| Believe me, getting a candidate to drop the URL is difficult thing to do. They hate it, they feel stupid doing it, and they think it's demeans the campaign. This has been my near universal experience with any candidate I've worked for.
So after hearing it again, I started doing the math ... 32 > 12 in January. Massive spending in Iowa, NH, and a yesterday's national primary. How much money can she possibly have left over? My guess is not much.
I was set to wake up and write this piece this morning, and you can imagine my shock when I stumbled upon this note in "The Politico" today.
[Mark Halperin] asked this morning whether the Clintons are funding their own campaign.
Clinton aide Howard Wolfson on the morning's conference call said he doesn't know, but he'd ask.
I find it hard to believe he doesn't know ... terribly terribly terribly hard to believe. That should have been a straight up, "NO"
It's pretty clear at this point Clinton's team doesn't have the kind of internet operation that can fund her effort down-the-stretch. For whatever reason, they haven't cultivated the kind of list that gives -- despite the fact I've heard many a rumor her list is as big, or even bigger! than Obama's.
My personal feeling is that's got a lot to do with the message coming from her shop online, which is probably no fault of Peter or Jesse. There's only so many times that you can raffle off access to the former President, or a debate. You might get a lot of sign-ups from a Soprano's video, or Bill Clinton eating a cheeseburger, but those aren't necessarily donors -- like when people signed up at Dodd's website during the FISA fight because of his LEADERSHIP.
Her big donors are maxed out.
How much further can self-funding be, if we're not already there?
Unfortunately, absent an admission, we won't find out for sure until the last day of February, when the next reporting numbers are due. |
