by Jill Zuckman
Hillary Clinton’s top strategist, Mark Penn, was forced to resign today, following a series of disappointments at the ballot box and most recently, an embarrassing conflict of interest.
Penn (pictured at right), who runs public relations giant Burson Marsteller and the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland, met with the leaders of Colombia last week to discuss forging a free trade agreement between the South American nation and the United States. The Colombian government had hired Burson Marsteller to advocate for the trade deal in Congress.
But Clinton opposes the agreement and has campaigned vigorously in Ohio and now Pennsylvania, appealing to labor and touting her refusal to go along with trade deals that could be harmful to workers.
“It was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said one Clinton adviser.
Penn apologized for his “error in judgment” and was promptly fired by the Colombian government.
Maggie Williams, Clinton’s campaign manager, issued a terse statement late Sunday afternoon saying that Penn had asked to give up his role as chief strategist. She said Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who recently joined the campaign, and Communications director Howard Wolfson will coordinate the campaign’s message.
Penn, who worked as President Clinton’s pollster and advised Hillary Clinton in both of her Senate races, had become an increasingly isolated figure within the campaign. Other advisers refused to talk to him and tales of shouting matches quickly became public.
In recent weeks, other campaign aides were openly dismissive of Penn’s political analysis. “Don’t listen to everything Mark Penn tells you,” one senior adviser warned.
With the disastrous, third-place result in Iowa, Clinton prepared to fire Penn and her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, the morning after the New Hampshire primary. But Clinton surprised even herself and won the first-in-the-nation primary, scrapping plans to reorganize her campaign.
Penn was the person who argued at the start of her campaign that Clinton’s appeal to women voters would carry her to victory because women make up a majority of the electorate. But he clashed with other advisers about whether Clinton should try to project strength or warmth on the campaign trail, and the staff complained that he did not share polling data with them.
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Comments
Maybe Penn just now realized he's not going to get paid from the bankrupt Clinton campaign. I somehow doubt Hillary has a Plan B to deal with his loss, just as she hasn't had a Plan B for any of the other unexpected things that have beset her campaign.
Posted by: localroger | April 6, 2008 8:05 PM
How could Penn resign after all of the sucess he's had so far? I mean, he coordinated this for Hillary, didn't he?
Clinton/Penn campaign strategy, 2008:
Clinton arrives in Bosnia with a planeload of medical personnel from N Ireland - mixed Catholic and Protestant, part of the historic alliance which she forged single-handed. Their mission is to bring medical aid to a young pregnant Bosnian girl who has been denied hospital care, and is consequently dying.
The plane lands, and she ploughs through withering sniper fire to the waiting armored vehicle. They proceed to perform field surgery on the girl.
After the surgery, she gets on the phone with the Canadian Prime Minister to flatly reject all his NAFTA proposals, just the way she rejected the invasion of Iraq (as she tells him); meanwhile Sinbad entertains the patient with his stand-up routine, and Chelsea is off raising money from Wall Street for other unwed mothers. Unfortunately the girl dies at one of Sinbad's punch lines...
...and so it goes, Mark Penn bites the dust...
Posted by: goga54 | April 6, 2008 8:11 PM
Hillary and her chief strategist not on the same page? How can anyone in their right mind expect these idiot democrats to govern this nation when they're not even on the same page amongst themselves IN THE MIDDLE OF A CAMPAIGN???
Posted by: Teddy Roosevelt | April 6, 2008 8:19 PM
hard to believe clintons did not know about this they were too arrogant to think it would matter.
Penn and his firm has been working with colombia's government to push the trade agreement through U.S. senate since March of 2007.
Over a year and hillary did not now. SOUNDS LIKE ANOTHER "MISSPOKE"
AFL-CIO of PA should withdraw their endorsement of hillary clinton as well as any other union loyal to their members.
Posted by: linda slatzer | April 6, 2008 9:26 PM
Along with the many lies that Hillary is now known to have told, I find interesting that Hillary never talks about how her 35 years of so-called experience started with her being FIRED by the general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee.
Per Jerry Zeifman, author of the book "Without Honor: The impeachment of President Nixon and the Crimes of Camelot'':
"I made a personal evaluation of Hillary Rodham (now Mrs. Clinton), a member of the staff we had gathered for our impeachment inquiry on President Richard Nixon. I decided that I could not recommend her for any future position of public or private trust.
Why? Hillary's main duty on our staff has been described by as "establishing the legal procedures to be followed in the course of the inquiry and impeachment." A number of the procedures she recommended were ethically flawed. And I also concluded that she had violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons."
Posted by: TJ | April 6, 2008 9:27 PM
The Clintons are a joke. Not sure why free trade with Colombia is bad, but that's the Queen B trying to save her career.
Speaking of jokes, why is Barack Obama so afraid to show up on Fox News Sunday? If he is too afraid to answer questions from journalist icon Chris Wallace, how in the heck is he gonna be able to meet world leaders, much less run a country?
Posted by: John D | April 6, 2008 10:05 PM
This is the last straw with Sen.
Clinton as far as I am concerned. So long as any candidate has fulltime lobbist working for them, the "peoples' "
interest will not always be given priority. The voters of Ohio were told and told that she and Prs. Bush pushed the NAFTA but the non-college educated white men would rather vote for a liar than an honest semi-black AA. So next month when your unemployment compensation runs out at least you can hold your heads up high because in your mind there is at least somebody lower on the ladder than you are. Sickening.
Posted by: Jules | April 6, 2008 10:06 PM
Doughboy,
Faux News is not a credible news organization.
And don't worry about President Obama's ability to handle world leaders. He will be well received after the worst president in history.
Posted by: Bubba | April 6, 2008 10:37 PM
Speaking of jokes, why is Barack Obama so afraid to show up on Fox News Sunday? If he is too afraid to answer questions from journalist icon Chris Wallace, how in the heck is he gonna be able to meet world leaders, much less run a country?
Posted by: John D | April 6, 2008 10:05 PM
Lil Johnny Buzzkill,
Obama doesn't go on Fox Noise Channel for a very good reason, he doesn't do interviews with Wingnuts propaganda outlets.
http://www.sivacracy.net/archives/fox3.jpg
Posted by: John E | April 6, 2008 10:40 PM
Aha.
Boy, those people in Ohio must feel stupid.
Hillary was telling them one thing and her chief strategist was telling our trading partners another thing.
Aha.
Give up, HIllary. You're killing the Dems chances in November. Bill's legacy is going to go up in flames if that happens.
Posted by: Resident Genius | April 6, 2008 10:41 PM
Speaking of killing the dems chances, Howard Dean is screwing things up like only he can. Howard now says the Michigan delegation will be seated, going back on his position that neither Florida or Michigan should be seated at the convention.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080406/POLITICS01/804060313/1361
We're going to Florida, then Michigan, then onto Denver, Colorado, yeeaaaaaaggggh!
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 12:59 AM
Now, when will Hillary step down ? This is really becoming pathetic. Yes Clinton supporters... we all know that Hillary has every 'right' to stay on ... just NO good reason at all. What she is effectively saying Now is that she is willing to sacrifice the Democratic Party's chances in November to insure her leverage to petition for the VP slot. That's pretty Sleazy politicking Clinton supporters and you know damn well it is. What does that make YOU at this point?
Posted by: PulSamsara | April 7, 2008 1:20 AM
"Hey Hillaruhh, iron muh shirt!"
"Mrs. Clinton, how do we combat global warming?"
"RodHAM make me muh HAM sandwich"
"Hillary, please tell the world about the pregnant woman who died along with her child..."
Now we know why Hillary's greatest support comes from the under educated segment of society. Let's all improve education, so we can save America from con artists like the Clintons.
Posted by: Find the Hillary Plant | April 7, 2008 5:16 AM
"Speaking of jokes, why is Barack Obama so afraid to show up on Fox News Sunday? If he is too afraid to answer questions from journalist icon Chris Wallace, how in the heck is he gonna be able to meet world leaders, much less run a country?"
Posted by: John D | April 6, 2008 10:05 PM
"C'mon guys... I answered like eight questions", said the Messiah.
Oprahma just doesn't like talking to the press at all. He has too much to hide.
Posted by: MJ | April 7, 2008 6:38 AM
Wake up and smell the sexism. WHEN WILL WE GET 30 YEARS OF TAX RETURNS FROM ROBINSON AND OBAMA?
The Obama supporters relentlessly race-bait anyone who disagrees with them even SLIGHTLY.
And, apparently being sexist is the last allowable habit of stupid people (male and female in America. But the smart people are now fighting back. Watch Geraldine Ferraro expose Randi Rhodes for the pea-brained person she really is:
http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2008/04/geraldine-ferraro-responds-to-randi.html
Why wouldn’t the other media outlets run this? Well, Fox knows there’s very little risk of Hilary winning anyway, so why not? But the other mainstream media outlets do not want to get caught doing anything to help THE ONE CANDIDATE WHO CAN STILL BEAT JOHN MCCAIN—AND THAT’S HILARY. Note who’s posting it—Tennessee Guerilla Women. News Flash—Hilary TOOK the mid-South, and you need that to win in the fall campaign. Barack’s fake wins in Iowa and elsewhere (republicans cross over, bosses intimidate caucus employees, stuffed ballot boxes in Minnesota), EVEN WHILE OBAMA REFUSES TO STEP IN AND SAY THE DEMS WILL REVOTE MICHIGAN AND FLORIDA!
Now, watch the Obama campaign trolls call me racist for saying so.
Unbelievable!
Posted by: geraldinetoo | April 7, 2008 8:30 AM