign's debt.
At the same time, in a move that took some participants on the call by surprise, she also clarified that she was not asking their help in paying off her personal loans to the campaign.
Interestingly, Hillary also suggested that she would soon be making public statements about the media coverage of the campaign, as well as the ways "women were discussed," saying that she would "be doing more on that as we go forward."
"I am going to do everything I can to ensure victory for Senator Obama," Hillary told her fundraisers on the call. "I am asking each of you to do the same. I really believe we've got to see a Democrat sworn into the White House this January."
The call, which I was able to listen to in its entirety, left little doubt that Hillary was unequivocally signaling to her top financial supporters -- who are being actively courted by Obama -- that the time had come for them to do their part in getting him elected President.
Hillary added that "the stakes are too high" to do anything but "do all we can to elect Barack Obama President," in order to "turn the economy around" and "protect a woman's right too choose."
On the topic of her debts, Hillary said: "Many of you also know that my campaign is facing debt. That happens when you're outspent...I have also loaned money to the campaign which I consider an investment...I'm not expecting anybody to help pay that back."
"But I am hoping to get your help in our efforts to pay off our vendors," she continued, adding that "any amount you can give or help raise would go a long way" towards doing that.
Hillary then suggested that she'd be making public statements soon about the media's treatment of her candidacy.
Speaking of the campaign, Hillary noted that "there were a lot of other aspects to it that people are asking about. A lot of real concerns about some of the ways we were portrayed in the media and the way women were discussed."
"I will be doing more on that as we go forward," Hillary said.
Nice, so she wants her donors, most of which were already supporting Obama, to support Obama, while she is going to start making an issue out of sexism, further embittering her hardcore female supporters who might otherwise realize that voting for McCain is against their best interests.
Let it go Hillary, yes there was sexism, yes there was racism, but neither changed the outcome of the race.
June 19, 2008 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh, oh. Greg mentions Hillary again. Gotta think the peeps will be piling on again any minute now. Not to worry, he can take it.
Too cynical, even for me. Unless she botches the job horribly (unlikely), she should be able to redirect the ire of her feminista supporters in the right direction -- John McFeign. She does have a lot of ammo to work with there.
June 19, 2008 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Heh. OK, one substance-free ObGreg tweak:
How private can it be if a TPM staffer is invited to listen in?
Or did one of those top fundraisers record the call and/or patch Greg in?
June 19, 2008 7:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I totally agree. She needs to quit with the "sexism" stuff. It's not helpful. Yes, there were some sexist comments made but I don't think she lost a single vote because of anything Chris Matthews said. She did get a lot of votes because of it though because it angered so many women.
She also needs to say outright "the nomination wasn't stolen, no one was disenfranchised; we all agreed to play by the same set of rules including having delegates chosen by the cacus system. this was a race for delegates and Obama racked up an insurmountable delegate lead. end of story."
June 19, 2008 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Hillary wants to play up the sexism card she ought to defend Michelle Obama.
There's no excuse for this Fox News
The press have been on a tirade against Michelle Obama, 1st Lady Laura Bush stood up for Michelle, but do Hillary have the grace to do the same? : |
June 19, 2008 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
But, but that might help the dems win in November. The clintons don't want that to happen. They're playing for 2012. The sexism crap was just more clintonian victimization. There was no factual basis for it, so they won't play that card for anyone else. They want to keep it to themselves.
June 19, 2008 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
While I, too, am skeptical about what Hillary might be going to say about sexism, why don't we wait until we actually know what she says before we throw her over the bus?
And, for the record, I've never been a Hillary supporter. But I think my proposal is fair.
June 19, 2008 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sen. Clinton's future in the Democratic party is at stake, as well as her future for any potential 2012 run. If Sen. Obama, who has such an early lead, loses the race in a year when the Republicans have no enthusiasm, and little public support for retaining the White House, Sen. Clinton will be the first to be blamed.
June 20, 2008 12:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
What? Are you out of your mind? In a year like this, if Obama still manages to lose, he has nobody to blame but you! You will be blamed to be so stupid as to nominate him. Get a life,loser! Only losers start finding an accuse before losing.
June 20, 2008 8:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I totally agree. She needs to quit with the "sexism" stuff. It's not helpful. Yes, there were some sexist comments made but I don't think she lost a single vote because of anything Chris Matthews said. She did get a lot of votes because of it though because it angered so many women.
She also needs to say outright "the nomination wasn't stolen, no one was disenfranchised; we all agreed to play by the same set of rules including having delegates chosen by the cacus system. this was a race for delegates and Obama racked up an insurmountable delegate lead. end of story."
June 19, 2008 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good grief, there is nothing in the piece but good stuff from HRC. If you can't cut her a break here, then you really have your head where it doesn't shine...
June 19, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
comments should be working now (I hope). apologies for the problems
June 19, 2008 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uhhhh, that was for show. She sent memos to and talked to her few remaining donors telling them to keep their powder dry until 2012. Don't help obama. He will lose in november and the clintons will run away with it in 2012. That was the behind the scenes message. Good reporting guys. Thanks!
June 19, 2008 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, Michael, I'm impressed! How 'bout a source for all your "behind the scenes" reporting?
June 19, 2008 7:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unnamed annonymous source. She requested annonymity. Couple my sources with the factual evidence of what the clintons have been doing since February and I have corroboration. Any more questions? Glad to see your impressed. Thanks!
June 19, 2008 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't have a problem with Hillary discussing the sexism in the way the media covered her campaign. It was horrible. And in fact, it could go a long way towards helping Obama with women voters if Hillary makes clear that the sexism came from the media, not the Obama campaign, which is, you know, just the simple truth. Also it doesn't hurt in that it puts her supporters who she's asked to support Obama on the alert for the media attacks on Obama that we all know will continue through November. Media pillorying is a good thing for all Democrats, whether it's Hillary pointing it out or someone else. Since she's got the platform and a base of support, so much the better.
June 19, 2008 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
As long as she discusses the role in which media sexism affected her campaign in a way that doesn't take the focus off Obama, then we're good. But somehow I suspect that that proclaiming that you'll be making public statements presumably condemning the press for sexism isn't exactly screaming, "Nothing to see here."
Maybe she'll be giving her version of Obama's race speech in Philadelphia. One problem: she's not the nominee! She does this knowing that it'll dominate at least a week of news. Sigh.
June 19, 2008 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
OTOH, focussing a bright light on McSame's ugly butt could also be helpful.
That's what I'm waiting for. I haven't seen it from her yet, but I am hopeful it'll come.
June 19, 2008 8:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just wondering, can't she just be a good democrat and throw her support behind obama? Why does there always have to be these bs claims about clinton victimization? I really don't get it. The thrust of what she allegedly was trying to do was drowned out by her bs claim of sexism and how she was allegedly treated unfairly. What a bunch of crap. Why bother doing the call? I really can't wait until these buffoons called the clintons get no more media attention. Pathetic.
June 19, 2008 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because even though Obama's the nominee, she still feels that she's the story. I swear, the Clintons will never change.
June 19, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm, Huey. Why doesn't it surprise me that you and Mental Deficient Michael are in league with one another. Heh-heh...
June 19, 2008 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure most of her vendors deserve to be paid, but what donor in his or her right mind would want to give money destined to wind up in the already-overflowing coffers of Burson-Marstellar, the union-busting corporate PR firm the moron Mark Penn heads.
June 19, 2008 8:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
TPM clearly did not get my memo!
June 19, 2008 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hi guys, I am lurker who over time became a Hillary supporter. I have been trying to overcome my resentments at the DNC and MSM and to support Obama as Hillary recommends. Reading this article brought me a step closer to being able to pull the lever for Obama. Reading your comments hardened my heart and I think I've fallen back three steps. Unity Yea! Keep up the good work. Actually, I've got to get off this page because I'm feeling down right angry. I've got to go somewhere else to search for a feeling of unity.
June 19, 2008 9:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pull the other one, it has bells on it.
June 19, 2008 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm an Obama supporter who has been one since the beginning and I share your sentiment. The comments here on this thread are quite unacceptable, and I sympathize with you wholeheartedly. I can't even figure out why so many here are so disbelieving of Mrs. Clinton's good will and intentions. These comments are simply ugly.
But they don't represent the Obamanians I've met while out in the world, and I hope you'll take heart about that.
If these folks won't acknowledge the extent to which Mr. Obama not only needs but wants to extend every generous and good-willed intention towards his colleagues in the Party, to repair and maintain every possible rift between him and all other Democrats, they don't understand what he is doing at this point in the campaign.
It is imperative for the future of the country that Democrats consolidate into a united front and winnow out the ones who aren't really willing to unite. Mrs. Clinton continues to indicate that she wishes to be part of the winning side, but that she brings to our side an issue which clearly needs to be addressed (sexism) just as he brings his own issue which needed to be addressed (racism). It will be a good thing if he speaks to her issue as he did to his, because he is now the one who must do that.
But our job here and in the wider world is to learn and model the same generosity and courtesy that he personifies, because of all the characteristics of humanity which the opposition has abjectly lacked since 1968, those are the two most desperately needed now.
June 19, 2008 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very well put. Thank you.
June 20, 2008 12:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently some people won't be satisfied until Hillary is publicly burned at the stake.
June 19, 2008 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yup. But it's when I saw the Michael A comment @
June 19, 2008 7:50 PM that he's got his own anonymous sources about the plot for 2012, that's when I was finally convinced he's not just your ordinary Chris Hitchens type Clinton hater, rather, he must be one of the interviewed in this article, that or else this one. Don't be too hard on them, it's a hobby, gives them a reason to live. :-)
June 19, 2008 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can you imagine the look on the faces of The Unhinged if she were to become Secretary of State! Hee-hee...
June 19, 2008 10:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hi loki, long time no slam. By the way, I will bet you a lunch that she would never in a million years be secretary of state. Game on?
June 19, 2008 10:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ahh, thanks for the compliments. I guess you haven't been paying attention to what the clintons have been doing for the past year and since they lost in February. Any normal and decent pol who was putting the party and their country before themselves would have bowed out in February. Anybody who really could care less about the nominee and how much damage they could cause would do what the clintons did. I guess I'm just one of those mental people like loki said, but if we lose in november I hope the clintons rot in hell and I will personally volunteer and contribute money to her primary opponent in 2012. I guess I'm mental, but they can go f*ck themselves. Thanks!
June 19, 2008 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary who?
June 19, 2008 9:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad to hear that she's pushing her donors to back Obama. And to the other commenters here....think about it for a second. Hillary talking about sexism in the media can also help one person even more----Michelle Obama.
June 19, 2008 9:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish she had instead asked her 18 million best friends to come up with $25 bucks each. That would be something.
June 19, 2008 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
We've not seen Hillary since she conceded. Now she makes phone calls to donors behind the scenes, and then "suggests" that she's going to come out and talk about the way her campaign was treated. She shouldn't be talking about herself or her campaign, she should be talking about Obama.
June 19, 2008 10:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary says she is "going to do everything I can to ensure victory for Senator Obama" -- and, to be sure, she is making a start.
But it's been 12 days since her valedictory speech, and the logo on her Web site still reads "Hillary for President."
Not very helpful.
June 20, 2008 12:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've been trying to avoid addressing the clinton nonsense for over 2 weeks now and it keeps coming up. I am soooo tired of the clintons. Bottom line they will do nothing to help obama or the dems in november and that is patently obvious. From February til May they did everything possible to damage obama as much as possible when they had no chance to win the nomination. On the final night of the primaries they basically said f*ck you to obama and then have been whining and screwing around ever since. I just wish they would shut the f*ck up and the media would stop reporting on their nonsense. Let's just move on. I am really sick of them. Talk about clinton fatigue.
June 20, 2008 12:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
I swear this woman has to have everything about her and now it is sexism=guess she forgot all the race baiting she and her cronies did ; it has been such a pleasure not to have her on tv and the blogs everyday and I truly cringe at the thought of her back with her victimhood and her bald faced lies..oh-- I happen to be a white middle aged woman and am grateful and happy that she is not the nominee. The best thing in my opinon is if she goes quietly back to her day job -can not see her doing anything of benefit to Obama for some reason.
June 20, 2008 1:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'll give Clinton the benefit of a doubt at least until she and Obama appear together at next Thursday's fundraiser.
But her words on this conference call do not fill me with confidence.
Perhaps she can frame her discussion of "some of the ways we were portrayed in the media and the way women were discussed" without hurting the Democratic nominee. I just don't see it.
Face it, folks: these two people really do hate each other. Passionately.
And the fighting has just died down, not ended.
Hillary's Washington-based insiders are not taking Obama's takeover lying down.
The ongoing power struggle underlies his swift move of the DNC to Chicago, and the "fuck you" gesture of naming Patti Solis Doyle as vice-presidential chief of staff.
I suspect today's embarrassing FISA-compromise fiasco is part of a DLC-Clintonite pushback.
(Not being plugged into internal Democratic gossip, I have zero evidence for that; it just feels logical.)
Obama has been trying to make nice with the party's right wing for at least a week, but they appear to want none of it.
They want the White House, so they will support him in November.
But they want him deballed first -- a slightly darker, slightly more charismatic John Kerry, who won't upset the applecart filled with tasty pork.
Barack Obama is in the fight of his life.
And surprise, it's not against the woeful Republicans and John McCain.
It's against the entrenched powers-that-be of his own party.
June 20, 2008 1:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
This sure has the ring of truth to it. Thanks for the keen insight.
June 20, 2008 10:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sexism has been a problem in this country since its' inception......plus Hilliary had a chance to discuss this issue when she was on the Board of Directors at Walmart..in Little Rock, AR and the Whitehouse....and she never made sexism a top priority....if she had won....this would be a mute point.....however she lost...now she wants to pony up to sexism as a reason she lost.......like James Brown said....this is a man's world....and it wouldn't be nothing without a woman in it all the time........I guess now she is the new spokesperson for Sexism.....I hear the cash registers ringing.....chiching!!!!!
June 20, 2008 7:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Uh-oh. That has an ominous ring to it. Is Hillary planning to try to grab the spotlight and turn it on herself again--right in the middle of an important campaign? Let's hope she has more sense and more respect for the party than that. I doubt it, but let's hope.
June 20, 2008 8:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Al Gore doesn't want VP slot. Secretary of Energy might be more his line for global warming.
Edwards wants to be Attorney General and democrats typically don't vote for the same guy twice when he lost once already.
Richardson wants Secretary of State.
Sam Nunn, please.... Barack is already tied in Georgia without him.
Strickland is a big bore
Rendell is backing Biden
Kathleen would be great, but there is fear of a "why not Hilary" backlash
Hilary will never be the nominee. Her manadate of a forced health care plan would force billions in to the same health care and right wing forces that defeated her 90's health care plan. Also Obama is committed to getting lobbyist out of Washington. Hilary never met a lobbyist she didn't take money from. I assure you that I would love a woman as president, but our country is controlled by corporate money and time is running out.
Joe Biden is the VP, sorry kids. His partition plan in Iraq, his Pakistan and Afghanistan knowledge and his ability to speak clearly and directly to people gives Obama a way to fight his detractors while keeping his composure. Plus everyone like Biden. They say a good 30% of republicans on the fence would trust Obama with Biden behind him.
Biden is the only democrat who brings republicans.
OBAMA's strategy is to swing republicans without nominating one as VP. So Biden is It.
OBAMA/BIDEN '08
June 20, 2008 8:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am sick at heart to hear that Hillary Clinton is about to "discuss" aspects of sexism in the Primary. This effort is not merely untimely but will further discourage her most ardent supporters to rally behind McCain, no matter what else she may say in public.
Yes there was sexism in the Primary as there was (and IS) racism, but why not let that aspect of the fight lay still until after the election when we all will be free to discuss it all in a manner without fear of alienating voters. Please Hillary, just leave this quiet for the moment and get behind Obama in actuality and fight for the Democrats to win come November. We can all discuss the rest come December and after, we have plenty of time ahead.
June 20, 2008 9:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
The best thing for the Democrats would be for Hillary and Bill Clinton to take a long vacation and stay out of the campaign. Sounds to me since Hillary is going to continue to speak about "the ways women were discussed during the campaign" means she is not going to let the healing continue and is going to continue to divide the party. Just make these two go away.
June 20, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm trying to remember the last time a 2nd-place finisher in the primaries directly asked their big donors to support the person who beat them.
Some of you people are pathetic.
June 20, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
i'm not surprised to see that the Hillary-haters are still here in force. since the beginning of the primaries, they have devoted themselves to destroying "everything clinton," as opposed to building up their candidate.
June 20, 2008 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
shit. alot of people upthread sound like a bunch of bigots!! sexism is alive and well in this country. if you dont recognize it then you are sad.
lame.
June 20, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
What the hell is wrong with you people? The commenters on this thread are an embarrassment to Democrats and liberals everywhere. Are you people determined to convince the world the U.S. is made up of crass cretins and bigoted Fifties throwbacks?
Jesus, I haven't seen such overt, nasty bigotry and intolerance since I last took a glance at Michael Savage's website.
You know, everything is not about the election, Obama, or getting only what YOU care about. A very real and disturbing sexist phenomenon has emerged for which there is a groundswell of support to correct. If you're not interested in being progressive, in holding the media accountable, in advancing global equality, then get the HELL out of the way of those who are.
June 20, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink