Are people who donated money to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign coming around and supporting Barack Obama? Apparently, it all depends on how you look at it.
The Huffington Post had a pessimistic take on the situation. The Web site's Seth Colter Walls tallied the number of "Hillraisers" -- bundlers who raised $100,000 or more for Clinton's campaign -- who donated to Obama's campaign in June. He found only eight, who combined for a total of less than $20,000 in donations to Obama.
But the Washington Post has a different perspective. On the paper's blog the Trail, Sarah Cohen and Matthew Mosk tallied the number of Clinton donors who gave to Obama for the first time in June and found more than 2,200, who combined for a total of $1.8 million in donations. (Obama raised $52 million total for the month.) Cohen and Mosk also pointed out a flaw in Walls' analysis. Bundlers like the "Hillraisers" in question raise money by soliciting and combining donations from other people; their own personal donations are not the reason they're important and some don't even contribute any of their own money.
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