More Bad News For Clinton

I would have thought that Clinton had enough bad news already. She is behind in pledged and total delegates. She is trailing in total votes. Obama has won more states than she has. And she would have to win all of the remaining states by at least 65% just to catch up with Obama in the delegate count.

Last week, she got some seriously bad publicity when it was discovered that she had lied about her visit to Tusla as First Lady. She had told campaign crowds several times that she had to dodge sniper bullets as she ran to waiting cars. But the news organizations had film of the visit.

The film showed her and a 15 year-old Chelsea strolling the tarmac, shaking hands and being greeted and read a poem by an 8 year-old girl. Not a sniper anywhere to be found. She had simply lied to make it seem she had experienced more than Obama.

Then a couple of days ago, we learned that her campaign may be in financial trouble. It seems she has left a trail of unpaid bills all across the country. She evidently had to choose between paying her outstanding debts, or running more campaign commercials.

Yesterday, she got even more bad news. Although she was able to raise $20 million in donations last month, that pales in comparison to the $40 million that Obama was able to raise. That's right -- he doubled her contributions, and did it mainly with small contributors. His average contribution was only $96.00.

In the first three months of this year, Obama has raised $131 million as compared to Clinton's $70 million. But the really impressive part is his total number of people who have donated to his campaign -- over 1.3 million people. That is an amazing base of donors, and has to have party officials perking up their ears.

But while Obama is the largest beneficiary of campaign fundraising, both Democratic candidates have raised far more than McCain. That is amazing, since for the last few elections the Republicans easily topped the Democrats is campaign cash raised. For the first two months of 2008, Obama raised $91 million, Clinton raised $50 million, and McCain finished a very poor third with $23 million.

But as good as those numbers are, Democratic activist Donna Brazile has a very good point when she says, "Obama and Clinton's fundraising numbers are impressive. There's no question that voters remain excited about the two candidates, but if this money is used to tear the party apart or to destruct the other while McCain is out on a bio tour, it would be akin to pouring it down the drain."