CLINTON CAMPAIGN CASH QUERY QUASHED: MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell asks about fundraising, gets the runaround.

Mitchell asked Brian Fallon why Clinton is doing a fundraiser in Philadelphia in the critical final days before the Iowa causes on Feb. 1. Clinton was originally slated to also have one in New York, but The Intercept reported that had been postponed until Feb. 16.

Mitchell noted Clinton trails Sanders in a Quinnipiac Iowa poll, suggesting Clinton might be “cutting it a little close.”

“Does she need the money because it’s now going to be a longer race than she had anticipated?” Mitchell asked.

“Oh, we’ve always planned for a long race, Andrea, and I don’t think we’re going to have any problem raising the resources we need to contest this nomination as far as it goes, but there’s also going to be other meetings that will probably be read out later in the day that she’s doing today,” Fallon said. “But, so, it’s not all fundraising, Andrea. But yeah, the realities of fundraising are what they are, but we’re ready for a long nomination fight, if necessary, but she’s still in Iowa every day this week.”

Clinton ran an expensive and top-heavy campaign in 2008, and nearly went broke in the early running, trying unsuccessfully to fend off the challenge from Senator Barack Obama. She’s running another expensive and top-heavy campaign in 2016, only this time the challenge comes from an elderly and almost-unknown self-avowed “Democratic Socialist” from tiny Vermont.

Given her political experience and proven fundraising skills, the way Clinton lurches from one unnecessary crisis to another should give voters pause about how she’d govern the country.