In Focus: The Decline and Fall of Mark Penn
The takeaway from Mark Penn’s departure from the Clinton campaign is not the question of whether he was fired or he resigned in disgrace. It is that he so clearly believes Hillary is done for that he made sure to start re-plying his trade as a lobbyist before her concession speech was drafted. If even the disheveled frog prince of Democratic politics counts himself lucky that he hasn’t quit his day job, we can be certain that the mood among Hillary’s overpaid spinsters and functionaries is grim indeed.
Susan Davies of the Wall Street Journal broke the story that Penn, acting in his capacity as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, a communications and lobbying firm, attended a meeting with the Colombian ambassador to discuss the promotion of a bilateral trade agreement. Though Colombian emissaries have met with advisers to both the Obama and McCain camps, those advisers had not been there to honor their own corporate contracts. Penn’s action is thus seedier than Austan Goolsbee’s reassurances to Canada about Obama’s true trade policies, because Penn was acting on his own behalf, not to mention advocating an economic policy that his candidate-employer is said to oppose.
Penn apologized Friday for his “error in judgment,” but that didn’t stop Colombia from firing Burson-Marsteller, by far his more serious loss of business last week. He was also downgraded in the Clinton apparat to a pollster (he’s got another company to help him in that role, too), leaving Geoff Garin and Howard Wolfson as the sole “message” men.
Clinton’s desire to portray herself as a trade protectionist is heightened now that Obama, who is endorsed by the Teamsters, has narrowed her lead in Pennsylvania, a crucial working-class state that Clinton had all but sewn up a few weeks ago. The AFL-CIO was not pleased about her chief campaign strategist’s two-track diplomacy:
“The Penn situation — and the lack of action by you — raises serious questions about the veracity of your claims of what you would do should you become president,” the unions said in a statement released Saturday.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Penn has acted as if his loyalty to the campaign was entirely negotiable. He told the Los Angeles Times in February:
“I have had no say or involvement in four key areas — the financial budget and resource allocation, political or organizational sides… Those were the responsibility of Patti Solis Doyle, Harold Ickes and Mike Henry, and they met separately on all matters relating to those areas.”
Which makes him, if not quite a Judas of the Richardson stripe, then a hand-washing Pilate of the internal machinery. Greed, double-talking, opportunism, a singular ambition, matched by a willingness to sacrifice others when they are no longer seen as useful or on the winning side… The irony of all this is that Penn is now out of two jobs because of precisely those vices that once endeared him to the Clintons.
At Comment is Free, Michael Tomasky writes: “But you do have to wonder about the new internal structure that will replace the existing one. Penn had the last word on everything – the candidate’s schedule, what she did and did not stress in her speeches, how she phrased things, which surrogates would go on television and out on the stump and how they would phrase things, the ads the campaign ran, the wording and images used in those ads … dozens of pretty important things. Now, those responsibilities evidently shift to communications director Howard Wolfson and another pollster, Geoff Garin, with others presumably playing somewhat more equal roles. It’s actually possible that there may be too many cooks in the kitchen.”
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air says: “the $10 million that Penn made from the Hillary campaign while essentially steering it into the shoals. Hillary had expected to win this nomination in a cakewalk, and yet got derailed by a candidate with even less experience in national office than she has. Even a year after his entry into the race, Penn never quite recognized the call for change outweighed the desire for a Clinton Restoration. The millions of dollars Hillary spent on his advice could just as easily been burned for heat.”
While Say Anything notes: “The current leadership in Columbia, under Alvaro Uribe, has been one of our most consistent allies in South America. One of the two Democrat contenders for President is firing people for working on a treaty with Columbia. Is this how Democrats plan to rebuild America’s image in the word?”
Michael Weiss is the New York Editor of Pajamas Media. His blog is Snarksmith.
“Hillary had expected to win this nomination in a cakewalk, and yet…”
This is not the fault of Mark Penn. It might similar to blaming him for the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages in Europe. Hillary Clinton is merely a white woman. She is a second class citizen next to “Barry” Obama, a man of color. Clinton needs to get out of the way and make room for the Obama who has been appointed by the zeitgeist of our era to rule the world. Mark Penn is not capable of saving her. He does not possess godlike abilities.
“This is not the fault of Mark Penn.”
Actually, it might be. If Penn was the one who developed the brilliant strategy of starting the campaign a year ahead of schedule then he bears a big chunk of blame. Clinton’s problem, and the one Obama now has, is the more people see the more they see to dislike, and Clinton was never likeable in the first place. A successful marketing strategy will accentuate the positive while minimizing the negative; Clinton’s prolonged campaign allowed time for the negatives to fester and minimized all the positives (I’m assuming there were some positives). Had the campaign started per normal then Clinton likely wouldn’t have imploded but now all she has left is “hope”.
I would have to agree the honey moon is over and her breath stinks in the the morning. I also believe that her story telling and inablility to take responsiblility for her mistakes. Have hurt her. I think we are going to get real sick of the last two candiates before its all over.
You must have transcribed the quote from Say Anything because you write “ColUmbia” multiple times while Say Anything has it right “ColOmbia”. I bet you are the kind of person that says “orientated” and “irregardless”. A rookie mistake like that makes you lose credibility big time.
Hillary says that she and bill have a serious problem with the Columbia trade Agreement. Liar liar her pants are on fire.
Like, really, Who cares?
McCain is a RINO so it doesn’t matter that BOTH demonrats are crashing and burning. The Republican candidate is a liberal, so this election will be between a liberal and a Socialist.
I think the Liberal will win. That is OK, President Bush isn’t a conservative either. That is why his approval ratings have stayed so low. He has both the socialists and the conservatives pissed at him.
I know many men who would choke if they were treated like the media have treated her. Senator Hillary Clinton, she is a great American and she does not break, the media has tried to break her, but all they do is make her more adored and loved every time they try another mean tactic.
The “He Man Woman Haters Club” should give it up, because she is not going away, she is too strong to back down to any of you.
Every day her strength and courage amazes me, and I’m sure there are many who will agree, more than 50% of the popular Democratic votes show this.
If the Super Delegates give their votes to Obama, well they must secretly want McCain as their next president or have ties to G. E. and that’s what I will believe if they do it.
I’m an old Democrat, we believe in God, Country, and Patriotism and we are a dying breed. I know it’s true, because I don’t want to associate with this party ever again if the Democratic Party turns to an unpatriotic politician from Chicago. He has not won the popular vote, but uses the system for his own purpose of shouting Hope and Change , and If the democratic party thinks that “Change” includes “Damning America” I want no part of them, and that’s why my husband is a Republican today!
I do not think Hope or Change in Washington includes Nuclear, because Nuclear has been around as long I have. Hope and Change in Washington is not being backed by a handful of billionaires, or a company like G. E. it’s the same old game Senator Obama plays, and that is not “Change”, it’s the same old game.
Whomever the next President is, he/she will have few choices. Folks…we are broke. The sea of debt that has been lapping at the railing of the deck for so many years has finally poured in.
The party is over. It’s China’s turn now. It is the Asian century. Let’s try to go out with more dignity than the British did.