AMERICAblog: Should Democratic nominee Obama pay off Hillary's debts?
Andyz
· 1 year ago
No! Absolutely not! Why should we pay for her fuckups? She spent it to destroy us, I'll be damned if I'm going to let my Obama contributions go to lining her corrupt pockets. Fuck her.
Hack
· 1 year ago
Should Obama pay off Hillary's debts?
In a word, NO.
Should Obama accept her as VP?
In a word, NO
Should Obama appoint her to clean up after his children?
In a word, NO FUCKING WAY WOULD I EVER LET THAT WOMAN ANYWHERE NEAR MY CHILDREN
Rob Mule
· 1 year ago
Small Obama donor money used to pay off the post-term millionaire Clinton campaign debt??? Doesn't that sound rather distasteful? No pay-off and no veep slot...HRC would be like LBJ and Cheney wrapped into one.
Hack
· 1 year ago
Everything I Hate About Myself I See in Hillary, by Judy Bachrach
EDITOR’S NOTE: Judy Bachrach writes for Vanity Fair, and is the creator of thecheckoutline.org, an online advice column for friends and relatives of the terminally ill.
When I was 25 (okay, 32), I got dumped by my first untrue love. He’d fallen, six years into our relationship, for his next-door neighbor, a really pretty actress with the IQ of an asparagus and the ability to fill many a conversational lull with tributes to liposuction. But I digress.
The point is what happened after I got dumped. There was no stopping me. I wrote the guy letters. Long ones. I wrote articles, nominally on other topics, but really about him and the way he dumped me. These, unfortunately, got published. I phoned him in the pathetic hope of raising my stock by trashing his new girlfriend, along with the caliber of the movies in which she very, very briefly appeared. This was, as you will likely surmise, amazingly easy to do and also totally ineffective. I didn’t – couldn’t — let go of a guy who exchanged me for a moron, and I can’t believe these many years later that I’m telling you all this because the memory of my mortifying, excruciating almost erotic attachment to stone-cold failure haunts me to this day.
Paying off the debt that Hillary ran up in irresponsible fashion would be a lot like bailing out fucking Bear Stearns. It would reinforce the notion that when the little guy is in trouble he should fend for himself, but when the fat cats screw up to the tune of million$, they deserve a bailout.
If Obama cuts any sort of deal to help her out financially, he will never see another nickel from me.
2patricius2
· 1 year ago
Well I've given some money to Obama's campaign. I want to see him win. But I am not rich, so I have been able to give only so much. The Clintons are rich. They should pay for their own debts. I am tired of rich people who live in mansions, travel the world, get tax breaks and suck up money from those of us who are trying to make ends meet. Romney paid his own debts. Let Clinton pay hers.
prochoicelib
· 1 year ago
No. It was her choice to drag it out so long. But asking others to pay their way is a Clinton characteristic. Who can forget they were asking for donations to thier legal defense fund after Bill's term. I think he could have afforded to pay for his lawyer.
JD234
· 1 year ago
No.
gonzalez
· 1 year ago
No way. Senator Obama should not pay for these spoiled people ambition. They screwed up and got to pay for what ever shit they did. If they are not good enough to budget for a compaign how are they going to budget for the country!
jimfromthefoothills
· 1 year ago
I am still pissed I bought his god damn book "Giving". What a fucking asshole. The Clintons trade on their government service then ask people making $50k a year to give money to charity. The Clintons? They give to their private foundation.
I say fuckem and I will be pissed at my brother Barack if he backs down. She lost... go home bitch.
johnosahon
· 1 year ago
COMPUTER SAYS HELL TO THE NAW NAW NAW NAW NAW.
the tool should pay her DAMN bills her DAMN self, wtf is going on? how the hell did this crap even start? why the f**k should he pay the bills of a traitor who prefers mccain to him?
if he was paying the bills of say kennedy or new mexico governor i will understand the bi**h can pay her bills with her 100 million dollars.
the most annoying part of this mess is that hillary CAN NEVER DO ANYTHING HER DAMN SELF. she needs bill clinton for name, she needs to trash obama to make her self look good, now she has the audacity to ask for money? and don't tell me it is not her campaign doing that shit, this story did not just fall from this sky. the way she has run her campaign is a SHAME, if she was president, after she ruins the country she will borrow money from china to pay her bills.
THE IS THE MOST ANNOYING STORY TO EVER COME OUT, I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PISSED.
LeslieB
· 1 year ago
No.
KISSman
· 1 year ago
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!
I would be seriously angry if Obama paid any debt off for her where the hard earned money of Obama's donors went to either Mark Penn or Hillary & Bill.
Just because Hillary has the deep pockets to dip into doesn't mean that she deserves that money back. Obama wouldn't have had $11+ million to loan his campaign and any rich person (a la Mitt Romney) does not deserve to have the winner's supporters pay them back.
johnosahon
· 1 year ago
the bit*h can go and ask that snake carville to pay the bills, the money he was going to use to run that fake michigan and florida election should be used to pay her damn bills.
what a disgusting creature.
johnosahon
· 1 year ago
we better make a petition and send to the obama campaign, THIS CAN NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR HAPPEN.
ShirleyGoodnessanMercy
· 1 year ago
Hell no.
vwcat
· 1 year ago
One part of me says for him not to pay off her debts. She is in a far better position with her connections and money to pay her own debts off. But, the other part says, let him. Then, he can get her out of the race, dictate his own terms and send her off to the senate to leave him alone. I have been donating for over a year to Obama so, it is my money as well. But, I do want the Clintons to go away and get off the stage and for their little minions to get off cable with their poison darts. This way, Obama is finally rid of the Clintons and we, as supporters, can take pleasure that she is finally gone.
aquarius2
· 1 year ago
Hillary loaned herself money on two separate occasions. The first 5 million I can understand, she thought she had a shot, but the rest of her debt occurred at a point in which she should have dropped out. The math didn't work at the time of the second self loan. Then their is the debt she is racking up right now for WVA and on going debts.
She has continued to fight, regardless of numbers, regardless of lack of money. To me that is just nuts and I really don't think that Obama should pick up her debts.
donotmakemecomedownthere
· 1 year ago
(Please pardon my ignorance, but) There's a part I still don't get: Who is actually asking for Obama to pay Hillary's bills? Why don't we have a specific target to mock for this ridiculous suggestion? Is this just another media fabrication issue?
FunMe
· 1 year ago
No, no, and no! Shillary should pay her own debts since she caused some damage to our party with her SELFISH ways.
FunMe - great link. My favorite is Sack's "Object in mirror is not as close at she thinks." That one sums it up for me.
EvilPoet
· 1 year ago
NO. NO. NO. 1000x's NO. Why should anyone help them after everything that has gone on? It's like rewarding them for bad behavior. Hasn't there been enough of that crap? No more free passes - enough is enough.
Ray_Ray
· 1 year ago
Not that she deserves it, but if that's what it takes to get her to go away, wouldn't it be worth it? It's kind of like the joke, "If somebody owes you $20, and you never see them again, it was probably worth it."
Rab
· 1 year ago
No one should pay except Hillary and her campaign.
gwpriester
· 1 year ago
no
RepubAnon
· 1 year ago
Cost/Benefit analysis: what's less expensive - paying her off if she quits now, or repairing the damage if she continues.
Make no mistake - the offer can't be "hey, whenever you quit, we'll pay your bills." It must be: "stop now while you're behind, or else its between you and the bill collectors."
DanF
· 1 year ago
Yeah - He should pay off the debts but only after the general election is done. In exchange for paying off the debts, Hillary has to work her ass for him. She needs to rally her supporters behind Obama. Ge her and her supporters to buy-in to the Obama vision and campaign. If hse is serious about defeating McCain, she'll do it. $10 million is cheap for this kind of support. Also, her big dollar contributers could give to Obama and their money can be used to retire her debt.
LeslieB
· 1 year ago
DanF 8 minutes ago Yeah - He should pay off the debts but only after the general election is done. In exchange for paying off the debts, Hillary has to work her ass for him. She needs to rally her supporters behind Obama. Ge her and her supporters to buy-in to the Obama vision and campaign. If hse is serious about defeating McCain, she'll do it. $10 million is cheap for this kind of support. Also, her big dollar contributers could give to Obama and their money can be used to retire her debt.
Why should he agree to do that at this point. He hasn't discussed it with Clinton and she isn't offering anything in return. She's certainly not offering to help unite the Democratic party, despite her promises to do so. In fact, she's continuing her smears against him.
DanF
· 1 year ago
Seeing has how I'm not on the Obama campaign, I thought I was talking in the hypothetical. :-) If I were Obama or in the campaign, that'd be offer if asked. Personally I think this is a story Tim Russert pulled out of his ass.
LeslieB
· 1 year ago
DanF 0 minutes ago Seeing has how I'm not on the Obama campaign, I thought I was talking in the hypothetical. :-) If I were Obama or in the campaign, that'd be offer if asked. Personally I think this is a story Tim Russert pulled out of his ass.
LOL. If you're replying to my comment to you, I know that. But you're the only one so far, at least that I've read, that has presented a cogent counter argument. And I find it interesting. Regarding Timmy, that wouldn't be unusual for him. :-)
DanF
· 1 year ago
Yeah - I was replying to you Leslie. I don't think Hillary would ask Obama to pay her debt. I could be wrong, but it strikes me as a move that would be made by someone who is politically tone deaf. I know HRC has been less than stellar in her rhetoric lately, but the Clinton's aren't THAT dumb. Right? $10 million is just an overseas speaking tour for Bill.
I would love for Obama to find a way to get Hillary to work for him in earnest. She did get a lot of people to vote for her. I'd like the majority of those people to get behind Obama enthusiastically and not begrudgingly. :-)
donotmakemecomedownthere
· 1 year ago
Who(m) is asking for this to occur? Names, please.
davespicer
· 1 year ago
No. Couldn't you just see Limbaugh et al turn that into "buying off his opponents" and hammering away for months?
houstonray
· 1 year ago
Should he pay off her debts? A few months ago if she had bowed out gracefully? Perhaps. If the campaign had been uplifting and focused on issues affecting the country? Perhaps. If she and Obama had expressed a fondness and genuine mutual admiration of each other? Perhaps? But it didn't end months ago when it should have. It didn't focus just on issues important to each of us but instead lapsed into race baiting. And the kitchen sink strategy does not a mutual admiration society make.
So not only no, but HELL no. She's extremely wealthy by anyone's definition and she can easily afford to take the loss. I don't see John McCain paying back Mitt Romney?
No, Miss Hillary has no one to blame but herself (and more than a few inept campaign staffers)....
Back to New York, Senator...
themanofthecrowd
· 1 year ago
Isn't the ultimate goal to maximize the frontrunner's position, and thereby the Democratic ticket, heading into the general election? Why in the world would anyone in the Democratic party want to take millions of dollars away from the Presidential candidate heading into the general election? It's baffling, to say the least.
sf_phoenix
· 1 year ago
Yes and no. While I'm not in favor of letting her keep running up a tab and not interested in footing the bill for a bad, overpaid consultant there is value to having her gone.
If Obama wants to help pay, it should be on a sliding scale. Quit now and get 10 mill. Quit next week get 6 mill. Quit in two weeks get 2 mill. Something like that. Her quitting NOW is worth more now than it is later.
and if Obama is handing out money, then he can stipulate a cap be placed on the amount paid to each creditor - at least until all of them get at least some amount. Or...for every dollar Penn gets, another gets paid out to another vendor. I like the first idea first. No way should all of the money go to penn's pockets.
blackwolf
· 1 year ago
Funny! I though Obama would have been a lot smarter than this:( I'm baffled. Mr. Aravosis, you need to make some calls for all of us folks that have contributed to Obama's campaign. My prediction: The obama fund wil become less and less.
purplegirl
· 1 year ago
No! She can well afford to pay her bills. Many of us who donated to Obama had to make sacrifices to do so. If I would've wanted Clinton to have my money I would've given it to her. That's just crazy.
mf_roe
· 1 year ago
Cut her a deal where she can campagin for Obama and have fund raisers to retire her debt at the same time, so sweet because it rubs her nose in the mess she has made. I think Obama might be better off Clinton campaigned for McCain the longer she makes an ass of herself the weaker her base will become. The arrogant pretender is doing more damage to herself than anyone else, leave her alone.
TomJoad
· 1 year ago
Opens Obama up to charged of "buying his way to the white house"....as stupid as that sounds, look at the reverend Wright flap. Ridiculous, but there you go. He already has to fight the "elitist" stuff, why go looking to prove it? The FUN an opponent could have if he WON and yet PAYED OFF his opponent to take a dive. It would make him look like a weakling, like he was a patsy.
And honestly, it would be correct to kick his ass for a dumbass move like that. I mean, it would be fair for the opponents to point out that that kind of mindset bodes ill for anyone wanting to be president. It is a terrible idea. Who keeps coming up with it by the way, I ONLY see bloggers talk about it as if it were a trial flag to see who salutes.
The other thing, the monies that people are sending in to Obama are for HIM to use, but not for him to give away. He does that he may find his monies drying up...people don't like being misled.
TomJoad
· 1 year ago
Someone ought to point Obamas folk to this thread. I bet it is a pretty good indicator of sentiment in the US among his supporters.
Sends COMPLETELY the wrong message.
donotmakemecomedownthere
· 1 year ago
AFAIK, this idea didn't come from Hillary or her campaign. Nor did it come from Obama, or the DNC. DanF (25 mins. ago) suggests that it was Russert.
I think it's important to know which idiot suggested this idea first and then ask that person why they suggested it. LUNACY!
LeslieB
· 1 year ago
donotmakemecomedownthere 1 hour ago AFAIK, this idea didn't come from Hillary or her campaign. Nor did it come from Obama, or the DNC. DanF (25 mins. ago) suggests that it was Russert.
I think it's important to know which idiot suggested this idea first and then ask that person why they suggested it. LUNACY!
This may have come about through quiet chats between the Obama and Clinton campaigns. I don't know how Russert got into it? Because the article above, in Politico, doesn't mention Russert.
Here's what Thomas Edsall at Huffington had to say about it: "On Friday, Barack Obama publicly raised the possibility of helping Hillary Clinton pay off more than $25 million in debts, including the $11.42 million she loaned her own campaign to keep it afloat in recent months."
The story was originally reported in the NYT, but I don't have the link. The Huffington link to the NYT article doesn't work for me.
Eclectablog
· 1 year ago
Well, he can't actually pay her bills, right? That violates campaign finance rules? He can only help her raise funds. I'm okay with that as long as it gets her out of this thing sooner rather than later.
Still so, the idea of raising money to pay off Mark Penn and Lanny pisses me off. Royally.
RickTaylor
· 1 year ago
I really have no idea. Obama should use his resources to most effectively win the Presidency. Maybe paying off her debts, getting her to drop out earlier, and generating good will among her supporters (or at least shaming them into not calling him names for a while) would be the most effective use of those funds; I'm not a politician and don't really know.
MorgaineSwann
· 1 year ago
At first look I thought this made sense, but after thinking about it for a while, I think it would be a mistake. Too many people like me, who have little money but a great desire for change, have sacrificed to give money to Barack. The idea of any of my money supporting Hillary's behavior is beyond the pale. I can't believe that she, of all people, called him an elitist. I can't stand the race baiting. She simply went too far for this to be an option.
Someone on TV tonight (on Dan Abrahm's show, I think) made a comment about whether you'd want the Clintons a heartbeat away from the presidency. My answer is a resounding "no" - I'd be afraid for Barack's life!
She needs to go home and pay her own bills. Maybe John McCain's wife will giver her a loan, like she does John.
Sage24
· 1 year ago
After throwing the toilet sink at him, and leaving him bleeding him, why should Obama even think of paying off her debt? If Hillary is stupid enough to put her money on a losing horse (or mare), she should face the consequences. Besides, why should anyone feel sorry for her, Big Bill will give a few speeches in Dubai, and make those millions in a couple of hours.
LeslieB
· 1 year ago
There's no way I'd donate money to pay off Mark Penn.
shanobama
· 1 year ago
I read another thread about this and Obama cant repay her loans with mooney he has accrued for his campaign.
They would have to be separate fund raisers specifically for that purpose (paying off the Hillary debt). So rest assured, this would be against FEC Law for him to use any money raised so far.
I recieved a letter from Richardson for funds to pay off his debt. this is how it would go. Or there could be special events to raise funds to pay off the Clinton debt. Face it, with Obama showing up for a Clinton event, people would show up in droves, not even caring the money would go to Hillary.
We have to get her people on board, and Obama being gracious to do a few fund raisers, with say Stevie Wonder, would force Hillary to support the Democratic ticket in November.
She has the bitter white voters after all. We dont want them voting for McCain. We also have to overcome about 3% vote spoilage and Diebold machines to win.
Jim Olson
· 1 year ago
In a word, hell no. I gave my money to Obama, not to Hillary.
donotmakemecomedownthere
· 1 year ago
Thanks Leslie B. Curiouser and curiouser....
debrazza
· 1 year ago
This campaign was over after Wisconsin and we all knew it then. The math was the math. But then they thought they could change the rules. It was the popular vote that mattered. It was the superdelegates that mattered. It was FL and MI that mattered. It was everything but the will of the voters at that point.
When Mitt Romney found himself in a similar position after Super Tuesday where he realized that he would have to win 70% of the remaining delegates, he decided to do the responsible thing and not throw good money after bad.
Hillary made the choice after the contest was effectively over to continue this quixotic campaign. And what happened after WI? At the end of March her campaign was even farther away from the nomination and $15m in debt, but she decided to continue on anyways. On to Pennsylvania.
Well $6m more of her own money later and god only knows how much more debt to vendors, she wants us, Obama's small donors to pay off the debts? The money used to pay Penn? The money used to air sleazy ads like 3AM and Osama? The money used to fly around and race bait, telling audiences that "he's not one of us"?
I have two words for that: FUCK NO!
Bubbles
· 1 year ago
I'm not against these kinds of things in principle. The civil war cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than the price the federal government would have paid had they simply bought the freedom of the slaves and gave them land and starter money/resources on what remained of the frontier.
Iraq's GNP in 2002 was a paltry $52 billion according to CIA factbook in March 2003 (whence I checked before the war stated). Some well placed bribes and nice retirement villas in Tahiti or the Riveria could have gained us Iraq, complete with infrastructure in place, at a fraction of the cost of the war in lives and money.
So, in princple, I',m not appossed to this sort of thing - I can see throwing a few bones her way to ensure that the unpaid small businessmen who catered her events aren't left standing in the rain and maybe only those accrued before the first week of March as a good will jesture and incentive to get off stage. But beyond that. No.
Those bones ought to be incentive enough for her to step off the stage. But if it helps I'd also throw in an appearance at a fund raiser or two to help pay off her debts 8 months after the election or something like that.
You know, she's a Senator with an ex-president for a husband, who has been able to make hundreds of millions of dollars doing basically nothing other than talking.
So a good will token to help out the little people, and that's about it. She doesn't suffer from want. On top of that her daughter manages hedge funds. That's the highest paid, lowest taxed job in the country, on the globe, in all of history.
Because of this, I think she'll just soldier on. I think she likes the publicity. She gets to pretend that she's Presidential larvae for a while longer, which from an attention stand point, is almost as good as the actual thing.
ggm1957
· 1 year ago
I can't even imagine such a ridiculous notion. Obama has gotten money from his supporters, so why would that money go toward "paying off" Hillary? She and Bill should use their own money to pay off their own debt. It is HER debt, not Obama's. She didn't have the sense to quit when she was behind. Nobody pays off my debts for me. If I get myself into something, it is up to me to get myself out.
Keith_in_Southwest_France
· 1 year ago
No Way!!! People who gave money to Obama did it from their hearts because they knew their five and ten dollar donations would make them feel better, and in some instances was stretching their budgets to do it. After all, Bill can give a speech to the same corporations that were supporting Hillary and within six months would make enough to pay her debt. He was one of the big reasons that she stayed in the race.
TomJoad
· 1 year ago
EVEN if he cannnot, and it is talk of seperate fund raising, HELL NO!! Again, it would look like a bribe (bribing his way to the highest office in the land! Elitist!!), and it is a WASTE OF RESOURCES.
Look, as a nation we have about 500 things WAY more important in line...the first few are costing innocent lives (the war, war on terror, global warming, health care, environmne (non global warming) with toxins and poisons, the economy...etc.etc) ALL or ANY of which are burning issues.
And.....what? We are supposed to worry about that self-centered, egocentric, spoiled little brat who thinks cause her name is Clinton they are owed the presidency? Who makes corny, pathetic references to "Rocky" and thumbs up, and "I'm a winner" and blah, blah, blah...go the hell home. We don't need anymore "Camelots" or dynasites thanks. Royal families need not apply.
We don't "help" her get out of the hole she dug. That she kept digging way past the time she found out you really can't dig to China, is showing a terrible LACK OF JUDGEMENT.
Let her fix her own problems. How about a fund raiser for the new homeless instead?
LiberalTexasDemocrat
· 1 year ago
Hillary should take advantage of one of her husband's welfare to work programs to earn the money she needs to pay off her debt. A preacher offers pie in the sky for donations A politician offers earmarks "if elected" neither works for a living
jr
· 1 year ago
Hillary wouldn't be in debt if she hadn't paid Mark Penn and Wolfson so much but Obama's supposed to pay her debts because of her bad hiring practices
LeftCoastOracle
· 1 year ago
No he should not. He may find it prudent to help her raise money to pay off her debt but it would be a big mistake to use the money of his donors to pay off her debt - especially given that $11.4 million of it is to herself.
mirth
· 1 year ago
What jimfromthefoothills said.
I've donated several times to the Obama campaign. If even one penny of it is given to Hillary, I'll still support O in words and deeds, but he'll get no more donations from me.
All Comments
In a word, NO.
Should Obama accept her as VP?
In a word, NO
Should Obama appoint her to clean up after his children?
In a word, NO FUCKING WAY WOULD I EVER LET THAT WOMAN ANYWHERE NEAR MY CHILDREN
No pay-off and no veep slot...HRC would be like LBJ and Cheney wrapped into one.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Judy Bachrach writes for Vanity Fair, and is the creator of thecheckoutline.org, an online advice column for friends and relatives of the terminally ill.
When I was 25 (okay, 32), I got dumped by my first untrue love. He’d fallen, six years into our relationship, for his next-door neighbor, a really pretty actress with the IQ of an asparagus and the ability to fill many a conversational lull with tributes to liposuction. But I digress.
The point is what happened after I got dumped. There was no stopping me. I wrote the guy letters. Long ones. I wrote articles, nominally on other topics, but really about him and the way he dumped me. These, unfortunately, got published. I phoned him in the pathetic hope of raising my stock by trashing his new girlfriend, along with the caliber of the movies in which she very, very briefly appeared. This was, as you will likely surmise, amazingly easy to do and also totally ineffective. I didn’t – couldn’t — let go of a guy who exchanged me for a moron, and I can’t believe these many years later that I’m telling you all this because the memory of my mortifying, excruciating almost erotic attachment to stone-cold failure haunts me to this day.
I was, in other words, simply a younger version of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
http://www.wowowow.com/post/everything-i-hate-a...
If Obama cuts any sort of deal to help her out financially, he will never see another nickel from me.
I say fuckem and I will be pissed at my brother Barack if he backs down. She lost... go home bitch.
the tool should pay her DAMN bills her DAMN self, wtf is going on? how the hell did this crap even start? why the f**k should he pay the bills of a traitor who prefers mccain to him?
if he was paying the bills of say kennedy or new mexico governor i will understand the bi**h can pay her bills with her 100 million dollars.
the most annoying part of this mess is that hillary CAN NEVER DO ANYTHING HER DAMN SELF. she needs bill clinton for name, she needs to trash obama to make her self look good, now she has the audacity to ask for money? and don't tell me it is not her campaign doing that shit, this story did not just fall from this sky. the way she has run her campaign is a SHAME, if she was president, after she ruins the country she will borrow money from china to pay her bills.
THE IS THE MOST ANNOYING STORY TO EVER COME OUT, I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PISSED.
I would be seriously angry if Obama paid any debt off for her where the hard earned money of Obama's donors went to either Mark Penn or Hillary & Bill.
Just because Hillary has the deep pockets to dip into doesn't mean that she deserves that money back. Obama wouldn't have had $11+ million to loan his campaign and any rich person (a la Mitt Romney) does not deserve to have the winner's supporters pay them back.
what a disgusting creature.
But, the other part says, let him. Then, he can get her out of the race, dictate his own terms and send her off to the senate to leave him alone.
I have been donating for over a year to Obama so, it is my money as well. But, I do want the Clintons to go away and get off the stage and for their little minions to get off cable with their poison darts. This way, Obama is finally rid of the Clintons and we, as supporters, can take pleasure that she is finally gone.
She has continued to fight, regardless of numbers, regardless of lack of money. To me that is just nuts and I really don't think that Obama should pick up her debts.
Meanwhile, for comic relief for the weekend:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/du...
;-)
Make no mistake - the offer can't be "hey, whenever you quit, we'll pay your bills." It must be: "stop now while you're behind, or else its between you and the bill collectors."
Yeah - He should pay off the debts but only after the general election is done. In exchange for paying off the debts, Hillary has to work her ass for him. She needs to rally her supporters behind Obama. Ge her and her supporters to buy-in to the Obama vision and campaign. If hse is serious about defeating McCain, she'll do it. $10 million is cheap for this kind of support. Also, her big dollar contributers could give to Obama and their money can be used to retire her debt.
Why should he agree to do that at this point. He hasn't discussed it with Clinton and she isn't offering anything in return. She's certainly not offering to help unite the Democratic party, despite her promises to do so. In fact, she's continuing her smears against him.
Seeing has how I'm not on the Obama campaign, I thought I was talking in the hypothetical. :-) If I were Obama or in the campaign, that'd be offer if asked. Personally I think this is a story Tim Russert pulled out of his ass.
LOL. If you're replying to my comment to you, I know that. But you're the only one so far, at least that I've read, that has presented a cogent counter argument. And I find it interesting. Regarding Timmy, that wouldn't be unusual for him. :-)
I would love for Obama to find a way to get Hillary to work for him in earnest. She did get a lot of people to vote for her. I'd like the majority of those people to get behind Obama enthusiastically and not begrudgingly. :-)
Names, please.
So not only no, but HELL no. She's extremely wealthy by anyone's definition and she can easily afford to take the loss. I don't see John McCain paying back Mitt Romney?
No, Miss Hillary has no one to blame but herself (and more than a few inept campaign staffers)....
Back to New York, Senator...
If Obama wants to help pay, it should be on a sliding scale. Quit now and get 10 mill. Quit next week get 6 mill. Quit in two weeks get 2 mill. Something like that. Her quitting NOW is worth more now than it is later.
and if Obama is handing out money, then he can stipulate a cap be placed on the amount paid to each creditor - at least until all of them get at least some amount. Or...for every dollar Penn gets, another gets paid out to another vendor. I like the first idea first. No way should all of the money go to penn's pockets.
The FUN an opponent could have if he WON and yet PAYED OFF his opponent to take a dive. It would make him look like a weakling, like he was a patsy.
And honestly, it would be correct to kick his ass for a dumbass move like that. I mean, it would be fair for the opponents to point out that that kind of mindset bodes ill for anyone wanting to be president. It is a terrible idea. Who keeps coming up with it by the way, I ONLY see bloggers talk about it as if it were a trial flag to see who salutes.
The other thing, the monies that people are sending in to Obama are for HIM to use, but not for him to give away. He does that he may find his monies drying up...people don't like being misled.
Sends COMPLETELY the wrong message.
I think it's important to know which idiot suggested this idea first and then ask that person why they suggested it. LUNACY!
donotmakemecomedownthere 1 hour ago
AFAIK, this idea didn't come from Hillary or her campaign. Nor did it come from Obama, or the DNC. DanF (25 mins. ago) suggests that it was Russert.
I think it's important to know which idiot suggested this idea first and then ask that person why they suggested it. LUNACY!
This may have come about through quiet chats between the Obama and Clinton campaigns. I don't know how Russert got into it? Because the article above, in Politico, doesn't mention Russert.
Here's what Thomas Edsall at Huffington had to say about it: "On Friday, Barack Obama publicly raised the possibility of helping Hillary Clinton pay off more than $25 million in debts, including the $11.42 million she loaned her own campaign to keep it afloat in recent months."
The story was originally reported in the NYT, but I don't have the link. The Huffington link to the NYT article doesn't work for me.
Still so, the idea of raising money to pay off Mark Penn and Lanny pisses me off. Royally.
Someone on TV tonight (on Dan Abrahm's show, I think) made a comment about whether you'd want the Clintons a heartbeat away from the presidency. My answer is a resounding "no" - I'd be afraid for Barack's life!
She needs to go home and pay her own bills. Maybe John McCain's wife will giver her a loan, like she does John.
If Hillary is stupid enough to put her money on a losing horse (or mare), she should face the consequences. Besides, why should anyone feel sorry for her, Big Bill will give a few speeches in Dubai, and make those millions in a couple of hours.
They would have to be separate fund raisers specifically for that purpose (paying off the Hillary debt). So rest assured, this would be against FEC Law for him to use any money raised so far.
I recieved a letter from Richardson for funds to pay off his debt. this is how it would go. Or there could be special events to raise funds to pay off the Clinton debt. Face it, with Obama showing up for a Clinton event, people would show up in droves, not even caring the money would go to Hillary.
We have to get her people on board, and Obama being gracious to do a few fund raisers, with say Stevie Wonder, would force Hillary to support the Democratic ticket in November.
She has the bitter white voters after all. We dont want them voting for McCain. We also have to overcome about 3% vote spoilage and Diebold machines to win.
When Mitt Romney found himself in a similar position after Super Tuesday where he realized that he would have to win 70% of the remaining delegates, he decided to do the responsible thing and not throw good money after bad.
Hillary made the choice after the contest was effectively over to continue this quixotic campaign. And what happened after WI? At the end of March her campaign was even farther away from the nomination and $15m in debt, but she decided to continue on anyways. On to Pennsylvania.
Well $6m more of her own money later and god only knows how much more debt to vendors, she wants us, Obama's small donors to pay off the debts? The money used to pay Penn? The money used to air sleazy ads like 3AM and Osama? The money used to fly around and race bait, telling audiences that "he's not one of us"?
I have two words for that: FUCK NO!
Iraq's GNP in 2002 was a paltry $52 billion according to CIA factbook in March 2003 (whence I checked before the war stated). Some well placed bribes and nice retirement villas in Tahiti or the Riveria could have gained us Iraq, complete with infrastructure in place, at a fraction of the cost of the war in lives and money.
So, in princple, I',m not appossed to this sort of thing - I can see throwing a few bones her way to ensure that the unpaid small businessmen who catered her events aren't left standing in the rain and maybe only those accrued before the first week of March as a good will jesture and incentive to get off stage. But beyond that. No.
Those bones ought to be incentive enough for her to step off the stage. But if it helps I'd also throw in an appearance at a fund raiser or two to help pay off her debts 8 months after the election or something like that.
You know, she's a Senator with an ex-president for a husband, who has been able to make hundreds of millions of dollars doing basically nothing other than talking.
So a good will token to help out the little people, and that's about it. She doesn't suffer from want. On top of that her daughter manages hedge funds. That's the highest paid, lowest taxed job in the country, on the globe, in all of history.
Because of this, I think she'll just soldier on. I think she likes the publicity. She gets to pretend that she's Presidential larvae for a while longer, which from an attention stand point, is almost as good as the actual thing.
Again, it would look like a bribe (bribing his way to the highest office in the land! Elitist!!), and it is a WASTE OF RESOURCES.
Look, as a nation we have about 500 things WAY more important in line...the first few are costing innocent lives (the war, war on terror, global warming, health care, environmne (non global warming) with toxins and poisons, the economy...etc.etc) ALL or ANY of which are burning issues.
And.....what? We are supposed to worry about that self-centered, egocentric, spoiled little brat who thinks cause her name is Clinton they are owed the presidency? Who makes corny, pathetic references to "Rocky" and thumbs up, and "I'm a winner" and blah, blah, blah...go the hell home. We don't need anymore "Camelots" or dynasites thanks. Royal families need not apply.
We don't "help" her get out of the hole she dug. That she kept digging way past the time she found out you really can't dig to China, is showing a terrible LACK OF JUDGEMENT.
Let her fix her own problems. How about a fund raiser for the new homeless instead?
A preacher offers pie in the sky for donations
A politician offers earmarks "if elected"
neither works for a living
I've donated several times to the Obama campaign. If even one penny of it is given to Hillary, I'll still support O in words and deeds, but he'll get no more donations from me.