The cowardice of Penn pushing

The demotion of Mark Penn from his position as Hillary Clinton's chief strategist is a depressing development.

Penn has been asked to step down for two reasons. Officially, it is because he held meetings with officials of the Colombian government. The Colombians are clients of Penn's PR firm and are advancing a trade agreement Clinton opposes.

So that's depressing point number one. Penn had to go because the unions don't want free trade deals. And Hillary wasn't prepared to stand up to them.

Couldn't she have argued that Penn is entitled to other clients? Is free trade now so poisonous that even the slightest association with a controversial scheme is a resignation issue?

The second reason Penn has been pushed out is that his campaign hasn't been victorious yet, and doesn't look like it will be. He is being blamed for advising Hillary to pose as the candidate of experience rather than as a candidate of change, the candidate of perspiration not inspiration.

And that's depressing point number two.

Yes, the advice he gave didn't clinch the nomination. But at this stage it can't be changed. So the point of the demotion is simply blame shifting.

There are two reasons why this is wrong.

First, because the strategy picks the candidate. Second because the candidate picks the strategy.

What do I mean by the strategy picks the candidate? You can only go with themes and ideas that suit the person running for office. Perhaps inspiration will always beat experience, but that doesn't mean that Hillary could have made an inspiration message work.

Do you really think that in an inspiration contest between her and Obama, she would have been the victor? Quite. And is that Penn's fault? No.

And even if Hillary could have made a change strategy work, is it Penn's fault she didn't pick such a strategy? No. It's her fault.

Insofar as it's anyone's. Because I think an experience strategy was a perfectly reasonable choice. It almost worked, didn't it? And if it had Penn would have been called a genius.

Demoting him at this point is a cowardly act.

Comments

[J. Christoph Amberger]

Cowardly indeed... but overall in keeping with the Clinton political creed.

[Vincenzo]

Daniel,

You shouldn't forget that while he was chief strategist for Clinton, he was still acting as the head of his company who was representing the Columbian government.

Penn has been around the block enough times to know that it would look incredibly bad if either of the two role collided.

For Clinton the negatives surrounding Penn where becoming larger and larger....at some point they needed to be cut. But probably she would have been wiser to do this earlier.

[DemsDeBreaks]

Demoting him at this point is just shy of what should be done - he should have resigned and left tthe campaign COMPLETELY. An Obama advisor calls Hillary a name and she is forced to resign. Penn advises a foreign government about how to pass an agreement that the candidate he works for opposes, and he's 'demoted.'

Two of Mr. Penn's other PR clients of interest: Countrywide Financial (in financial trouble similar to Bear Stearns) and Blackwater Worldwide (the private security firm under investigation by numerous government agencies for the deaths of civilians in Iraq).

C'mon folks. Haven't we had enough of our leaders being ‘owned’ by lobbyists and insiders?

[Mike]

I don't think you really get this do you Daniel? Politics is perception (rightly or wrongly) and Penn got it all wrong start to finish.

The Columbia thing was just plain clumsy from a supposed seasoned political operative - alternatively some could argue he engineered this to give himself an "out" before the Clinton campaign implodes post NC primary.

[Peggy Taormina]

Penn's demotion (in actuality, probably firing -- he'll be eased out completely in increments)is par for the course among the Clintons. From past history, anyone who displeases them in any way can expect retaliation. Just inquire how many so-call "enemies" were investigated for tax discrepancies, how many people involved in the various Clinton scandals, dating back to the Arkansas days, died of suicide or one-vehicle accidents. No strategy could paint Hillary as being inspirational -- unless one wished to learn how to be ruthless.

[Agmines]

The Clintons are inconsiderate people, Hillary and Bill will damage anyone and anything especially other candidates that oppose them. The Clintons then retreat into their money or their huge inattention as they continue to prowl for power at every opportunity.

Maybe this keeps them together or whatever it is that kept them together we now know they let other people clean up the mess they keep making.

At some point, in the real dark night of the soul it is always three o' clock in the morning, day after day for this couple.

The Clintons still have a following but the country is not buying what they are selling any longer in the numbers they need to win and stay in power. They have used the Presidency to gain wealth, power, and fame once but to do it twice is very doubtful now.