She was forced to admit today that she loaned her campaign $5 million last month. That may not seem like a lot of dough in the context of how expensive these campaigns are. But the loan—and the fact that some of her major staffers are working without pay—indicate a much deeper, more profound problem for her.
Her war chest was once $100 million. One hundred million dollars doesn’t just evaporate into thin air. How was it spent? How much of it has she gone through?
Meanwhile, her opponent, Senator Obama, is rolling in it. $32 million, raked in in the same month she had to write herself a check.
Call it: the Enthusiasm Indicator. People don’t give money to political campaigns unless they 1. feel the candidate can win; 2. have an ideological bond with the candidate; and/or 3. feel energized and inspired by the campaign. Obama has all three. Hillary has Number 1, and even that’s fading fast.
Money is also a future indicator. The fact that it’s flowing to Obama means that going forward, she will be struggling to get her message out while he can easily do so.
What is the Clinton personal net worth? Nobody seems to know. Estimates are between $41 and $80 million. Bill is getting multi-million dollar payouts from companies like Yucaipa and InfoUSA. For doing what? Nobody knows. And the Clintons aren’t forced to disclose what he’s doing for all that dough.
The left-wing press has been all over Mitt Romney over how much of his own money he’s put into his campaign. I don’t see similar bellyaching over the Clinton contribution. Maybe the media thinks $5 mil is small potatoes. Or maybe it’s OK for the liberal Democrat to contribute from her fortune but not OK for the conservative Republican to contribute from his.
She is up against the wall: cash-poor, dead-even in delegates, and facing new contests in Maryland, DC, and Virginia that favor Obama. The hereditary monarch has been forced to wash the floors. On her knees. With a toothbrush.
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