Monday, 04.07.08
A Semi-Defense of Mark Penn
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Inside the Clinton shake-up
February 2008
Joshua Green explains how arrogance has unraveled and undermined the Hillary camp.
The news of Penn's having been forced out set off a wave of recrimination that's likely to last all week, in part because Penn won't have many defenders. Few people in politics are as reviled, especially inside the Clinton campaign, where he feuded with just about everybody.
Let's stipulate that, yes, Penn was a detriment to the campaign, and possibly the worst spokesman imaginable for Hillary Clinton: he managed to combine arrogance, entitlement, and ostentatious insincerity in a way that heightened those very traits in a candidate who herself possessed them in spades. And, yes, his work for the Colombian government to pass a free trade agreement that Clinton opposes was a firing offense, and only the latest in a string of buffoonish and tone-deaf acts of political malpractice committed during the Democratic primaries: repping Countrywide, Blackwater, even a Chinese toymaker whose product was coated in GHB, the date-rape drug.
If the Democratic primaries ever draw to a close, Penn can no doubt add to this c.v. the preponderance of blame for steering Clinton's campaign to a loss. He certainly deserves his share. But it's worth remembering that what he advocated wasn't all wrong, and a lot of what went wrong didn't fall under his purview. The insta-analysis of Penn's departure faults him for presenting Clinton as the steady hand at a time when voters crave "change." But she could never outdo Obama on that front. Others fault him for drawing sharp distinctions instead of trying to "humanize" Clinton, as though 16 years could somehow be wiped away. Penn's idea of targeting women and highlighting Clinton's experience, which some (like me) found laughable, doesn't look quite so bad in hindsight. It has won her considerable support -- and as far as I know, it wasn't Penn who had her keep repeating those tall tales about the tarmac in Tuzla. His "3 a.m." ad was her biggest hit in weeks and probably allowed her to keep running.
Penn's choice to present her as "inevitable" was beyond arrogant. As Tip O'Neill said, "Voters like to be asked." But in the end, Clinton's campaign is in its final throes because she was unprepared for a long race and has been badly beaten on the delegate front -- especially in places where she didn't compete. Her blowout losses in caucus states were not primarily a result of message or ineffective ads -- Penn's area -- but of organization and resources. She simply didn't have the money to compete. And the blame for that lies elsewhere.
Bad friendsAri Berman analyzes Clinton's entanglement with Penn and the corporate establishment he epitomizes. |
The inner circleMichelle Cottle chronicles the shake-ups and dust-ups of Team Hillary's omnipotent advisers. |
Soccer moms, lefties, and amazons? Oh my!Ezra Klein reviews Mark Penn's book Microtrends and finds that "Mark Penn cannot handle numbers." |
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Is that the finger that Mark Penn is giving all of us and Hillary in that picture above? Absolutely amazing, maybe the media can keep licking Hillary's feet a little longer. Here you have a senior campaign strategist meeting with Colombians on a trade deal and Hillary knows nothing about it. Kind of shows her judgement about the people she hires. This is not like someone who didn't know what he was doing. We are talking about negotiations with the Colombians. So this is good for Clinton? She didn't distance herself from him,just gave him a demotion. Instead of 1 million dollars a month, he now only receives 500,000 per month. So you really think that this is good for Hillary ? This biased media will never cease to amaze me especially comments from the right. Well Major, you just don't have a clue. If Obama lost Ohio based on the possibility of someone just talking about NAFTA with the Canadians, this is actively campaigning for the Colombians to get a free trade agreement. Please Pennsylvania end this nightmare once and for all and vote for Obama.
What bothers me is the VERBAL ATTACKS ON OBAMA from the president of Columbia TWO DAYS AFTER MARK PENN'S "visit". It makes you wonder why the attacks since they BOTH HAVE THE SAME POSITION ON TRADE...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/5/01018/58668/686/490543
A foreign government official meddling in the affairs of American politics over a trade issue NEVER HAPPENS, unless you count Canada and NAFTA...
PENN IS ALSO ATTACHED TO MCCAIN (SEE LINK)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/24/14518/2213/544/463202
KICK THE SPECIAL INTERESTS OUT OF WASHINGTON, VOTE OBAMA!
Morg wrote: In the end, you're responsible for your staff.
Indeed, as the current occupant of the White House reminded us of so well and so frequently....
In the end, you're responsible for your staff. It seems odd that she didn't ask him to stop his other consultant jobs while he was her strategist. And pretending that she didn't know he was working for Colombia is disingenuous. I remember hearing about it in January/February of this year. As for her money troubles, again, you can't shift blame when ultimately you're responsible.
Posted by Morg | April 7, 2008 1:04 PM