Bill CLinton Releasing Donor Names

[Anonymous]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081130/pl_nm/us_clinton_2

Can someone explain why this is a big deal? Hillary is to be appointed Secretary of State, so Bill will have to release names of donor's to his foundation -- I get that.

But she was previously running for president. If she had won the Dem nomination and won the election, wouldn't he have also had to reveal all those names, anyhow? So clearly, he should have been prepared for this possibility --right?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
But she was previously running for president. If she had won the Dem nomination and won the election, wouldn't he have also had to reveal all those names, anyhow? So clearly, he should have been prepared for this possibility --right?

He probably was prepared. You're right that if Hillary would have won the nomination, there would have been demands that Bill release the names. Indeed, there were such demands even during the primary. However, the Clintons would have wanted to control the timing and method of release in order to minimize potential damage. Hence, no precipitous release, but there probably has been a lot of thought prior to the last couple of weeks.