Hillary Clinton Heads for the Bank
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton raised $22 million this summer for her presidential primary campaign and reported more new donors in that quarter than her chief rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. A look at where the money race stands.
ALISON STEWART, host:
We'll get to today's top stories from our newscaster Rachel Martin in a just a minute, but first, here's the BPP big story.
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STEWART: Show me the money. That's the big news in presidential politics.
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STEWART: Oh, yeah. Senator Hillary Clinton laughing all the way to the bank as her third quarter fundraising tallies showed the Democratic candidate beat all her rivals. She raised $27 million in campaign donations. It was her best three months fundraising total of the year.
LUKE BURBANK, host:
Senator Barack Obama, he raised $20 million. The big news, kind of sadly, is -for him, anyway - is that John Edwards, he raised $7 million. Most of that money raised goes to the primary campaigns, although some of it has a - some of it can be reserve for the general election. This is the first time Clinton has beaten Obama in primary fundraising.
STEWART: She also attracted a 100,000 new donors compared to Obama's 93,000 new donors, but on the campaign trail, Senator Obama not backing down. He's been on the offensive this week, taking on Clinton and his other opponents who initially supported the Iraq war.
BURBANK: On Tuesday, which marked the fifth anniversary of a speech in which Obama declared his opposition to the Iraq invasion, Obama revealed a new campaign strategy which seemed very specifically aimed at one person: Her name rhymes with Schmillary.
Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois; Presidential Candidate): The Congress, the administration, the media and the American people all understood what we were debating in the fall of 2002. We need to ask those who voted for the war, how can you give the president a blank check and then act surprised when he cashes it?
STEWART: The reference a not-so-veiled jab at Senator Clinton, who said…
BURBANK: That's what I'm talking about.
STEWART: …yeah - repeatedly, that if she had known then what she knows now, she would have voted differently on the Iraq resolution. In the same speech, Obama, well, he got even more pointed.
Sen. OBAMA: So there is a choice that has emerged in this campaign, one that the American people need to understand. They should ask themselves who got the single most important foreign policy decision since the end of the Cold War right and who got it wrong?
BURBANK: Well, if campaign donations are any indication, it looks like more people are ready to look past Hillary's vote on Iraq, or at least accept her explanation. It is worth noting, though, that Obama still holds the lead in primary fundraising and that the two are on par for overall fundraising.
STEWART: Now, Republican fundraising totals for the quarter aren't out yet, but they are expected soon. But overall, Democrats have raised an estimated $235 million during the first nine months of the year, and one GOP analyst told the Washington Post, by the time the Republicans reveal their latest numbers this week, they could be more than $90 million behind.
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STEWART: She seems pretty happy about that.
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STEWART: And that's today's BPP big story.
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