Clinton Campaign’s $8 Million in Unpaid Bills

On March 20th the Clinton campaign’s financial report to the Federal Election Commissionshows there is over $8 million in unpaid bills.  Not included in the total is the $5 millon loaned to the campaign from the Clinton’s, bringing the total debt of the campaign to over $13 million.

One of the largest unpaid bills is for the campaign’s health insurance carrier Aetna Healthcare for $228,841.30 - a surprising fact given the amount of attention Hillary Clinton has focused on mandatory health-care.

The Obama campaign has less than 1/20th of that amount according to the filings - just over $600k.

New Obama TV Ads Hit the Airways in Pennsylvania

Three new ads for Barack Obama hit the airwaves this week in Pennsylvania as Obama continues to build momentum in the state.  The biographical TV ads highlight some of Obama’s accomplishments and his history of bringing together diverse constituencies.

Obama Race Speech

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
“A More Perfect Union”
Constitution Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

March 18, 2008

CNN Poll Shows Democrats Prefer Obama

A CNN poll released on Monday shows that 52% of Democrats prefer Obama, 45% Clinton - giving the Senator from Illinois a 7% advantage.  The poll also shows that enthusiasm for Obama as a Presidential nominee is much higher as well.

The Clinton Civil War

There is a very interesting and thoughtful article today on Daily Kos regarding the “strike” by Clinton bloggers from Daily Kos and the current power at all costs strategy of the Clinton campaign despite the fact she can only win if the super delegates overturn the popular vote.  This is made even more acute with the recent delegate shifts to Obama in Iowa.

A few of my favorite paragraphs below…

Iowa Gives Obama Boost, Again!

As reported in the Huffington Post today,it looks like an additional seven delegates in Iowa originally supporting John Edwards are now supporting Obama.  The remaining seven delegates remained uncommitted meaning the delegate lead for Obama could continue to grow.

My predictions for Obama’s delegate lead will have to be revised again to 160 after the last planned primary in June - not including FL, MI and Supers.

Obama Gains Delegates in California! +8

A few weeks back I wrote a blog after crunching delegate numbers and predicted after the remaining dozen or so primaries are completed that the Obama delegate lead will remain about the same – around 140.

 

The Wall Street Journal ran a very interesting story this week about shifting delegate counts as results are certified.  In most cases there is little to no change but something interesting happened in California.  Final results expected out this week show that Obama won 167 delegates (not the 163 originally reported) and Clinton won 203 delegates (not the 207 originally reported).  Increasing Obama’s overall delegate lead by an additional 8 delegates.

 

The correction in California delegates basically wiped out Clinton’s delegate margin in Ohio.

 

Yet to be reported are expected updates in New York once the vote fraud investigation and counting is complete.  As reported in the New York Times, the “irregularities” could shift delegates into the Obama column.

 

So I am not revising my estimate for Obama to factor in the unusual counting errors and will project that when the last primary is done (Puerto Rick June 10th) Obama will increase his delegate count by 10 to a total of 152 – not including Michigan, Florida or the Supers.

Prediction for Final Delegate Count!

Over the last two days I have been doing some number crunching - delegate crunching to be exact.  A less than perfect model for predicting I am sure but it would appear that the upcoming twelve primaries will have exactly no impact on the current delegate situation!

That is correct when it is all said and done my estimate shows that Sen. Barack Obama will still be ahead about 140 delegates - not including any of the superdelegate counts.After Puerto Rico on June 7, 2008…

• Obama = 1,679
• Clinton = 1,535

Obama will have won almost two states for every one of Clinton’s.  

Obama will have more total votes for the nomination that Clinton and the most delegates.

So this leaves Florida, Michigan and the Superdelegates.If Florida and Michigan are counted “as-is” (both unfair and ridiculous), Hillary would gain about 51 delegates - Obama is still ahead 90 delegates.

Obama has significantly narrowed the Superdelegate difference in recent weeks.  If you remember Clinton had a bunch early, very few once Obama gained momentum and several who have switched in recent weeks.  It is hard to imagine in any realistic scenario how Clinton can win.

Maybe that is why Bill Clinton keeps hinting at a joint ticket – glad to see he is keeping his sense of humor despite all the problems he is causing.

Maybe now is a good time to make that additional $20 donation to make sure this becomes a reality…

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Challenges Clinton’s Experience Claim

Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a “wee bit silly” for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province.

“I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around,” he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely “the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets” during elections. “She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player.”

Mrs Clinton has made Northern Ireland key to her claims of having extensive foreign policy experience, which helped her defeat Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday after she presented herself as being ready to tackle foreign policy crises at 3am.

“I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland,” she told CNN on Wednesday. But negotiators from the parties that helped broker the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 told The Daily Telegraph that her role was peripheral and that she played no part in the gruelling political talks over the years.

Read entire article

CNN, “Scant Evidence” of Clinton Experience

With a debate raging over which presidential candidate has the most experience and best judgment on world affairs, the Chicago Tribune examines Sen. Hillary Clinton’s record:

Pressed in a CNN interview this week for specific examples of foreign policy experience that has prepared her for an international crisis, Clinton claimed that she “helped to bring peace” to Northern Ireland and negotiated with Macedonia to open up its border to refugees from Kosovo. She also cited “standing up” to the Chinese government on women’s rights and a one-day visit she made to Bosnia following the Dayton peace accords.Earlier in the campaign, she and her husband claimed that she had advocated on behalf of a U.S. military intervention in Rwanda to stop the genocide there.