by Glenn Thrush
A year ago, when the Clinton campaign was still the Gold Standard of American politics, Joe Trippi, the architect of Howard Dean’s much-replicated 2004 online fundraising insurgency, sat down with the former first lady’s top advisers for a job interview.
Trippi, who would later go on to run John Edwards’ campaign, reportedly presented the brain trust, including communications chief Howard Wolfson, with two ideas:
1) Clinton should ban all donations from PACs and lobbyists.
2) She should create, as the centerpiece of her fundraising and public relations campaigns, a Web-based program to collect $100 each from one million women around the country.
Doing so, he argued, would cement her relationship with the two groups who would ultimately propel her into the White House, women and the working class.
The plan was bandied but never seriously considered, sources say. And why should it have been? At that point, Clinton had most of the top money in the party already locked up.
It’s now clear Trippi was on to something. All those big East and West Coast donors whom Clinton monopolized early in the campaign are now either tapped out or have long since defected to Barack Obama, who has cornered the market on rich, white, angry liberals.
Even though “Washington” money was always a relatively small proportion of her total take, Clinton defended the practice of accepting lobbyist donations on principle at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago last August, allowing Barack Obama and Edwards to inflict deep damage over the ensuing months by painting her, fairly or unfairly, as a bought-and-sold Beltway hack.
After being forced to loan her campaign $5 million late last month, Clinton is now adopting a version of the Trippi small-donor plan, this time playing the underdog card based on Obama's momentum in the polls and fundraising prowess. In the last 72 hours, her campaign just reported, Clinton raised $6 million from 35,000 online contributors. .
In doing so, she's following in Obama's footsteps. When Clinton turned back Obama’s surge on Super Tuesday it prompted an instantaneous auto-immune response on the part of Obama supporters. In days since losing California, Massachusetts and Arizona, they sensed he was in trouble and flooded his already brimming coffers with at least $7 million.
In most years donors are motivated by victories. But like white blood cells, Obama and Clinton funders -- especially those who contribute small amounts online -- are being set into motion by external threats. The cash started rolling into Obama’s office minutes after Clinton’s upset win in New Hampshire, kicking off a fundraising frenzy that resulted in a record-breaking $32 million haul for January.
She's always had an online fundraising operation, but until now, Hillary’s supporters have responded to the threat of her imminent extinction by giving her their votes, not their checks. Still, Hillary Clinton can now legitimately claim that she’s an underdog of sorts, a perception that’s being reinforced every day during morose, expectations-flattening conference calls hosted by Howard Wolfson and pollster Mark Penn. In them, the pair portrays Obama as the “establishment” candidate while enumerating their boss’s electoral and fiscal shortcomings. (One participant likened the calls to “sitting shiva,” the Jewish custom of huddling with the relatives of the recently deceased).The message: Save Hillary.
Unless she is able to make up serious ground in the next few weeks, however, Clinton won’t be able to match Obama in TV ads in states like Ohio and Texas, where she enjoys current advantages. Clinton’s people, for their part, are hoping to use Obama’s prosperity against him by portraying him as an insider posing as an outsider. That might be a stretch – but Obama seems acutely sensitive to the poseur charge.
“I’m always the underdog,” he snappishly told a reporter who questioned his characterization of Clinton as the “frontrunner” on Wednesday.
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Comments
I'm one of these women Clinton supporters, never worried about giving Money. After all she had Terry M. as her campaign mgr. I always thought he was the fund raising machine. But I just went on line and donated my $100. So come on Hillary supporting women we only need 999,000 more of you, across the USA
Join the Chain, Help the Cause. SUPPORT HILLARY.
Donna Di Fatta. California
Posted by: Donna Di Fatta | February 7, 2008 3:33 PM
I'm a man, in my mid 30s, and just donated. I've been around smart, tough, dynamic women all of my life, and I think it's time one of them is elected president. And I think Hillary Clinton would be the best president of my lifetime (including Bill).
Posted by: Larry | February 7, 2008 4:15 PM
"HILLARY SPEAKS"
WHAT JUST BECAUSE MAMA AIN'T GOT NO MONEY DON'T MEAN YA'LL GOT TO VOTE FOR THEM, OR HIM.
WHAT JUST BECAUSE MAMA AIN'T GOT NO MONEY DON'T MEAN YA'LL GOT TO VOTE FOR "MARSHALL LAW IMMIGRATION" GIVE A WOMAN A CHANCE TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT.
WHAT JUST BECAUSE MAMA AIN'T GOT NO MONEY DON'T MEAN YA'LL GOT TO THINK THAT I WENT TO YALE AND FAILED ECONOMICS 101 AND CHEATED BY HAVING MY GRADES CHANGED.
WHAT JUST BECAUSE MAMA AIN'T GOT NO MONEY DON'T MEAN THAT YA'LL GOT TO LET THESE MEN OVERTURN ROE V WADE AND MY RIGHT TO MY BODY. WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THAT.
WHAT JUST BECAUSE MAMA AIN'T GOT NO MONEY DON'T MEAN THAT SHE HAS TO USE POOR ENGLISH LIKE GEORGE BUSH EITHER.
PLEASE SEND MONEY. PLEASE SEND YOUR STIMULUS MONEY TO ME IF YOU DON'T INVEST IT IN QWEST STOCK.
ONE OR THE OTHER WILL END THE EAVESDROPPING, WIRETAPPING AND DATA MINING OF AMERICAN CITIZENS. PLUS YOUR VOTE MIGHT JUST COUNT.
HEY MAMA'S IN THE WORLD, HELP WE NEED SOMEBODY, HELP!
Posted by: Roger Morris | February 7, 2008 4:36 PM
Mitt used his own money. Rudy used his own money. Billary has more money than any of the remaining candidates. They don't need the donations as badly as they would have you believe. They should put their money where their mouth is. If it's a campaign worth waging, then they should put up their own.
More of the same from Billary - $131 million from a shady Kazakhstan deal and crying for help. McCain or Obama in 08
Posted by: karl | February 7, 2008 6:37 PM
There's a reason why Obama's supporters are more educated. It's because us women who have actually gone to college realize that Hillary's story and her candidacy have done nothing for women in reality. She's only a symbol for us women, but not a very good one at that.
I hope my fellow women will realize that, while it's important to have women in high places, it's important to make sure that they're not just getting there because of gender. We should get there on merit.
Posted by: Mel | February 8, 2008 3:50 PM
The first thing she did with the small donations? Had the campaign pay back the loan. I don't like her and I won't vote for her, but I can't deny that she is extremely crafty. My main criticism of her is that she has no core belief that she wouldn't sell in a heartbeat for political expediancy still stands. The longer she campaigns, the more she proves it.
Posted by: brad | February 8, 2008 3:55 PM
Help cement a GOP victory in November! NOMINATE HILLARY!
Posted by: JJ | February 8, 2008 3:55 PM
@Larry: Hey, if she's so smart and dynamic, how come she's having so much trouble against a relative newcomer after coming into the campaign with about as many advantages (name recognition, a successful senatorship in a big state, a popular ex-president husband) as anyone could ask for?
Anyway, if the Democrats buy into Clinton as the outsider or the underdog, they're just as stupid as the voters who thought George W. Bush -- Yale graduate, son of a president, MLB team owner -- was the salt of the earth.
Posted by: moff | February 8, 2008 4:09 PM
I'm a woman. I'm even a baby boomer woman. I think I'll go give $100 to Obama. Hillary would NEVER be in this position if she weren't Bill's wife. And every time she falls behind she goes for the "poor me, vulnerable woman" image. This is supposed to be feminism and I'm supposed to be proud?
Posted by: dnfree | February 8, 2008 4:16 PM
How disgusting can it get: A very wealthy Clinton couple asking the poor to give 'em money.Suckers are born everyday for sure.Can't BClinton get another 30Mill from his Indian Godfather ?
Posted by: Juble | February 8, 2008 4:18 PM
As a concerned republican, I donated $100 to Hillary's campaign. We look forward to her unparalleled ability to bring republicans to the polls in November. McCain 08.
Posted by: mullingitover | February 8, 2008 4:38 PM
dnfree -- I'm with you. I just donated yesterday, and the day before. But just reading this piece about Hillary induced a strong craving to donate again -- for Obama 08!!
Posted by: MartiM | February 8, 2008 5:28 PM
If Hilary is loaning the campaign, do her donors get their money back at the end of all this?
Go BO, another 5 bucks to stay the course
Posted by: Leo | February 8, 2008 6:26 PM
Why should HRC's downscale and struggling voters give money to her campaign when she clearly can pony up millions on short notice? Let her fund her own floundering campaign.
Posted by: khalidni rahim | February 8, 2008 6:29 PM
Hillary would make a fine President. Obama will be a transformative one. His ideas are better, his is a more SENSIBLE plan, and oftentimes that gets lost in the fervor of emotion and "hope."
Oh, also? He wins. She loses. Get a clue, people. A vote for Hillary, is a vote for the ultra-conservative judges McCain will be appointing as President in 2009.
Posted by: John in L.A. | February 8, 2008 6:35 PM
Myself and a group of GOP friends her in Ohio are responding to the polls showing that Hillary is much weaker against McCain, than would be Obama. So we are giving to Hillary in hopes that she wins. We'd like to face her. We need her. Obama would be a nightmare for the GOP.
McCain '08
Posted by: Wallace | February 8, 2008 7:01 PM
My husband and I donate a few dollars to Obama every month and more if we think obama has hit a rough patch just to show our support.
After NH I sent him 25.00 to show I am still with him and his campaign.
And if I have to send more in order for him to defeat the Clinton machine I will do so.
Posted by: vwcat | February 8, 2008 7:48 PM
Ditto vwcat.
In addition my hubby and I have an 'Obama' fund. Instead of doing something indulgent that we would normally do (Starbucks latte anyone?) we put the money in the fund instead and send it on every month.
We figure after the campaign we will start donating that $ to charity instead.
What I find curious is if Hillary is supposed to be such a whiz with the economy --- how was she so near-sighted on this?
First the war, now her campaign $... this is why her '35 years of experience' is a bad thing not a good thing.
Posted by: carrie | February 8, 2008 9:00 PM
Hillary's campaign is NOT in trouble with money. Even when she loaned the $5 million, the Clinton campaign had broken ALL records for fundraising in a primary...the problem is, Obama blew them out of the water anyway. For that campaign to act like they need money or all is lost or that their campaign workers might go without pay is disingenuous at best and a complete fabrication at the worst. Considering Hillary's view of principles, it's probably the latter.
Posted by: drosz | February 9, 2008 10:01 AM
It is incredible that Hilary Clinton's record of failures and dishonest behaviors during her husband's eight years in office have not been remembered by the press and the American people. I realize that much of her support is from young people so they may have limited recall of the perpetual mismanagement, conniving, abuse of power, media manipulations, etc. that were the daily fare of the last "Clinton Regime".
How can we even consider Hilary with her record! How can we forget how she destroyed FBI files and letters during "Filegate"; the inappropriate closing of the White House Liaison office; the scandal of the White House Travel office, the mishandling of the Paula Jones lawsuit, the Whitewater scandal which led to the Ken Star investigation and revealed Bill's Monica Lewinsky affair.
This led Bill Clinton to lie to the grand jury and to lose his law license and to be impeached by the House. Hilary was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice.
Bill Clinton then protected her actions by asking the National Archives to withhold from the public until 2012 many records of Hilary's actions, correspondence and calendars, while in the White House. There are ongoing lawsuits to force release of these records. If she is elected you can be sure that these records will also be destroyed.
Hilary voted to support the plan to invade Iraq, she has since changed her stand and could endanger our forces with a rash withdrawal.
Hilary ran for the Senate in New York, a state she never lived in. Her husband pardoned FALN terrorists in order to manipulate Latino support. Hilary also had Bill pardon her brother's clients for a fee "to get financial support." And then there was all the scandal with Bill's brother, Roger Clinton.
When the Clinton's left the White House they took over $200,000 worth of White House furniture, china, and artwork. Stolen from the American trust.
The litany of misconduct, manipulation, favoritism, evading and circumventing the law, using underhanded tactics, immoral behavior, is the legacy left by the Clinton's. I for one do not want to endure another four years of scandal and impotence in our government.
I have watched Hilary read her speeches, all written and very controlled, full of catch phrases, and sentences describing the American human condition. She rarely gives true solutions, rather she offers that the government will come up with some way to subsidize individual lives. I can foresee the Clinton's once again milking the American government and its people for their own profit and to unfairly pay back the people who have supported them in their bid for re-election.
Wake up America. Remember the past. Any candidate will be a better president than Hilary Clinton!
Where is the press when they are needed to inform our young and remind our citizens of the resume of leaders who have betrayed our trust and preyed on our incredulity.
August Jaffe
Posted by: siri | February 9, 2008 2:24 PM
Remember guys... Hillary used $10 million in senate funds to fund her campaign last year. Yes, YOUR tax dollars.
Posted by: angieV | February 10, 2008 5:51 AM
The way for Obama supporters to counter this tactic by the Clintons couldn't be more obvious: Don't wait to donate. The larger the edge Obama has going into the more closely contested contests in Ohio and Texas, the better his chances of winning there, too. That way we won't have to donate to rescue him if he doesn't come out on top.
Posted by: Doug | February 10, 2008 7:01 AM
Remember guys... Hillary used $10 million in senate funds to fund her campaign last year. Yes, YOUR tax dollars.
Posted by: angieV | February 10, 2008 1:15 PM