Hillary abandons assumption that race will be decided Feb. 5th

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/us/politics/13clinton.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

Mrs. Clinton spoke on the weekend when several of her advisers and donors said that the campaign had abandoned what was one of the fundamental assumptions of its strategy — that the nomination would be effectively decided on Feb. 5, when 22 states hold nominating contests. Her campaign has started to create an organizational hierarchy for its donors to accelerate fund-raising to pay for increasingly expensive advertising, travel and voter-outreach efforts, with a goal of raising more than $10 million by the end of January, according to several of the donors.

That target is important because several Clinton advisers and donors now believe that the Democratic presidential fight between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama may not end on the mega-primary day of Feb. 5, as Mrs. Clinton and others had initially expected.

Advisers and donors said Saturday that they wanted to have enough resources — building on the $20 million or so that they currently have on hand — to advertise heavily in the expensive media markets of California, New Jersey and New York, which vote on Feb. 5, and still have money to compete strongly in the primaries later that month.

The new Clinton donor hierarchy involves the appointment of national finance leaders — major donors who will take a key role coordinating fund-raising goals across the country and ensuring that financial pledges are delivered on time.

Among the new national finance leaders are four New Yorkers and long-time Clinton supporters: Maureen White, a former fund-raising leader at the Democratic National Committee; her husband, Steve Rattner, an investment banker; Hassan Nemazee, a veteran Democratic fundraiser; and Alan Patricof, a venture capitalist. Several more leaders are expected.

The new hierarchy was discussed at concurrent meetings Friday night that Mrs. Clinton held with several dozen donors in Los Angeles and that Mr. Clinton held with a similar group in Washington. Mr. Clinton was joined by the campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, and the campaign finance director, Jonathan Mantz.

According to three donors who were at the Washington meeting, Mr. Clinton and Mr. McAuliffe said that the campaign was now national in scope, with political and advertising efforts either under way or about to begin from coast to coast. Mr. Obama has similar efforts under way as well.

Donors were told that Mrs. Clinton would fight hard to win the Nevada caucuses next Saturday, despite some powerful union endorsements for Mr. Obama, and would also compete in the South Carolina primary, in spite of Mr. Obama’s strong support among black voters in that state.

JEDNE. :evilgrin:

:rofl: :thumbsup:

I think we need a little levity around here ... it's getting a bit heated.

It would mean that Obama was able to hang on to momentum.

She should have quit then and saved what's left of her reputation, if she ever had one.

due to unforeseen circumstances and some ineptitude and the German Army could not sweep into Paris by September 5th of 1914. And a long bitter war ensued.

We may be facing the first brokered convention in decades. In a way I kinda welcome it because it will reflect the real diversity of our party and force all of our candidates to deal with issues that are important to people outside of the corporate elite. I hope Edwards sticks it out as long as he can.

If Hillary takes Ohio and Obama takes Texas - both who hold their primaries on 3/4 - how does that get us anywhere?

and this is news how?