Interesting take on why Hillary won't quit from Earl Caldwell (Pacifica) [View All]

[HamdenRice]

Earl Caldwell is the host of a news/talk radio show on New York's Pacifica Radio affiliate, WBAI. Last week he made a long commentary on why he thought Hillary stayed in the race and will continue to bargain for authority within the Obama campaign and administration. Unfortunately, WBAI does not transcribe Caldwell's show, so I'll try to summarize it from memory.

He said that Hillary had relied on very large donors making large donations and bundled donations early in her campaign. These corporate donors do not make political donations simply because prefer one candidate over another or prefer one candidate's policies over another.

They make donations in exchange for promises -- promises about what the candidate will do when in office that will affect the donor's bottom line. Hillary, like most pre-Howard Dean politicians, basically made tens of millions of dollars worth of promises (that is, the amount she raised from big money corporte donors). These big money corporate donors are not going to say, "oh well, we tried, but I guess our woman lost -- so much for all that money we paid." These corporate donors do not take "no" for an answer. After taking money in exchange for promises, and failing to deliver, Hillary will be in a world of trouble if she cannot deliver.

We're talking big money and big promises. She either has to extract promises to deliver on her promises from Obama, or put herself in a position within an Obama administration to make sure her promises are carried out -- and since the vice presidencies of both Cheney and Gore, the vice president's office has taken on much greater stature in the policy making process.

Since Howard Dean showed the way in 2004, however, progressive Democrats increasingly do not have to make promises to big money donors to raise money, because they raise money, especially over the internet, from small donors, who do not extract promises. (If you are thrilled with Obama's nomination, you should take a moment to thank the good doctor!)

This is big money's last hurrah. If they can't extract promises now, they may never be able to again.