Clinton Campaign Burns Through $120 Million and Probably Won't Win

The Clintons, who are supposed to be the smartest political people in America, have spent $120 million on the presidential campaign thus far and is now reportedly something like $7.5 million in debt. And it's only February. Most of her donors are maxed out while Obama has a list of something like 700,000 small donors who still have room to legally give more. It's not looking pretty in Hillaryland.

So, where has all that money gone?

Nearly $100,000 went for party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucuses, even though the partying mood evaporated quickly. Rooms at the Bellagio luxury hotel in Las Vegas consumed more than $25,000; the Four Seasons, another $5,000. And top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's latest campaign finance report, published Wednesday night, appeared even to her most stalwart supporters and donors to be a road map of her political and management failings. Several of them, echoing political analysts, expressed concerns that Mrs. Clinton's spending priorities amounted to costly errors in judgment that have hamstrung her competitiveness against Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

"We didn't raise all of this money to keep paying consultants who have pursued basically the wrong strategy for a year now," said a prominent New York donor. "So much about her campaign needs to change — but it may be too late." . . .

The firm that includes Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton's chief strategist and pollster, and his team collected $3.8 million for fees and expenses in January; in total, including what the campaign still owes, the firm has billed more than $10 million for consulting, direct mail and other services, an amount other Democratic strategists who are not affiliated with either campaign called stunning.

I heard Dem strategist Bob Beckel interviewed on radio about the money paid to Mark Penn and he can't believe the bucks that are being thrown at that guy, and for what? Penn is the one who famously predicted that Republican women would defect en masse to vote for Hillary. Some strategist.

How confident do these numbers make you that Hillary will take good care of your tax dollars?