I mean, if you want to read meaning into the text, you could just as well argue that had the author left out the "some", it would have disrespectfully ignored the contributions of Clinton's own supporters.

"Comes word tonight that Sen. Barack Obama is ready to help Sen. Hillary Clinton clear some $10 million in debt owed to vendors who served her campaign for president."

Then, the third paragraph, which is quoted above by Jeralyn provides this:

"A Democratic source with knowledge of the situation said Obama instructed members of his national finance committee during a conference call today to help Clinton with some of the $10 million she owes to vendors."

I'm not an Obama supporter - I really liked Edwards enough to give him money.  I haven't given Obama a dime and probably won't.  Didn't give Clinton money either.  But after Edwards left the campaign, I knew I would unreservedly vote for the Democratic Party's nominee.

But it seems that you used a very lawyerly tactic of deconstructing someone else's statement and applying your spin to Obama in the matter of raising money to pay off Senator Clinton's .

Of course, I, too will vote for Obama but let's try to give each other the benefit of the doubt until we know we've been had.

I'm personally much more exercised over the doings in Zimbabwe and the FISA telecom immunity vote.

Yes, the Clintons earned $110 million over an 8 YEAR period.  But, they certainly don't have 110 million in the bank.  They paid their fair share of taxes on that which we now know because they released their tax forms.  They paid over 33 mil in taxes.  They also donated millions to charity.

Hillary also loaned her campaign around 11 million of her own monet which she DOES NOT PLAN to pay back to herself.  That 11 million is her own investment into her campaign.

I could discuss all the other "talking points" you rambled on about.  But, they've been disected enough.

She cannot use that money to help pay off her primary debt.

But, she has ASKED her donors to send in requests to have those donations re-directed to Obama's general election campaign.

So, she is asking her donors to help Obama as well.

Sixty percent of the Obama campaign's funds come from people who have given at least $1,000 -- the kind of donors who are most often recruited by bundlers. Less than 30 percent of his contributions came from people who gave less than $200.

People are questioning the frequent claim of his campaign and his supporters that he gets most of his money from small donors.  Since that claim was used as his excuse for opting out of public financing, which he formerly supported, it is perfectly reasonable for people to question 1) its veracity; 2) what is being counted; and 3) how.

So can we stop pretending that this is some tremendous act of generosity on Obama's part?

I thought it was a good conciliatory gesture on his part. I am glad they will be campaigning together tomorrow, and I think it was the right thing for him to do to ask his donors to help her with her debts. I don't think he was intentionally trying to put a limiter on the statement.

It is probably true that she will raise more for him than vice versa though, because she has more connections to big donors, being the wife of a former president, and donors are generally more interested in donating to an active campaign than paying down debt.

Obama's campaign always discusses this issue in terms of DONATIONS and not DONORS.  This makes me think they are fudging the numbers.  They like to claim that the average donation is $86.  But, they never tell you whether the average donor gives on $86 in TOTAL.

If an average donor gives $86, but gives it multiple times, does the Obama campaign still consider this a small donor and an average donation even though the donor could have given the $86 average donation ten times and really has donated $860 in total and is by no definition a small donor.

Though I think she'd be far better off paying the debt herself. He didn't cause her to create the debt after all. Those were the choices she made so it's pretty generous of him to help at all. Paying the vendors is paramount since this is a direct impact on people lives.... regular people. The should be paid pronto even if it is out of her own pocket.

No, he can't transfer funds from his campaign to hers, but he can instruct his fundraisers to help raise some seperate funds for her. I'm fine with that if that's his choice. I don't think it does much for women on the whole for her to not do it herself or write off her loans as a "donation" to her campagin. And once her campaign was over and "her fundraisers" decided to help Obama, well, then they're no longer "her fundraisers" raising money for Obama, they're his fundraisers. This isn't a co-nomination.

Sen. Barack Obama has asked top contributors to help his former rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, retire her debt, an Obama campaign source said Tuesday.

Obama did not direct members of his National Finance Committee to contribute to Clinton's campaign, the source said, but asked them to do so if they were so inclined.

I wonder if he used the word "some" as a limiter and if so, why?

The comment this refers to, i.e. -

A Democratic source with knowledge of the situation said Obama instructed members of his national finance committee during a conference call today to help Clinton with some of the $10 million she owes to vendors.

(emphasis mine) - is a paraphrase within a paraphrase: a journalist indirectly quoting someone else who in turn indirectly quotes Obama.