Hillary's Debt

Balloon-Juice quotes this Hill story:

After a long primary season, the Clinton campaign’s expenditures have far exceeded the amount of donations it has received so far, and the campaign has accumulated debt of more than $19 million, according to campaign finance reports. Much of that debt consists of unpaid salaries and bills to vendors.

One commenter asks how it's possible that Clinton went so deep in debt in what was clearly a futile contest (she was mathematically eliminated after her 11 straight losses in February weren't offset by wins in Ohio & Texas).

Here's my response:

This is ridiculous. Clinton has to pay it. You just don’t accidentally run up a $20 Million Debt

I think it's called "shooting the moon." As far as I can tell - trying to put rational thought into what appears to be a deranged woman's head - her team spent money like gangbusters, and ran a scorched-earth campaign, in order to get within 2 digits of delegates of Obama (i.e. under 100, 99 would be fine, just like her 9.2 win in PA became 10 points, it works in reverse too).

With just 2-digits separating 'em, Hillary was going to pitch to the superdelegates that she *had* to take it to Denver and to force a floor-fight. Because 2 digits is just "too close." I read yesterday (can't find so quickly) that this was the thinking.

So the spendthrifting, the bridge-burning, was going to pay off if she could just get under 100. Then she'd claw her way to a floor fight and emerge bloody and victorious... and then pay off the debts.

This also explains the behavior of her top surrogates. This pyramid scheme was the only way they'd get paid as well. The Clintons made too many promises since 2000 to too many people - my assumption is they have a "promise debt" to go with this money debt - and so all of her surrogates needed to go along.

Its the mentality of a gambler, really. If you're so deep in the hole, the concept of stopping is crazy because if you owe $10,000, then the next humongous bet will pay that off if you win! And when that fails, make another humongous bet. Lather, rinse, repeat.