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Will Obama push Clinton out by helping pay her $20 million campaign debt?

Posted May 15th 2008 2:48PM by Peter Cohan
Filed under: Newspapers, Presidential elections

A front page story on Edwards backing Obama in today's Financial Times had an interesting unattributed comment near the end. In it, a source suggested that a deal could be in the works to make Hillary Clinton give up her quest for the Holy Grail -- err Democratic nomination.

The final paragraph in the print edition (this paragraph actually didn't make it into the online edition of the story) quotes one of senator Clinton's Wall Street backers as saying that the "'ultimate peace pact' with Obama could involve some sort of support from him to pay off her debts, which are estimated at $20m or more."

I am not sure how Obama would help Clinton pay off her campaign debts. Would he divert money he's raised from his supporters to Clinton? I don't think Obama supporters would be too happy about that. Or would he start a new round of fund raising with the explicit understanding that the money would go to Clinton? It's no surprise really that someone from Wall Street would be suggesting such a deal. I don't know whether this kind of thing has been done before but my hunch is that it has.

Every time I hear Clinton give a speech about how she's not giving up, I am reminded of a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In this scene, the Black Knight continues to threaten King Arthur despite getting both his arms and one of his legs cut off. In my mind, I imagine that the Black Knight is Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is King Arthur.

IMDB offers this excerpt:

Black Knight [Clinton]: Right, I'll do you for that!
King Arthur [Obama]: You'll what?
Black Knight [Clinton]: Come here!
King Arthur [Obama]: What are you gonna do, bleed on me?
Black Knight [Clinton]: I'm invincible!
King Arthur [Obama]: You're a loony.

In the wake of John Edwards' decision to endorse Obama and his apparently insurmountable delegate lead, it seems incredible to me that Clinton is still in the race. Unfortunately, her sense of entitlement will not permit her to accept reality.

Nevertheless, since Caroline Kennedy compared Obama to the ultimate knight of the round table -- JFK -- it would not surprise me if Obama gallantly offered to help Clinton erase her campaign debts as a way to get this bleeding black knight off the stage.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Tags: barack obama, BarackObama, Hilary Clinton, HilaryClinton, inthenews, Obama, Wall Street, WallStreet

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