Reply #16: More details from the fundraiser with Axelrod...

[madfloridian]

http://origin.observer.com/print/69190/full

"Certainly, that was a key part of Mr. Axelrod’s mission during his visit to Mrs. Clinton’s financial and political base—to remind her supporters of the inevitable, but also to make preparations for their eventual incorporation. According to several guests at the $1,000-a-head fund-raiser, he talked about the campaign’s national voter-registration efforts reflecting its 50-state strategy; assured supporters that the campaign would respond quickly and convincingly to any coming Swift-Boat-style attacks; and recognized the difficulty members of the New York donor community had endured in supporting Mr. Obama early on.

He said the primary characteristic Mr. Obama would look for in a vice president was someone with whom he was extremely comfortable (which may not bode well for Mrs. Clinton’s chances). He said he had no idea when Mrs. Clinton would stop running, but pointed out the seemingly inexorable march of superdelegates to his candidate. He continued to address Mrs. Clinton with only the utmost respect, though, taking care to call her a formidable and worthy competitor. According to several Obama bundlers speaking on background, their job at this point wasn’t to flip the Clinton donors, but to achieve a seamlessness in fund-raising operations between the primary and general elections."

Differences in the fundraising techniques and methods are coming to the fore now.

Complicating matters is the lack of friends the Clinton donors have in the Obama camp. When the campaigns of Wesley Clark and Howard Dean collapsed ahead of the 2004 election, the party’s big-name fund-raisers found a home, and prominent roles and titles, with the Kerry campaign, thanks in part to their relationships with Hassan Nemazee, who was then Mr. Kerry’s national finance chair.

“What I can say is, if I were the national finance chair of the presumed nominee, I would do everything in my power to welcome supporters of the opposing side into the campaign as much as possible,” said Mr. Nemazee in an interview this week.

But the Obama campaign’s financial structure has an open architecture that frowns upon titles and is anathema to the “Hillraiser” system within which the old guard thrived.

Nemazee is remembered recently as one of the top donors for Hillary who had rough words with Howard Dean at a meeting of donors from both campaigns.

Two of Hillary Clinton's most prominent fundraisers tore into Howard Dean in interviews with me today, sharply criticizing the DNC chair for saying yesterday that super-delegates should say which Dem candidate they support "starting now."

"Governor Dean should do what he has said he will do -- refrain from injecting himself into the primary process, as millions of Democrats have yet to cast their votes," Hillary national finance chair Hassan Nemazee, one of the most influential fundraisers in the Democratic Party, told me today.

"If he wishes to do something productive," Nemazee continued, "he should exhibit the leadership necessary to resolve the Florida and Michigan impasse, which has disenfranchised millions of Democratic voters."

The chairman of the party is supposed to take part in the primary process, in case Mr. Hemazee is not aware. That is part of what the DNC does. Sounds like Mr. Nemazee thinks he is the boss of all of us.