Urban Thought Collective

Is it just me or is this Hillary Clinton debt situation completely preposterous? Surely there have been expensive campaigns before and it’s conceivable that both the winning and losing campaigns alike went into the hole. However, I’ve had it up to here (I’ve momentarily stopped typing, stood up, placed my right hand over the top of my head with the palm down, shaking it for emphasis) with the expectation that Barack or anybody in his camp should help to reconcile Hillary Clinton’s debt.

Why has it become headline news that there is some issue over paying off Hillary’s debt? I ask you to take special note of the apostrophe “s” after the word Hillary which clearly implies that the ownership of said debt is solely her own. I know the English language can be a bit obscure and confusing with all of its funky rules and such, so let’s try it in Spanish. If you caught this story on CNN en Espanol you might hear that lovely Patricia Janiot call it “la deuda de Hillary”, or debt of Hillary.

The whole thing sounds to me like a kid that wrecked her daddy’s car and now wants a do-over. “I was just playing…I didn’t mean anybody any harm…I’m sorry. Can you take care of the damage for me? Thanks.”

But sadly, these are grown people we’re talking about. Very, very educated grown people. Hillary has a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley and a law degree from Yale. With my little bachelor’s degree, I can wrap my head around the concept that if I, of my own volition, choose to overextend myself financially, then I and only I am on the hook for taking care of any debts owed.

Hillary lost. It has pretty much been a wrap since February or March, but she kept the whole ugly affair going. Surely it cost millions to turn up the negative advertising heat and to fly her people around the country in total panic mode for an additional 4 months. In fairness to Hillary, she was not the only candidate in total denial as Ron Paul didn’t officially withdraw from the Republican race until June 12, 2008. Ron Paul’s campaign was raking in the dough, however, so don’t look for the Ron Paul telethon on a television near you anytime soon. Come to think of it, Ron and Hillary do have another interesting thing in common. Ron refuses to endorse McCain as the Republican nominee, just like Hillary…um…well, she has to say it now, even if husband Bill won’t. Saying it through a spokesman in very vague, uncertain terms doesn’t do it for me.

I’m just baffled by the presumption that Obama supporters should help her out. This seems unprecedented to me. Admittedly, I did not go into the bowels of my local public library and comb through the micro fiches looking for old news stories about debts accumulated during campaigns, but I did a couple of the requisite Google and Wikipedia searches, and I watch the news a little bit. Nowhere did I see anything similar to this situation. I did find a few interesting items that were somewhat relevant though.

First, Rudy Giuliani amassed a debt of about $3.1 million even though he dropped out of the Republican race back around late January. (You may recall criticism of Rudy’s campaign trail habits of living quite high on the hog. Like Rudy, I’m sure Hillary wasn’t slummin’ at the Super 8 and buckling down so that she would have enough to ride it out for the long haul. More likely she was all about ocean views, Four Seasons suites, and serious spreads of cold cuts and croquettes whenever the who-stole-the-soul train left the station.)

On April 3, McCain’s campaign manager asked donors—in the spirit of party unity—to help in paying off Rudy’s debt, praising the former mayor of NYC as a “national hero”. This seems to have been a completely voluntary action by the McCain camp. Secondly, another Democratic Presidential hopeful, Chris Dodd who withdrew from the race on January 16, subsequently sent an email to his supporters the following day asking for them to help retire his campaign debt. Awkward? Yes. But very humble and to the point as well. Perhaps Hillary could learn a thing or two from dear old Mr. Dodd.

Lastly, I found something from August of 2003 regarding the recall of then California Governor Gray Davis. We all know that the Governator came out of that one as the victor, but one Arianna Huffington seemed to have laid the blueprint for campaign fundraising that Barack has perfected, getting many “nickel-and dime” donations via internet as opposed to landing a few whales.

Okay, one last parting thought before I go. Whatever happened to the campaign finance reform that John McCain championed a few years back? In retrospect, “reform” seems far too strong.

Destah Owens is a single father of two from Northern California and proud UCLA Bruin who travels the world for his job as a computer engineer. His blog “Souffles in Saigon” is exclusive to Urban Thought Collective.