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  Hillary's Money Bomb

  Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2008 5:41 PM | By Christopher Beam

  So much for being broke.

  The Clinton campaign is claiming they’re on course to raise $10 million in the wake of her Pennsylvania win. That’s a money bomb even Ron Paul would admire. According to the campaign, they’ve received money from more than 60,000 donors, of whom about 50,000 are new donors.

  Of course, the Obama camp takes this as a challenge. They responded with an e-mail to supporters citing Clinton’s fundraising: “We can't afford to let that go unanswered.” The way this usually works is the Clinton campaign touts some big number, only to be eclipsed by the Obama machine a day later.

  But $10 million is a lot to eclipse. That’s already half of what Clinton raised in March. It also erases her debt, which in early March was creeping past $9 million. (As Obama spokesman David Plouffe quipped on a call today, “I guess they can now begin to pay off some of their vendors.”) It puts her on her feet to compete with the inevitable Obama media blitz in Indiana.

  And most important, it shows that people haven’t given up on her. They really think she can win. In Pennslyvania exit polls, 43 percent of voters said they believe Clinton will win. (Even some Obama voters think so, according to the polls.) If superdelegates are looking for an excuse to dally some more, this could be it.

  Filed under: Hillary Clinton

About Christopher Beam

• Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter.

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