Political Tidbit

1. Hillary looked like she was fighting for her life last night. It was not a position of strength, and I think it did little to quell fears about the central issue in this fight -- her electability.
   
2. McCain secured a $4M loan from F&T Bank here in Bethesda, MD. If he used the federal matching funds as collateral, he can't withdraw from the matching funds program. The bank chairman says McCain did no such thing, offering instead as collateral "his long donor lists and his promise to raise it in the future."
   
   A promise to repay or, better yet, to do your best to repay is not collateral. It is a promise implicit in the loan agreement. Collateral is, by its very nature, there in case you can't repay, despite your best efforts.
   
   So, either the bank manager is lying - and the paperwork will show if that is the case - or it issued an unsecured loan. Either is bad. The first bad for the bank and will turn this into a scandal for the campaing; the second is just bad for the campaign, because the McCain-Feingold bill requires that loans to candidates be issued only where there is a reasonable assurance of payment. Nearly all loans have collateral, so I think anything less is not reasonable assurance.
   
   
3. And finally, if this means McCain only has $6M until September, his own campaign will cast in ironic relief the shortcomings of his campaign finance reform. If and when he runs out of cash, it will instead flow to the part (who will run 'Vote Republican' ads) and to 527s, who will attack the dems and urge Republican support. I don't think it will make a huge difference.