Probably quite a few of you have received a mailing under the name of Bill Clinton asking that you donate to help pay off Hillary's campaign debt. Apparently, if you do, your name will go into a hat to possibly be selected to have a meal with Herself.
Personally, I would love to have a meal with Hillary Clinton. During the primaries, I vacillated considerably between her and Obama. Furthermore, I think that it is quite reasonable that Democrats donate to retire her campaign debt.
But..but..
Here's the thing. At the same time that I got the request from good ol' Bill to donate to Hillary, I have been sitting on a request from the DSCC for more money (I personally feel very strongly that the Senate is just as critical for Democrats to advance in as the presidency), and my wife is receiving requests from Obama and from the DNC (we split these things up to avoid duplicate emails as much as possible).
We really want to donate to the DNC and the DSCC, and it's frustrating that we can't give as much as we want to.
So what about this request from HRC?
What I think is that Obama and the DNC should pledge to pay off all of the Democratic primary campaigns that owe money (are there any besides Hillary's?), using unspent campaign funds, but only after the election.
In other words, as much as I like Hillary Clinton, and as committed as I am to the need to pay off her campaign debt, in a world of limited resources, it is hugely more important to at least make advances in the Senate and to recapture the presidency. Once that's done, then let's take care of these other debts.
So what I say is, if you have limited funds, you should donate as much as you can to active Democratic campaigns, but nothing to inactive ones like Hillary's. The more you give to, say, the DNC, the more there may be in December to pay off everyone's campaign debts. But even if the Fall campaign takes every penny and there isn't anything left for Hillary et al., that is still preferable, in my view.
(If you have unlimited funds, well, allez-y.)
If you have time, take the poll.
Cheers,
Greg Shenaut