Clinton Asks Donors And Pledged Delegates To Back Obama

Two news reports suggest that Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton is indeed working behind the scenes to foster party unity by trying to get her donors and pledged delegates to back presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama.

Skeptics will say it’s pro forma. But, no matter what, given these reports Clinton can’t be accused of sitting on her hands.

For instance, in the case of her pledged delegates Marc Ambinder reports:

Multiple Democratic sources say that Sen. Hillary Clinton, in a series of private conversations and conference calls, continues to urge her pledged delegates to vote for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton plans a series of calls with superdelegates, interest groups and state delegations over the next few days. (One of them took place last night, according to this report from Iowa’s Quad Cities-Globe-Gazette.)

“She’s doing calls with supports and delegates and various other groups of supporters,” said Mo Elliethee, a spokesperson. “What she did was reiterate what she said on Saturday. She thanked them for their hard work and their dedication and all that they did for her and celebrated some of the accomplishments of her campaign…. And she urged them to get behind Sen. Obama and to work just as hard to elect him president.”

Ambinder points out that this isn’t quite the same as her releasing her delegates, which could create some complications.

In the case of her donors, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza reports:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top national fundraisers convened a series of conference calls today with major donors in various regions around the country to urge them to throw their financial weight behind Sen. Barack Obama — sooner rather than later.

The calls were led by Jonathan Mantz, the Clinton campaign’s finance director, and were cast as a follow-up on Clinton’s appeal for unity during her concession speech over the weekend.

“Honestly, reaction has been mixed,” said one source familiar with the calls. “There are a lot of hurt feelings out there. And a lot of folks that want to make sure Hillary is respected through the remaining process.”

Does “respected” mean that unless she’s offered the Vice Presidential slot she’s not being “respected?” If so, there’s a good chance she won’t be respected…

The problem for Clinton supporters is that if Obama loses and it’s determined that it’s partially due to Clinton supporters not supporting the ticket, then in 2012 they’re going to face an angry segment of the Democratic party that will work tirelessly to scuttle any Clinton comeback attempt and back a new non-Clinton family candidate.

It’s also hard to believe that given strong policy differences between Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Senator John McCain that Clinton supporters wouldn’t work to defeat McCain. Republicans don’t seem to forget about the impact of Supreme Court appointments. Democrats do…

What’s interesting now are the dynasty dynamics.

The Bush “brand” looks nearly decimated now (Jeb may have to wait a while) with the presidency of President George Bush.

The Bush brand is now like what Wendy’s was for a brief while when someone found a (planted) human finger in one of its restaurant’s bowls of chili.

But the Clinton brand survives and flourishes due to Hillary Clinton’s excellent concession speech speech and due to the potential of Chelsea Clinton. Let’s just not “go there” when we mention the impact of Bill Clinton’s 2008 performance on the Clinton “brand.”

Bill Clinton is now to Hillary Clinton what Billy Carter was to Jimmy Carter.