Hillary the speculator?

By Jerome J. Schmitt

Cattle futures speculation earned Hillary Clinton a hundred grand back in Arkansas decades ago. But more recently she has engaged in a different sort of speculation.

As we all know now, Hillary Clinton committed at least $5 million of her private capital on her failed campaign for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. She speculated on the outcome of the primary and that upon potentially winning the nomination, a flood of donor-cash would allow her campaign to pay back the loan. And more.

Since the outcome was opposite of her expectation, she is now anxiously seeking Senator Obama's help to retire the debt, in part because it is a violation of campaign finance laws to leave it unpaid. Perhaps it was unwise, but are we to conclude with Congressional Democrats that such speculation, similar to what occurs in the energy markets, is "bad" and should be outlawed?