Wonderful News

Excuse the brief holiday from posting. There was a piece in the NY Times earlier this week about bloggers dying at their computers. It is easy to succumb to the compulsion to stay on top of the ever-changing political scene. I hope to only post when I have something I feel compelled to say.

This morning I received some wonderful news. A dear long term friend of mine, a confirmed Clintonista and more particularly a certified FOB (remember those) called to tell me that he had attended an Obama fund raising event last evening in Washington, DC. He had previously maxed out for Hillary. He had no direct contact with the Clinton campaign other than a call from their finance people for more money.

For those of you in the know, you understand that call very well. The Clinton finance people were leaning on my friend, who had already maxed out for more money because they wanted to be able to show, at the next reporting cycle that they were raising lots of money. Now, of course, if my friend had given more money, because he had already maxed, his additional money would have been preserved for the general election and could not have been spent for the primary season. This is clever slight of hand that misleads the uninformed. You can contribute $2300 for the primary and $2300 for the general. If you contribute the full $4600, your candidate's campaign reports the $4600 and makes the coffers look full. But they can't spend half the money unless they win the nomination.

Long story short, the Clinton campaign has been aggressively leaning on their big contributors who have already maxed out. That strategy looks good on paper but it can backfire and did with my friend. He talked this morning about the arrogance and sense of entitlement of the Clinton campaign. As a long term supporter of Clinton, he felt taken for granted. He said he felt guilty going to the Obama event and writing a check for Obama. That was the same guilt felt by the abused spouse who leaves the abusive relationship. He will get over the guilt.