Winding Down the Clinton Campaign

At the very least, trial balloons are being floated regarding the Obama campaign helping to retire the Clinton campaign's debts.

No, this wouldn't mean that money donated to Obama would go to Clinton, as explained here. Instead, it would likely mean that Obama would make some sort of appeal to donors to send money directly to the Clinton campaign for debt retirement.

This sort of thing has been done before, but usually it involves helping a losing primary candidate who put her or his house in hock, or something similar. The Clinton campaign, on the other hand, has received what appears to be more akin to cash infusions from the Clintons' $110 million private fortune. Obviously, that makes it more difficult to make this kind of fund-raising pitch.

Then again, it seems that there are unpaid vendors for the Clinton campaign going all the way back to Iowa. Whatever the Clintons' ability to pay, quickly resolving all of these outstanding debts on behalf of the party has its positives. Also, Senator Clinton claims that she represents a "broad" group of voters for whom Obama will need help carrying in a general election.* If her campaign's debt is retired, then Clinton can concentrate on bringing her supporters into the Obama fold rather than spending it fundraising for her now defunct presidential campaign.

It's a tough call.

* - I remain dubious that Obama won't pick up the vast majority of Clinton voters by the time November rolls around, with or without Clinton's help as a prominent surrogate or as a running mate. The question may better boil down to: How valuable is Clinton to the Obama campaign really?