Liberty in America
columnist: rtbohan

Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Hillary Loans Her Campaign Money: Why?

---

Is it the start of her 2012 Campaign?

---

by rtbohan
(Libertarian)
Friday, May 9, 2008

After a mixed result in Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina primaries, Senator Hillary Clinton announced that she has loaned$6.4 million to her compaign. This is on top of a $5 million loan earlier in April.

The explanation given by the campaign is that internet contributions are "volatile."  This means that, unlike Ron Paul and Barack Obama, her candidacy does not capture the imatinations or speak to the interests  of the small contributors.  Even by the Iowa primary it was evident that Clinton was overloading her campaign with contributions from large contributors who were providing not only the maximum amount they can legally give to the primary campaign, but also maxing out their contribution for the fall campaign.  So the campaign is running out of money.

In April, when she made her first loan to the campaign, it was already in the red.  The infusion of cash she made was used to pay current bills, not including the bills for polling operations.  The result was that the debt kept growing.

Now  she has made a larger loan to the campaign to keep it going through the last series of primaries.  At this point it is virtually impossible for her to overcome Obama's lead for the nomination unless she picks up nearly all of the still uncommitted super delegates. She probably can't do that.  It is quite possible she does not want to.

For her to win the nomination, it would be necessary to use the superdelegates to overcome the results of the earlier caucuses and primaries.  Such a victory would drive away a large percentage of the Democratic voters, particularly black voters who would see its as depriving a black candidate of a victory he had earned.  It probably would mean a loss for Clinton in November.  So why is she risking her own money to keep a dying campaign alive for another two months.

Well, she is not, strictly speaking, risking her own money.  That is why she is making a loan to the campaign.  The official explanation is that she is limited by the campaign finance laws as to her contributions to her own campaign.  But, more importantly, if she makes a loan to her campaign, she can, after ending the campaign, ask for contributions to pay campaign debts, including the debt to herself.

Bill and Hillary's record of support for any Democratic candidate for president who is not named Clinton is clear.  They will try to do minor or major damage to that candidate to keep the field clear for the Clinton next time. The minor sabotage was done by Bill Clinton to Michael Dukakis in 1988.  Having already decided to run for President in 1992, Clinton did not want to see a Democrat elected President in 1988.  The minor damage he could do was at the Convention.  Given the opportunity to make a two minute seconding speech for Dukakis, Clinton managed to speak for more than half an hour, throwing the schedul for the convention off and throwing the Dukakis nomination out of prime time.  It was not much and it did not cause the defeat of Dukakis--Dukakis was able to accomplish it himself.  But it was an example of the Clinton attitude.

After two terms in the White House Bill Clinton could not constitutioonally run for re-election.  But to guarantee his 'legacy' his Vice President was available to run in his stead.  But it was not the Clinton's plan to leave the legacy of a Clinton administration in the hands of a Vice President for whom they had no great respect.  The plan was to put Hillary in the oval office.  That could not, obviously, be done in 2000, when Hillary's only political record consisted in developing a health care plan so bad that even the Democratic majority in Congress rejected it.  But they could get elected to the Senate from some state so that she would be availble as a candidate later.  If Gore were elected she could not be a candidate in 2004, and if Gore were elected for two terms, she would be competing was a sitting Vice President for the nomination.

Although Clinton complained after the election that Gore would have won if he had asked Clinton to campaign for him, the fact is that Clinton set out to sabotage the Gore campaign from the beginning.  When Gore was nominated and the campaign was just beginning, Clinton set out on a fund raising tour.  But this was not fund raising for Gore or for the Democratic Party, it was a fund raising tour for the Clinton legal defense fund.  And it was successful.  By raising funds from Democratic contributors, Clinton not only paid his lawyers, he lowered contributions to the Democratic campaign that year.  Again, Clinton did not cause Gore to lose the election.  Gore's personality and poor campaign plan did that.  But Clinton did his best to see that Gore was not elected.

Four Years later, the Clinton's ran another fund raising campaign among Democratic contributors, this time to pay for the Clinton library. Another campaign with difficult raising funds because the donors had already made a contribution to the Clintons.

Well, this year no one will want to see Bill Clinton applying for food stamps and, of course, Hillary will need money to keep her pickup gassed up since, without a Clinton in the White House, the gas of price will be too high.  And again there will be a problem raising funds.  The difference this year is that Obama has shown that he does not rely on the same sources of funds that the Clintons and Gore and Kerry did, and most of the Obama contributers have not given the maximum they can legally for the fall campaign.

There has a rumor that Clinton have other plans to help John McCain in the fall.  I don't know if that is true.  But it is certain that Clinton is keeping this campaign going because she is planning to be a candidate in 2012, and that depends on Obama not being elected.

Did you like this article?
If you did, Thumb It!
13 thumbs so far

2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.
Published: Friday, May 9, 2008
Last modified: Friday, May 9, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of rtbohan only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. rtbohan is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

Report violation by rtbohan of Nolan Chart LLC's terms of use policy.