Wow the Clinton unpaid debts problem actually got mentioned on the news

[izzybeans]

ABC, no less, but I'm still surprised.

There is still some in the media who continue to shoot blanks while Pastorgating, I've heard only two comments this morning. But, most of us already knew the sterility of those pumping that issue.

[ellacott]

1. Howard Wolfson was asked about this on Morning Joe

He said that they pay their bills and it isn't a problem. Mikka tried to press him but he kept blowing it off.

[izzybeans]

Sounds like a dude trying to string out debtors as long as possible.

[City Lights]

6. Sounds like Wolfson channeled Dana Perino this morning.

How unsurprising.

[dkf]

2. Morning Joe talked to Harold Wolfson.

They asked him how long the Clinton campaign was taking to pay their bills, and he stammered around it.

Pretty weak.

[democrattotheend]

4. Did he give any hints about this month's fundraising?

Just curious.

[ellacott]

5. He said he didn't have those figures

[dkf]

10. February was "great" March was "good".

[K Gardner]

19. February = $3 Million in the HOLE. Debts = $8.7 Million. Can't wait to see what March is !

[dkf]

24. Yeah I am sure March spending was heavy too.

The Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island contests as well as Wyoming and Mississippi occurred.

Also, sounds like the campaigns kept large crews in Texas, for the two step.

Should be interesting.

[democrattotheend]

36. Yeah but Obama spent a lot more for March 4

They were saying he was outspending her 2-1 or 3-1 in some places. He raises more but he needs more, because she starts off each state as the automatic frontrunner due to name recognition. He's the one voters are still getting to know.

[dkf]

17. Wolfson kept on repeating the campaign was paying bills "in a timely fashion".

quoting Mika...

[NDambi]

28. Yeah tell that to the little guy that hasn't been paid yet..ha ha..his timely and their timely is

way off I bet

[democrattotheend]

3. Glad it's getting noticed, but I'd rather they start noticing tomorrow

Because this could inspire her supporters to give before midnight tonight. I am terrified of Clinton outraising Obama this month...the last thing we need is people calling attention to her campaign's financial status right before the deadline.

[K Gardner]

23. Its not going to happen. If Feb. was "great", and she finished $3 mil in the hole - and March was

just "good", the numbers are going to be even worse. Her support and money are drying up as fast as her campaign is.

Just reported that her campaign "denies" they have unpaid bills.. ROFL !

When all else fails, use the Hillary Maneuver: LIE.

[davidpdx]

7. It's just that bias coverage

[JoDog]

8. Story from a friend

(Please note the "friend of a friend" nature of this story. I have not been able to verify this independently. So sprinkle it with the appropriate amount of salt.)

My best friend used to be in the radio business in Texas and still has contacts there. He recently talked to someone in the advertising department of a Texas station (he did not mention the call letters or frequency). This man related the following story:

During primaries, it is common for radio stations to demand payment for ads upfront. Since campaigns can go under in a heartbeat, this assures the station they will be paid for their product (airtime), and the campaign won't leave them hanging should the politican decide to close the doors. The Clinton campaign contracted with the station to run 2 different primary ads with the station. The airtimes/frequency were all worked out. The discs with the ads arrived, but the payments did not. The friend called the campaign. The people he talked to said it was an oversight. Payment soon arrived--but for only one of the ads. So, the station played the ad that had been paid for. Later, the campaign asked for paperwork to verify that both ads were run. The friend informed them that they had paid for only 1 ad, so that is all his station aired.

Whether this was an unintentional oversight, or an intentional one (the campaign hoped the station would go ahead and run both ads, one of them for free and ask for payment later) the friend would not venture a guess.

[terrell9584]

9. In a time where people are losing their homes

this could end up helping Hillary.

Seriously. If her campaign is going into debt and her rhetoric is "because she wants us all to have a vote" it well help her with all of the people who are facing economic hard times. If the media tries to hit her on it, it will backfire. This is not the year to start criticizing people for financial problems. If she can frame her issues on it as an allegory to what average Americans are facing, it will help her. If the argument is "she should drop out so the richer campaign can win", it will help her. If anyone can turn it to their advantage, she can. Hillary honestly needs to make her own speech, and it does need to involve Bill. Namely, Bill's childhood and why that drew her to him, and then an allegory relating it to the challenges Americans are facing.

[dkf]

12. Yeah, but her problem is a spending problem.

$500,000 for parking. Yikes.

Here's the #s to Feb:

Hillary Rodham Clinton started the year flush with cash, but by the beginning of this month, she'd blazed through most of it — spending $11 million on ads, $3.8 million on messaging guru Mark Penn and $1,300 at Dunkin' Donuts, to name just a few expenditures — leaving her campaign woefully unprepared for an extended battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

About $15 million — or more than half of the New York senator’s January spending — went to a cadre of high-priced consultants. Though much of the cash went through the campaign media buyer for ad time, the considerable payments to outside consultants mark an increase in a pattern that has irked campaign insiders. From the beginning of the race through the end of last month, Clinton paid the consultants $33 million — nearly one-third of the $105 million spent by the campaign.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8619.html

In addition, it doesn't look good when someone worth millions ($30 million estimated), stiffs the little guy, like the grocers and the small businesses who need to survive too.

[skater314159]

31. Spending IS a problem if you have that kind of costs...

$1,300 at Dunkin' Donuts

DAMN! I used to work at a PD, and yes, some of us LOVED donuts! But not even POLICE DEPTS. have that kind of donut expenses!

:rofl:

I think if it's pointed out that she has WASTED the money that average, hard-working Americans sent to her, they will be pissed. After all this is money those people had to work hard for, and could have used to pay their OWN PAST DUE BILLS. They gave to Hillary because they wanted to help the cause and they probably didnt think she would blow it on crap.

Fucking over the small guys (grocers, delivery guys, and small businesses) will only last for so long before people start bitching. The attitude that I have detected from her campaign of "but this is Hillary, can't you let this slide for her?" is also going to start wearing thin too.

Ordinary people have consequences when they can't pay their bills, and ordinary people sure as hell won't appreciate some one who had MILLIONS but BLEW IT trying to say that she "feels their pain". Hillary has no fucking clue what it is like to work for minimum wage and try to keep your head above the water - and this sort of spending proves it.

We don't need four or eight more years of reckless spending in Washington, we need FISCAL RESPONSIBLITY.

[izzybeans]

15. Going broke with someone else's dime, stiffing local businesses and organizations

Yeah it's a win, win for everyone.

[Obamanaut]

16. How in the world can this campaign debt help with "...the people who

are facing economic hard times...?"

There are too many stories of expensive make up artists, hair do work ups, donut shops, millions in the bank, etc. to cause anyone feeling the pinch of "...economic hard times..." feel badly for her.

[terrell9584]

29. except that they have been trying to create the perception all along

That Obama is the candidate of the wine track of the party, and there is actually good evidence to suggest this. This is why you have Clinton out in West Virginia saying "gliterrati"

If the Clinton's are going to win it, this is how they frame it, they are fighting for the average American, whatever the hell that means, against the monied interests, the wealthier interests. If Clinton's campaign, which appears to many people to still be alive, has all of it's problems rooted in "rich people not contributing", it boosts their argument and it could cause smaller donors to start sending more in.

It's all an attempt to whip up emotion. All of Obama's support is emotion based. The majority of Hillary's is based on the presumed logic of supporters, namely, the idea of electability. Hillary needs an emotional component and that's what this whole thing has been about, to get the working class who liked her husband but who may not have liked her to adopt her as one of their own. That is why she is using the style she is using. And it's not as if Clinton didn't do the same thing in 1992, his whole campaign was based on "the forgotten middle class" and standing up for the average American, and he tried to paint all of his opponents as being from the wealthier wing of the party.

[Obamanaut]

38. What? Create the perception of 'stiff the working stiff?' I spent the

better part of this afternoon with two 'working stiffs' as we worked to repair the deep well at my house. When they finished, I wrote them a check for the amount owed. It isn't that hard, and I don't have the financial assets that HRC does. The well guys and I talked about this very thing. If we owe people money for stuff we have gotten from them or for work they have performed then we pay the bill. It's a concept that until I read about HRC and her campaign failing to pay their debts I thought responsible adults grasped.

I was obviously wrong.

And rich people do contribute. I simply cannot buy into the constant battle of the 'haves' vs the 'don't have as much and I want some of theirs'

[gal]

37. No it won't.

She is running on the premise of working for the little guy, well she isn't paying the little guy. The little guy is having to go to the press to get paid. She is helping these "little guys" go under or making them struggle when they are already having trouble in this economy. She has the funds to pay them even if she does it personally. This is NOT being done in a timely manner. If she is having financial problems in her campaign she has 2 choices, pony up some of your own money or quit. You don't use that as an excuse after you already use someone's services.

She can't manager her own campaign she sure as hell can't manage this country!

[Tellurian]

11. Well,I can safely say, the msm was admirable in their discussion of Sen Clinton's campaign bills..

than was discussed here yesterday by some of the most virulent truculent posters, I have even seen.

Alls I can say is...Karma's a bitch when it comes back and lands on your doorstep and you hang your head in shame at the finger pointing by your neighbors, who apparently think just like yourselves..

[NDambi]

13. Bottom line, she's stiffing the little guy..the very same people she proclaims to be

running to help.

You can't spin this one..your girl and her campaign are deadbeats and they are stiffing vendors... bad business and bad management..but what else is new...they blew millions of dollars before Super Tuesday..

And speaking of Karma..stiffing people especially the little guy that accepted your word that'd you pay him...could come back and land on her doorstep!!

Sorry, no excuse for not paying her bills to the very same people she proclaim she cares so much for..and she wants to help beyond anything else.

[Tellurian]

21. You're so full of it...Her campaign never said they weren't going to pay the vendors..

and for you to promote that rumor is a bald face lie. But thats what you do best, isn't it?

[dkf]

25. When campaigns close up shop vendors don't get paid.

[NDambi]

26. Nice attempt to spin out of the real deal..with more BS

I said she's stiffing (meaning current situation). I never said she WASN'T ever going to pay them..but the bottom line once again...is--SHE'S STIFFING them..RIGHT NOW, is she not?

Obviously those vendors agree with me, if they didn't there'd be nothing to report, no news story and no complaints or warnings to get paid upfront.

Tell ya girl to pay her bills, I mean she knows the little guy needs his cheddar, doesn't she? I mean after all she's the champion of the little guy, the working blue collar stiff, right?!

[Obamanaut]

39. My post 38 tells about two working stiffs who were in my yard for

several hours today working with me to repair my well. They finished, I paid them. It's not that hard, and I certainly don't have the millions given to me that people are giving to HRC.

And by the way, HRC was on Letterman several weeks ago, and in her own words said that the total campaign cost for all aspirants would be at least one half billion dollars. Letterman said that those dollars would go a long way toward feeding the millions of Americans who go to bed hungry every night, a topic they had just moments before discussed. The Senator from NY didn't bat an eye, just kept on talking.

I bet the stiffed vendors would like some of that half billion.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

14. Deadbeat dads got nothing on Hillary.

[dkf]

18. On MSNBC's ticker "Unpaid vendors warning others of Clinton's Deadbeat Reputation"

and "Clinton Campaign reported $8.7 million in debts last month"

[Bucky]

20. What? Mainstream media sniping at Clinton? I'm shocked! Shocked!!

The only think suprising here is that they'd cover such tiny, insider type story. Most campaigns have finance problems. Clinton doesn't have a track record of fiscal irresponsibility. I don't see a big story here.

[Tellurian]

22. No, the sniping is all here..

what a surprise!

[NDambi]

27. Just admit they are currently stiffing people.

[ellacott]

30. It's a big story for those vendors not being paid

It is true that campaigns frequently are in debt but I'm not sure it was to this magnitude.

[Willo]

32. On MSNBC now

[surfermaw]

33. Please don,t worry , I thi nk Bill can handle all the bills, how much does he get for one speech.

Worry about Obama you will have your hands full

[mikekohr]

34. I Posted This Story Over 2 Months Ago and Got Blasted For Doing It

These stories were beginning to circulate in local news media in Iowa over 2 months ago. Few people were paying attention or willing to admit the seriousness of the problem or willing to make a connection of the unpaid bills to the management of the Clinton Campaign. The canary died in the mine back in Iowa. It took America 2 months to look at the bottom of the cage.

read link to original posts:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mikekohr

http://66.39.111.188/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=1&TID=12753&P=1&SID=7#ID3

mike kohr

[dkf]

35. John Glenn still has campaign debt from his Presidential Run?

When was that? I don't remember him running in my adult life.