Dick Morris: Hillary Repeating 2008 Fundraising Mistakes

The last fundraising report indicates that the Sanders-Clinton match has all the hallmarks of the Obama-Clinton race of 2008 with Hillary making all the same mistakes now that she did then.

As her momentum has slows, so has Hillary's fundraising. In the winter — second quarter — she raised $48 million but in the third quarter, this past summer, she raised only $28 million. And, in contrast, Sanders has plenty of momentum. He raised only $10 million in the second quarter but put up an impressive $26 million in the third quarter, more than doubling his haul.

Hillary is doing the same old traditional Rolodex fundraising to get her money, phoning donors who max out, going to 58 fundraisers this quarter, and soliciting money hand over fist. The problem now, as in 2008, is that when the going gets tough and she needs financial reinforcements, her donors will be maxed out and unable to give more.

Meanwhile, Sanders is raising his money through the internet. He has gotten $1.3 million donations from 650,000 different people, putting him the same class with Obama's 2008 campaign. Back then, while Hillary sweated over her rolodex raising money with her best people maxed out, Obama had to only push the send button on his computer to re-solicit money from his small donors, none of whom were maxed out. Sanders' money will come in more and more easily as his internet base gives and gives again.

While Hillary has refused to reveal her cash-on-hand, her very reluctance attests to the likelihood that Bernie, right now, about equals her in that category. Sanders has about $25 million on hand, according to the New York Times. In her earlier report, Hillary indicated that she had spent 40 percent of her fundraising intake. As in 2008, Hillary is showing no discipline in spending money, assuming that her front-runner status would last forever. In Ed Klein's new book, Unlikeable, he chronicles how Bill urged his wife to hire high priced Obama consultants and operatives to lock them up so no other candidate could get them. Now, she has an overhead that will stagger her.

Hillary's slowdown in fundraising will likely get worse as the specter of Joe Biden looms ever larger over her campaign and her poll numbers continue to drop.

So far, the Sanders vs Clinton primary campaign looks like a re-run of the Obama vs Clinton campaign. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.