In a terse statement Sunday evening, Ms. Williams, the campaign manager, said, “After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign.”[...]
Mr. Penn met with the Colombians in his role as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations firm. He has refused to sever his ties to the company, which also represented Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, and through a subsidiary represented Blackwater Worldwide, the military contractor blamed for numerous civilian deaths in Iraq.
[...]
The Clinton campaign declined to make Mr. Penn available for comment.
[...]
Mr. Penn’s work on the trade treaty with Colombia threatened to undercut Mrs. Clinton’s support among the blue-collar voters who are a crucial part of her base, as well as call into question the sincerity of her populist economic message.
In my own mind, the sincerity of her populist economic message has always been in question. And yeah, I’m sure he “asked to give up his role as chief strategist”.
That isn’t the only fallout from his trip to Colombia.
On Saturday, the Colombian government fired Mr. Penn’s firm, saying his efforts to distance himself from them were an insult.
Ooops.
The article says that other campaign staffers have been crosswise with Mr. Penn for a very long time. Apparently he was only popular with Hillary. She’s replacing him with Communications director Howard Wolfson and pollster Geoff Garin . Let’s see if she can pick up some points now. It seems to me that if you have to have strategists win your nomination, you probably aren’t the best nominee.
Both McCain and Clinton seem to keep changing their public persona in response to polls and geographies. If they don’t know who they are, we can only expect somebody else to be shaping them in the oval office. So if Hillary is president, are we going to have to suffer through more of these inappropriately positioned people in her administration, having her stick by them loyally while they screw everything up until the pressure is so high she absolutely has to let them go? Haven’t eight years of that been enough?
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Update:
Ooops, here’s a little detail I missed.
Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign.
Not exactly canned canned. Why’s she holding onto this guy? Is he Hillary’s Karl Rove?
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