Clinton's Money

Hillary Clinton's campaign is in a weird situation -- over $7.5 million in debt (not including the campaign's debt to Clinton personally) but they had $29 million on hand at the end of January. Is she just a deadbeat? Hilzoy looks into it and the answer is no, the problem is just that too much of her money is general election cash. Basically, having maxed-out her big dollar donors, Terry McAuliffe's gone back to that crowd and got them to pony up even more money to make her fundraising figures look more impressive than they really are even though that money can't be spent yet.

Meanwhile, it is worth zeroing in on the weird case of Clinton's $5 million self-loan. Right now, there are no campaign supporters who feel strongly enough about Clinton's fortunes that they want to give her that money. But if she wins the election, special interest groups will now be allowed to, in essence, but $2,300 bribes directly into her pocket in order to help her repay the loan. That's gonna be an ugly situation. Keep in mind that even if she had to just eat the $5 million loss, she and Bill would still be a wealthy couple, so it's not as if giving them money would make sense as an act of charity. And they're already be in the White House, already raising money for the re-election, so it wouldn't be much of an act of political activism. It'd just be a way to do a financial favor for the woman who happens to be president.