Clinton fund raisers not rushing to help Obama

NY Times:

A significant number of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top fund-raisers remain on the sidelines and unwilling to work for Senator Barack Obama, a nettlesome problem that appears to be contributing to the campaign’s failure to keep pace with ambitious fund-raising goals it set out for the general election.

Even as Mrs. Clinton prepared for her moment in the spotlight on Tuesday night, with a speech expected to offer a strong embrace of the nominee, the lingering rancor between the two sides appears to have intensified with the convention this week, with grousing from some Clinton fund-raisers about the way they are being treated here by the Obama campaign in terms of hotel rooms, convention credentials and the like.

Tensions were already running high going into convention week, particularly in the aftermath of disclosures that Mr. Obama did not vet Mrs. Clinton or ask her advice on his vice presidential pick.

Many major Clinton fund-raisers skipped the convention; others are leaving Wednesday, before Mr. Obama’s speech.

More broadly, a consensus appears to have emerged among many major Clinton donors that the Obama campaign did not do enough to enlist their support, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen Clinton fund-raisers.

“I’ve had more contact from the McCain campaign since the nomination than from the Obama campaign,” said Calvin Fayard, a New Orleans lawyer, major Clinton fund-raiser and longtime Democratic donor who is not in Denver this week.

Mr. Fayard said he was considering supporting Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, citing what he perceived as Mr. Obama’s inexperience.

After Mrs. Clinton suspended her campaign in June, the Clinton and Obama campaigns publicly vowed to work toward integrating Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising apparatus with Mr. Obama’s.

But it appears that much of that effort has fallen short, said former Clinton supporters who have decided to begin raising money for Mr. Obama.

“I believe to date I’m a minority,” said Hassan Nemazee, a former national finance chairman for the Clinton campaign who said he has raised more than $500,000 for Mr. Obama in the last few months. “I still firmly believe there is a tremendous amount of untapped resources that can be tapped if the Obama campaign pro-actively engages people in the Clinton world.”

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I am not sure how much untapped money there is for Obama especially as it appears his prospects of success are shrinking. His gamble that he could out fund McCain over the last two months of the race may backfire as he has to take time from campaigning to raise more money while McCain is not distracted because he will be taking the federal funding.

You can see some elements of the problem as Obama is pulling back from his 50 (57?) state strategy to redirect resources to states that are more winnable.

With his so far lackluster convention the excitement for his campaign appears to be ebbing.