But local Clinton promoter "Confident Clinton will pay."
And Tony Galarza, director of the Missoula, Mont., branch of a national event production company, remained committed to staging an April 6 Clinton fundraising brunch at a local hotel even after a colleague in his company e-mailed a list of Clinton's campaign debts.
Galarza said he's confident Clinton will pay his company but admitted he was surprised to see so many event production companies among the campaign's creditors.
Well, this quote today from Politico, "Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills," caught my eye today. While many campaigns run up debts, I don't think walking the plank like Clinton is doing is exactly what the Democratic Party had in mind as a build up to Denver.
Particularly when the kind of debts she's avoiding paying include promoters or vendors like Galarza. And while Clinton swoops into Missoula to rake up the cash, she'll likely leave with not just her supporters holding out bills, but Galarza and other local Missoula small businesses holding the bill.
Politico reports that Clinton had $16 million available for the primary at the end of February, but after subtracting the 5 million dollar loan she gave her campaign, and the $8.7 million in unpaid debts, she only had less than 2 million dollars to go forward in March with her campaign.
Which explains why she's stiffing outfits like Galarza to promote another event in another state another day to raise more money--and stiff more small businesses--to pay upfront for big media buys trying to catch up to Obama. Obama, who by the way only listed $625,000 in debts, and 31 million in the bank.
Sounds like Clinton is running a pyramid or Ponzi scheme on her big backers (investors), like Mark Penn, whom she owes 2.5 million bucks. Go take a look at a picture of the guy, and you'd want to keep running with even a shade of hope of winning, because that guy is scary, and you don't want to be left with little political collateral when he comes looking to get paid back. Or payback? Kickback? Kind of gives a new meaning to "Run Hillary, Run."
But when you run a win-at-all-cost campaign that's built on the ends-justify-the-means philosophy of Clintonian politics, what does this mean for the country at large if she ever does ascend to the presidency? If this is any indication of how she'll manage the economy, then we're in for some big deficit spending and will be treading in dangerous waters. Actually, it seems like she's taken a page out of the Republican's playbook on "spend now, pay later," or How to make future generations pay for today's largesse: ten easy steps.
No wonder she can't back out of the race right now.
Speaking of steps, she's like the Vegas gambler that has lost millions of dollars of mob money at the craps table, and can't see any other way out of her hole than to keep tossing the dice, or pay the piper. She's a gambling addict, except the gamble is politics and power, and she can't ever get enough of it along with her codependent and likewise addicted hubby.
At some point we've just got to quit enabling them. But then again, with all the media buys, and TV and radio frothing over all the ratings, it's no wonder the race stretches on--egged on by a media and audience that has been fine-tuned by the likes of Britney, Paris and Lindsey; American Idol, Survivor and Lost.
We stare at the TV (and the ad execs know it) like we did when Katrina was baring down on New Orleans, endlessly flipping channels to see the newest image of some poor soul wandering aimlessly through the chest-deep lower 9th Ward waters, wondering whatever happened to his family and home. Waiting for something to change; for the rescue to begin, and the end come into sight. But it never does. A new brand of reality TV has hit the market, and the majors are eating up the ratings. Welcome to Campaign 2008: The Race that Never Ends
You almost gotta feel sorry for folks like Galarza and Missoula's Hilton Garden Inn. But then again, even they should be able to read the writing on the wall. Except that it was written with the disappearing ink that so many campaign pledges are written with, and now, apparently, the checks to pay the bills. |
