Obama Making Private Calls Appealing To Hillary's Top Fundraisers-And Sometimes Hearing Criticism...

[Hope And Change]

Obama Making Private Calls Appealing To Hillary's Top Fundraisers -- And Sometimes Hearing Criticism In Return


By Greg Sargent - June 25, 2008, 10:05AM

Barack Obama has begun privately calling Hillary's top fundraisers and making personal appeals for their support, and in some cases is getting some criticism in return, suggesting that the delicate task of uniting the fractured Democratic fundraising establishment is still incomplete.

Obama's calls to the donors, which were described to me by multiple sources directly familiar with them, come at a very sensitive moment, with negotiations between the two campaigns continuing. Tomorrow Hillary and Obama are set to meet with all these money people together -- a high-stakes event that both camps are hoping will go well.

"Obama has been calling Hillary's top money people and asking for their support, but the fundraisers are in some cases being critical of Obama's operation," said a senior Hillary person who works directly with her top donors on a regular basis.

According to sources, the Hillary fundraisers' criticism of Obama on these calls has focused partly -- but not exclusively -- on a demand that Obama do more to retire Hillary's campaign debt. This perhaps explains why Obama went out of his way yesterday on a call with his own donors to ask them to help her out.

But these criticisms from the donors suggests that bitterness may remain until Obama's efforts show actual results on her behalf.

Venture capitalist Alan Patricof, one of Hillary's top fundraisers and one of the more sought after money-people in the Democratic Party, declined to comment on personal discussions with Obama. "All of Hillary's supporters want to be helpful to Senator Obama and assure his election," Patricof told me. But he stressed that Hillary's debt problem remained unsolved.

"We are also appropriately concerned with the need for his direct support to help retire part of her debt," he said. "He is mindful of this matter and I am very hopeful that he will be helpful."

more...

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_making_private_calls_app.php#more

[babylonsister]

1. Whaaaa! Damned if he does... nt

[madfloridian]

2. Patricof will take his toys and go home if he is not pampered. Threatened Dean as well, and Pelosi.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1946

[ErinBerin84]

3. "but they also want to have their say before they play nice.""

Couldn't Greg Sargent's "multiple sources" be a little more specific about what these people "want a say in"? Like, do they want Obama to adopt a different health care plan, or do they want "something else" in the more of "their say".......

[mikiturner]

4. All about money for them

What a shame. This is a political shakedown.

[stray cat]

5. Nobody is retiring my debt - I have to be fiscally responsible

in my personal life and business practices.

[oviedodem]

6. That is f'ed up. Clearly it is a money issue and has nothing to do with the party or

what is good for the country. Secondly, their appeal to retire her debt has the earmarks of something else going on. It is obvious to me that Hillary and/or Bill have not done enough on the to tell these people to support Obama.

What the hell for him to get support he has to pay her damn bills stemming from her poorly run campaign.

[Milo_Bloom]

7. Why is it anyone else's job to pay off her debt?

I really don't get it. She spent money she didn't have and it becomes someone else's job to bail her out???

The sense of entitlement really makes me ill.

[rateyes]

8. Translation: "We're not going to get the big payoffs we were

expecting for our large contributions to Hillary because Barack beat her in the primaries, and we want our money back."

[flpoljunkie]

9. Clinton needs to strike a deal with the vastly overpaid Mark Penn, whom she owes over $4.6 million!

http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2008/M6/C00431569/D_DEBTS_C00431569.html

[Beacool]

12. That's one SOB who I hope she stiffs!!

She should pay herself before she pays him. Like Bill called it, he performed malpractice on her campaign.

:mad:

[Beacool]

10. This is a common practice.

The winner helps to retire the other candidate's debt. Obama helped Richardson, for example.

Obama needs Hillary's top supporters and she needs his. It's as simple as that, they are trading supporters.

In politics one hands always washes the other.

:shrug:

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. Not if the winner has been badly bruised by the dirty campaign tactics of the loser...

She frivolously overspent. The Hillary supporters continue to shame themselves with the notion that somehow Hillary is entitled. She is not. She spent lavishly on pizza and other shit. He's not responsible for the debt that she accrued, much of which was spent on deceptive ads attacking him when even with the full knowledge that she had no chance of winning.

Her donors are not coming at him in the spirit of reconciliation and healing. They are threatening him, through what I see as extortion: either help her pay her debts or we won't support you. It's disgusting and I am saddened that her defenders can't see or fail to admit that. :(

[Beacool]

24. A lot of you are very naive about how things are really run in politics.

Hillary did nothing that has not been done before in previous primaries. Actually, this primary was not as contentious as some others.

Politics is the art of compromise. Obama & Hillary have something they both need from each other. He needs her support and her donors, she needs his donors to retire her campaign debt. They both have a bargaining chip and now it's a question of sitting down and ironing the details.

Nothing new is going on that hasn't gone on in every election.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

28. Are you kidding me? While it is often customary that the winner helps with the loser's debt,

THERE IS NO OBLIGATION OR STIPULATION THAT THE WINNER SHOULD BE FORCED OR BLACKMAILED INTO DOING SO!!!

What about that don't you understand? Especially if Hillary's donors seem to be coming at him with threats, why should he still be civil with them?

If they really wanted to encourage him to help Hillary with her debts, it would be in their best interest and that of Hillary to be more cordial and conciliatory towards Obama. And I think Obama supporters like myself are more than willing to donate money for Hillary's debt if she behaves in a manner that is more conciliatory.

Look, I want the healing to begin, too, but I cannot accept the strong-arming and petulence coming from the Hillary camp. I'm not blaming her. I'm pointing at her surrogates and supporters who continue to exhibit a sense of entitlement as if they are owed this. And yet Obama continues to be a gentleman throughout this entire ordeal. He has much more patience than I.

[Beacool]

30. No one is blackmailing Obama.

Her donors just wanted reassurance that he would ask his top donors to help in retiring her debt. Why would they want to extend themselves if he were not willing to help her out? That's why his campaign came out with the statement the other night which said that Obama had asked his top donors to help her.

It's a business deal, and as such, both parties have to bring something to the table.

[monmouth]

11. Obama should get off the phone immediately. Her debt is HER responsibility..

He's too much of a gentleman but personally I'd have to tell them to shove it, get with the program or f*&k off..

[Beacool]

13. It has nothing to do with being a gentleman.

He needs her top donors and the projected $75M that they would add to his campaign's coffers. She in exchange needs help paying her debt.

That's how it has always worked out. The nominee helps the other candidates to pay off their debt.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

20. He DOES NOT need her! She can keep her money. He already has us and his own top donors.

I'm so sick of Hillary, her Enablers and their sense of entitlement. He doesn't owe her JACK SHIT!!! x(

[Beacool]

23. Ahhhhhh, the patience one must have........

He needs her, her top donors and her supporters. Arrogance costs elections.

Many of his donors are maxed out and so are hers, that's why they need each other. They are swapping donors.

Anyone who's throwing a hizzy fit over this has no clue how these things are done and how common they are. In politics one hand always washes the other and no one does anything for nothing.

[JoFerret]

43. It's just a shrewd thing to do

He needs her.

[rodeodance]

16. Obama needs Hillary's top donors. Such is politics and Obama will play the game.

[rwork]

14. She was suggesting

he was an elistist when she was spending the big bucks.
Also as far as she knew, Obama was'nt a Muslim.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

15. How utterly annoying

"Patricof told me. But he stressed that Hillary's debt problem remained unsolved."

Her debt problem is her problem! No one forced her to spend more than she had. When I spend more than I have no one comes to bail me out. They should be sucking up to Obama since he's going to be the next president. Obama has 1.5 million people so far, and surely more to come, that will happily fund him wihtout holding him hostage to special interest causes.

[nc4bo]

17. Dear Gawd, does he REALLY need them THAT much??! sigh.

When my sis and I behaved like brats, we got a good strappin' and a reality check.

I wish I could fast forward through all of this so I can see the final outcome.

[Marrah_G]

36. Yeah we really DO need them that much,

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

18. This amounts to blackmail and extortion. Either pay off the debts that HILLARY created...

or else...

I can't tell you how disgusted I am over this!!!! :puke::puke:

[LaurenG]

21. I don't care about the money I would help to pay

Clintons debt. Obama is doing well financially and that was one history making primary.

[iconicgnom]

22. There's just no end to the bullshit, is there?

This reminds me of the happy claims that the Iraq war won't cost the US much and won't do Iraq much harm because, after all, Iraq has plenty of oil $$ to pay for its own reconstruction -- the subtext being that, furthermore, once BP, Exxon Mobil, Total and Shell get their mitts on it once again, the trickle down profits and benefits will more than pay for the bombs. Oh yah, plus lookit all that cheap gas!

I mean, the logic is that kind of neverending minderbinder WTF?

[Labors of Hercules]

25. They criticise and criticise... that he doesn't pay her debt????

Like that's HIS FAULT??? WHAT THE FUCK????

[Fleshdancer]

26. Isn't he helping her with her debt with the online fundraiser?

Perhaps I don't understand this very clearly. Is he somehow legally able to just hand her $10M? If not, then how do these top fundraisers expect Obama to do this exactly? If they want him to set up drives on her behalf or to encourage his fundraisers to help out, then he's already doing this:

http://www.wbko.com/news/headlines/21436304.html

Barack Obama has asked his finance team to help Hillary Clinton pay off at least $10-million of the debt from her failed Presidential campaign.

During a phone call with his top fundraisers, Obama asked them to do what they could to help Clinton.

That's according to a Democrat familiar with the call and a spokesman for Obama's campaign.

This comes two days before Obama and Clinton will meet in Washington with some of Clinton's top fundraisers in an attempt to show unity after their bruising contest for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

.......

So either we have a media attempting to create faux drama or a few loud Clinton supporters using her debt as a way to insult Obama. Either way, aren't we a bit foolish for taking this crap seriously?

[Adelante]

35. What we have is never enough ass-kissing

[K Gardner]

27. Good lord.. continues to sound like blackmail.

[AllentownJake]

29. I want the debt paid off

In my town a High School is owed 15,000 for a Hillary Event. Either peopel with big bucks pay for that or I will be paying for it through my taxes. I imagine this is the same accross the country.

[genna]

31. The level of nastiness the primary revealed about money in politics reaffirms my belief

that the only way to have accountable democracy is to set limits on what kinds of contributions candidates can accept and what activities lobbyist and moneymen can engage.

I still won't forget that letter to Congress from big money Democrats in favor of HRC.

My question is do they have enough money to fund all the Congressional races and make up the difference in DNC money raising?


If they don't and the money they are soliciting from small donors in a bad economy will make the Congressional and DNC money raising efforts less successful (I don't actually know that it is a zero sum game, I just suspect it is), then I believe my opinion before this forum switched over from the primary stands: she made her bed hard and he should only help to the extent that it does not hurt the his own GE money raising efforts, the DNC trying to gain parity with the RNC, and the Congressional races going forward to gain the momentum in states where incumbents face no honest Democratic challenger.

I also will add a proviso, I want the progressive Democrats to start gaining enough money on those Democratic seats where the incumbent votes with Republicans all the time. It is not enough to have a D beside your name. If the Democrat doesn't act like a Democrat most of the time (I don't mean having fresh ideas that most of the party doesn't support---I want people like Feingold with campaign finance reform, Wellstone being the honest broker he was in life, or Kuccinch deciding he needed to bring up Articles of Impeachment when it is not politically feasible).

HRC supporters decided it was important for her to stay in the race after the math went against her because ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN. They need to understand that this village needs to take advantage of the changing political winds and get as many candidates as we can running so that the next Democratic president has as many Democrats in Congress as he can get. This means Mark Penn will not get his money in the short term.

Over a longer period of time, her debts will be repaid. It just will not coincide with the end of this GE season.

[Arugula Latte]

32. She shouldn't have spent so much to get so deeply in the hole when

the math told us long before May that she could not win the nomination.

[AmyCamus]

33. because $ = votes?

"the math told us long before May that she could not win the nomination."
Disappointing but true.

[bunnies]

34. in other words: Hillarys debt > Winning in November.

I love it. Rich people asking middle class people to give other rich people money. How very Democratic. :eyes:

[JVS]

37. It's sad to hear what sore losers some of the fundraisers are

[pgh_dem]

38. Suggestion for discussion re: Obama and Clinton vendor debt

Since we're going through these same states for the GE that Sens Obama and Clinton contended in during the primary, why not have Sen Obama hire the people Sen Clinton owed money to, pay them double, and pay them up front? Then Sen. Clinton's big donors could contribute to that effort, the vendors forgive the debt the Clinton campaign owed, and money is spent more going forward than paying backwards.

Seems to me this way the donors could get what they want (Sen Clinton out of debt), the vendors get what they want (paid for services done for a Democratic candidate), and the Obama campaign gets what they want (Sen Clinton's donors on board without the appearance of caving in to threats of withholding support).

I think the bigger danger of letting debts like this go unpaid is the resentment it could inspire on the part of the vendors, who might refuse to provide services on credit to down-ticket Democratic candidates, who might otherwise be unable to afford a $10,000 up-front cost to rent a high school for a campaign event, etc.

I suppose this might not work since paying more than the value of a service could be a violation of campaign financing laws, I dunno.

Personally, it seems to me that Sen. Clinton's hesitant donors are uninterested in supporting Sen Obama. Given President Clinton's half-hearted emailed spokeman-delivered endorsement, and the 'scratch our backs first' tone of Patricof's statement, I'd say it's a lost cause, and that time would be better spent contacting people who want a Democratic President in 2008.

Then again, I'm just a volunteer, so it always seems to me that stuff just happens for free, office space is just available, yard signs come from magic yard-sign-printing trucks, etc. :-)

[Kaylee]

40. That's a pretty nifty idea....I like it.

[Kaylee]

39. You know what......*sigh* ....nevermind.

There is something wrong with this picture.

[CakeGrrl]

41. I agree. My question is

*Why* do some of these donors seem bent on making Obama jump through hoops to clear HRC's debt? Are they taking her loss that personally and have the money to try to make Obama feel the pain?

I've never heard of anyone's supporters pushing a winning candidate so hard on this, and flat-out threatening to withhold support.

It doesn't seem right, and moreso that they're trying to make him obligated to cleaning up after a failed campaign with grossly incompetent staff (Penn, Wolfson, Ickes) that has nothing to do with him personally.

Too bad we don't have a real account of what's happening behind the scenes, because the speculation doesn't sound too favorable. Is Hillary A-OK with this? Is she helping to bring these donors on board?

[Raine]

42. This BLACKMAIL is repulsive.

:puke: