NYT: Clinton Camp Turns to a Star in Money Race

[BeyondGeography]

<Concerned about Senator Barack Obama’s presidential fund-raising, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign has dispatched former President Bill Clinton to attend 16 fund-raisers in the last six weeks and to lead conference calls and Internet appeals to donors, in some cases assessing Mr. Obama’s positions on Iraq.>

<...The early deployment of Mr. Clinton highlights the continuing concerns in the Clinton camp about the strength of Mr. Obama’s candidacy and his fund-raising prowess. The Clinton camp has tried to stop any drift of Democratic donors to the Obama camp, since the campaign finance reporting period ending tonight is seen as a huge test of the campaigns’ money-raising abilities as they gird for a crush of early primaries.>

<...The Clintons’ fund-raising zeal, however, has left some donors bristling. Jim Neal, a North Carolina investment banker who supported Gen. Wesley K. Clark and then, in 2004, Senator John Kerry, said he was alienated by the effort “to put absolutely unprecedented expectations and pressure on donors,” like proposing that some fund-raisers would yield more than $1 million for Mrs. Clinton.

“It’s almost like a shakedown — you’re either with us or you’re not,” said Mr. Neal, who participated in an early conference call involving the Clinton campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, but is not seen as a major player in the Clintons’ world.

“I just find the squeeze, this early, to be quite vulgar,” Mr. Neal added. “This idea that you should try to K.O. other candidates by simply overwhelming them with the amount of money you have in the bank. It’s a bullying tactic.”

Mr. Neal said he supported Mr. Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but did not plan to support Mrs. Clinton.>

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/us/politics/31clinton.html?em&ex=1175486400&en=4bea9d80399e84de&ei=5087%0A

[Cha]

1. I like that George Clooney is

behind Obama! Although, I'm more in tune with John Edwards.

[MS Liberal]

2. I like Hillary but can not stand McAuliffe

It will be interesting to see how a woman would run America. In my opinion, she is one of the most qualified women for the job. Furthermore, she is the only one who is willing to put herself under the microscope this time. According to our history books, America has given a "recovering" boozer/druggie a chance to be President, why not a woman.

Let the conversation begin.