I highly doubt she's out of money.

[Occam Bandage]

Yeah, yeah, her staff's going without pay, loaning herself money, etc., etc. Frankly, I don't think I buy it. She's too smart; too savvy; too intelligent to not have forseen the possibility of this race going beyond Super Tuesday. I think she's positioning herself.

She's trying to make herself look like an underdog. She's trying to inspire her support base to donate. She's trying to minimize the upcoming primaries; she'll be able to say, "Well, yeah, he outspent me" when she loses, and spin her following wins as "comebacks."

But I severely doubt she's out of money. She's too canny for that.

[MH1]

1. I agree with your assessment.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. I've considered that possibility

We'll see when they are forced to report their fundraising/spending.

[maddiejoan]

3. shhhhhhhhhh

you're gonna blow our secret ;)

[Colobo]

4. It's all part of a strategy to get more donors.

[Joe the Revelator]

5. She has to report on the 20th

If she's lying, it'll come out before too long.

[grantcart]

6. I don't know it completely disrupted any positive spin on

the ST big state victories, and is a horrendous amount of bad publicity. Besides I don't think that she would lie about writing the check. That is eventually going to be disclosed

[Occam Bandage]

12. Oh, I don't doubt she wrote the check. But this isn't exactly "bad publicity." Sure, it hurts her

short-term, but she's going to lose the next few primaries anyway. By the time she releases figures, she'll be able to spin it as a groundswell of support leading to a comeback. The Clintons love the "comeback" story; they pushed it even in MA, where she was never once shown trailing in a poll.

[grantcart]

24. well she's going to get clobbered in the weekend caucuses

(which she skipped over in her press conference this morning) and then lose some primaries. Thats a lot of bad news to absorb.
Also the payment of the salaries will be in their published expense report so that part has to be true to.

[Flabbergasted]

25. If you're right, she has made an miscalculation. This will not blunt Obama's

momentum but it will damage here base of support.

[Flabbergasted]

18. That's my thoughts. The inevitable candidate running out of money while

the underdog swims in it doesn't seem like the best publicity stunt.

[Singular73]

7. LOL yeah right

She has to disclose how much money she has.

If it states she had 20 mill when she loaned herself 5, your secret little strategy will implode.

She needs money. Her rich corporate sponsors have maxed out their contributions.

Simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

[papau]

13. rich corporate sponsors have maxed out? - at $2300 each?? LOL

[Singular73]

29. Exactly.

[Occam Bandage]

31. Yes. That's the limit.

[bridgit]

8. Out of money? I doubt it. I do wish I had 5mil & likely change++ in my checking account though...

:cry:

[Yupster]

40. Me too bridget

and since when have the Clintons had millions to throw around.

He always talked about how he made $ 30 k and they had no money. Looks like they cashed in pretty quickly.

Book revenue I guess.

[AX10]

9. Can you Obamites get your stories correct.

First she is out of money and her campaign in done for and now she has a ton of cash on hand.
Which one is it?

[Occam Bandage]

17. The suggestible ones are cheering, claiming she's out of cash. I think they're being played.

[AtomicKitten]

10. Um, read this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4449010&mesg_id=4449400

[City Lights]

11. I don't buy it either.

It's just part of her strategy.

[chascarrillo]

14. Much too crafty.

Clinton is positively brilliant, no doubt... but she engineered running out of funds to pay staff, hid a loan to her campaign, and wants to rely on a patently ridiculous "underdog" meme?

Occam's razor, Occam Bandage. Occam's fucking razor!

:)

[Occam Bandage]

20. Hey, Occam's Bandage would be the antidote to Occam's Razor, wouldn't it?

;)

[DJ13]

15. I dont believe ANY candidate would claim to be low on cash just to become the underdog

History is rife with viable candidates that ran out of money and lost momentum as a result.

Theres no benefit to admitting they dont have money, as saying that discourages the large donors she most needs.

[truebrit71]

16. She loaned her own campaign 5 mill...she's in DEEP shit...

....

[mrreowwr_kittty]

19. I am so heartily sick of the "underdog" routine

She's a household name for fuck's sake! She should be getting 70% of the vote in every state.

Her campaign sucks.

[marlakay]

21. What it tells me is she is not good at budgeting

a few months ago she had more money than Obama. His campaign seems to be doing good with their money. I have a feeling he is getting more "free" volunteers. And look at much mark penn gets, thats crazy, and he's so not worth it.

he reminds me of karl rove. just for hiring him alone we should not vote for her.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

32. You got it.

Clinton's campaign is very top-heavy. I'll bet the lion's share of her money is going to high-priced consultants.

[Sir Jeffrey]

35. Karl Rove wins elections, Mark Penn does not. nt

[VolcanoJen]

22. If that were the case...

... wouldn't she come out looking like a crafty fibber at the end of March, when she's forced to disclose 1st quarter fundraising statistics?

It might not matter at that point, and that might be a gamble she's willing to take... but I wouldn't want manipulating heartstrings of her supporters to raise money as being the storyline propelling her toward November, from the moment she wins the nomination.

Isn't she also required to disclose cash-on-hand:primary, and cash-on-hand:general? Sounds to me like she's got a lot more money tied up in the general fund than she's comfortable with at this moment.

[NJSecularist]

23. I don't think she's severely in the red

But I do believe she is hurting. I do believe she underestimated what Obama could do in regards to fundraising. Can and will she go on? Yes. No question about it. But Obama has outraised her by a substansial margin and that affects her ability to send staff to future states like Ohio and Texas as much as she would have liked

Is she in any danger of going "bankrupt", so to speak? Probably not. But I do believe due to her lack of fundraising Obama will get first dibs in future states like Texas that she wish she had the ability to but can't. The type of advantage she had back in December and January in Super Tuesday states Obama now has moving forward.

[K Gardner]

26. I just thought of that.. and I agree, its another trick. And she will raise LOADS with yet another

"poor Hillary" scenario. Sheesh.

[TexasObserver]

27. She's out of money on the primary side.

Here's her problem: She's been accumulating two stacks of cash. The first is for the primary, and the second is only for the general election. She cannot touch the money for the general election, but she raised it because she was trying to boast her way to the nomination. She hoped to cower her opposition with her huge war chest, so she pumped her numbers with money she cannot touch.

Now she's exhausted all her PRIMARY money, and that's why she had to go into her pocket for the loan. She has to try to raise more money for the primary, but she cannot use the contributors who have already maxed out for the primary. She has to shake loose money from contributors at the low end of her contributor lists.

Yes, she's in trouble in the primary.

[thunder rising]

28. I hope it's true, but I donated to Barack again tonight just in case!

[Bullet1987]

30. I buy it...I think they are low on funds...

People are giving them too much credit. If they were as savvy and smart as it would seem...why have they continued to underestimate Obama's appeal and strength? They wouldn't have had Bill Clinton trying to turn Obama into the "Black candidate." At the end of the day, a campaign is only as good as the handlers running it. As of right now...I can see them not looking past Feb.5 essentially thinking it would be over by now.

I mean think about it...not even a month ago, Clinton was heavily favored in MOST of the Super Tuesday states...and she only won 8!!! They invested a LOT in the fact that they'd have the nomination wrapped up by now. It was a SEVERE miscalculation on their part though.

[blogslut]

33. Here's an unpleasant thought

According to campaign rules, that 5 million she loaned to her campaign has to be paid back. Is she raising this money in order to pay herself back? I certainly hope that's not the case.

[dkf]

34. Wow. We don't even believe her when she says she's out of $.

That level of distrust is pretty high.

I guess we do think that badly of her.

[jwirr]

36. I suspect it was a cash flow problem.

[karynnj]

37. FWIW Here is what Candy Crowley said

Remember this is Candy Crowley - which in English means take with a grain of salt.

1) At end of year, she had $38 Million, $20 million of which was for the general election. So, at the start of the primaries, she had only $18 million.
2) They have been coy about the money raised in January - (but links here said it was $13.5 million)
3) All of that was spent in early primaries
4) She needed the $5 million because she needed to ad ads in the NYC and Boston market as Obama improved there. Until 2 weeks ago, theer was no reason that would have made sense.

I think it is very possible because she will have to release the numbers eventually and it looks like this can not come out in her favor for months - so she would be caught when it could still matter.

[Occam Bandage]

38. kick

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. Good points ! I think she just said it to get some small donors nt