Penn Ousted as Clinton’s Strategist

Mark Penn has been a pal of the Clintons for a great many years. He helped Bill Clinton win re-election as president in 1996 and engineered Hillary Clinton’s bid for the senate seat she now holds. He was the chief strategist (he insisted on the title) of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency, but he has resigned over a significant conflict of interests. He will continue to act as the campaign’s pollster.

At issue was Mr. Penn’s public relations firm and its client, the Colombian government. The Colombians wanted Mr. Penn to press their case for a free-trade agreement with the US. Unfortunately, Mrs. Clinton was on record as being opposed to the deal. The campaign manager, Maggie Williams, said in a statement, “After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign.” More than likely, he was told to give it up, but why quibble?

This comes over the week-end when the Clintons released their tax returns covering 2001-2007. It turns out that they made $109 million in that time, which puts them in a different class than the average Democratic voter in Pennsylvania who makes less than $50,000 a year. They released the documents at 4 pm on Friday, in a ham-fisted attempt to keep it all quiet. In the internet age, that doesn’t work. In fact, it just makes what should be a non-event into a “what are they hiding” sort of issue.

Despite the bad news and the shadiness of the tax returns’ release, this is all probably good for the Clinton effort. Mr. Penn has been loathed for months by other Clintonistas. He has pocketed a rather substantial fee for what can only be described as bad advice. He was the guy who decided to run on “experience” rather than “change,” and who wrote off the caucus states because Mrs. Clinton would have everything wrapped up by February 5.

It is probably too late to change themes before the Pennsylvania primary in two weeks. However, there is a sense in the Clinton camp that the bad news is out of the way. They can point to $10 million they gave to charity, and they have removed a difficult person from the campaign. Now, if she can just avoid lying about Bosnian sniper fire again . . . .

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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