February 22, 2008 -- AUSTIN, Texas - Hillary Rodham Clinton's free-spending campaign blew a whopping $95,000 at a low-end supermarket-deli chain last month in Iowa - a telling sign of why she can no longer cut the mustard financially against Barack Obama in critical states.
Clinton's latest campaign filings reveal how a sprawling, top-heavy campaign organization splurged on posh hotels and pricey consultants but still struggles to define its message against Obama, a charismatic opponent whom Clinton's camp now calls the front-runner.
The $95,000 charge came at the Hy-Vee store in West Des Moines, a grocery and deli chain that is a fixture in the state, on Jan. 1, just two days before Obama stunned Clinton by beating her in the Iowa caucuses.
The campaign didn't confirm what the charges were for, but it bragged just a few days before the new year about a plan to provide deli sandwich platters at caucus sites across the state in order to get Clinton's supporters to come early.
At the time, the idea seemed like evidence of Clinton's massive turnout operation, but in hindsight it indicates Clinton's support was soft compared to Obama's hungry army of first-time voters.
The heavy spending helps explain why Clinton's camp ended the year $7.6 million in debt, not including her $5 million loan to her campaign.
The campaign team has plowed through $116 million so far."
With Hy-Vee prices being as lofty as they are I wouldn't consider it to be a "low-end deli", and the POST writer is showing his full frontal NY snobbery because few states have real deli's to begin with. Oh shit I'm a snob too...
Anyway, for those of you unawares of Hy-Vee, think Publix or Shop Rite, or Foodtown, and for one who lived in Iowa the Hy-Vee offerings were actually quite good, but the crux of the tale remains with the high spending Clinton's and their belief that the money would forever pour in and who cares because they'd have the campaign all but won come March anyway.
Whoops.
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