by Jim Tankersley
Mark Penn is out as Hillary Clinton's chief strategist.
Penn is a pollster who has guided the campaign's message - and clashed over it with other top campaign officials - since Clinton announced her candidacy more than a year ago. He asked to step down today, according to a press release from campaign manager Maggie Williams.
His exit stems from his decision to meet with leaders of Colombia last week to discuss promoting a free trade agreement between their nation and the United States. Penn took the meeting in his capacity as head of one of Washington's most powerful public relations firms, which the Colombian government hired to push the trade deal in Congress.
Clinton opposes the Colombia pact. Penn apologized on Friday for what he called an "error in judgment" in taking the meeting. That upset Colombian officials, who fired his firm. On Saturday, the campaign promised to provide Penn to the Tribune for an interview, but he never called.
The dust-up appears to have finally knocked Penn from his strategic perch - a move that was rumored as early as January, in the days before the New Hampshire primary; press accounts suggested Clinton's upset victory there helped him hang on. Last month, the Clinton campaign hired Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates. And Penn and Clinton’s communications director, Howard Wolfson, have had a rocky relationship.
Here's the release from the Clinton campaign:
"After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as Chief Strategist of the Clinton Campaign; Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign.
"Geoff Garin and Howard Wolfson will coordinate the campaign's strategic message team going forward."







Comments
Great. Now if only Obama will accept the resignations of all those who used McCarthistic tactics against Geraldine Ferraro, Bill Clinton, and yes, HIlary Clinton. Accusations of racism have no business being used to muzzle one 's critics.
Posted by: golden oldie | April 6, 2008 7:12 PM
Penn is going to quit but only half quit. How Clinton of him.
Posted by: Ron M | April 6, 2008 7:41 PM
Drip Drip Drip
I think we're finally hearing the death throes from the bankrupt Clinton campaign.
Clinton, NAFTA lies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BrPZYbCdJ4
Clinton, campaign fundraising lies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPIt7Sv_blE
Clinton, healthcare lies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrLupW8qJC4
Clinton lies about her role in the Ireland peace talks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBCmKkLdCuA
...and of course, Clinton lies about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6JN7ALF7Y
Posted by: JedReport | April 6, 2008 7:54 PM
All those years of "experience" and all Hillary has to show for it is bad judgment in picking campaign aides. Imagine what her cabinet would look like it. Scary!
Posted by: Richard Friedman | April 6, 2008 7:54 PM
A political campaign is like a house. If you build a house on a weak foundation the whole structure eventually becomes compromised. It's only a matter of time.
Posted by: Matt | April 6, 2008 7:56 PM
Hey Golden -- None of these folk were muzzled. They have kept on. FOX contributor Geraldine and Bill and Hillary have consistently, mainly by innuendo, worked to achieve every advantage they could, including most recently encouraging Superdelegates to believe the Wright issue will so hurt Obama in the fall election that they should gravitate to Hillary. Happily none of the stuff has worked.
It was Geraldine, incidentally, who pinned the racist label on herself. And the gullible non-fact-checking MSM tended to accept her characterization. You might heed the Clinton campaign and use the McCarthy label a mite more sparingly.
Posted by: Stephen Rose | April 6, 2008 8:00 PM
Accusations of racism have no business being used to muzzle one 's critics.
Posted by: golden oldie | April 6, 2008 7:12 PM
MJ,
Your little spiel still fails to explain your blatant racism on here every single day against all things Barack Obama, all the while doing so under a wide assortment of different post names.
Your constant race baiting is pathetic.
Posted by: John E | April 6, 2008 8:00 PM
Too bad Hillary is incapable of learning from him and also quiting!
Posted by: Reality | April 6, 2008 8:15 PM
I'm surprised he's not going out with another comment about cocaine - He loved to talk about that. Usually these people let out a final low blow and then say they were planning to resign.
Posted by: Stevo | April 6, 2008 8:17 PM
Accusations of racism have no business being used to muzzle one's critics? How about telling Clinton supporters that veiled and even blatant racist comments have no business being used to try to close the gap in a presidential primary.
Posted by: Jerry O | April 6, 2008 8:23 PM
Who is this Hilary person?
jc
Posted by: John Currey | April 6, 2008 8:24 PM
McCarthistic? As in, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Democratic Party?" Isn't that the question we should be asking when one of our Democratic Party candidates starts praising her Republican opponent?
Posted by: Tom O | April 6, 2008 8:33 PM
A rickety car with no brakes, sailing over a cliff. Its a bit late to try to fix its engine!
Posted by: David Irby | April 6, 2008 8:35 PM
Mark Penn's big mistake (besides his awful campaign strategy) was that he didn't make his exit before he lost the Columbia gig. When the campaign starts running out of money it's time for the overpaid consultants to head for the exits.
Posted by: Tom O | April 6, 2008 8:35 PM
This is B.S. Although I don't care for the Clintons, this guy will still get some type of salary from her campaign for a while. American voters really don't have a good track record of voting for the right candidate. They just don't get.
Posted by: Ron | April 6, 2008 8:51 PM
A metaphor for the entire Hillary campaign. p.s. Hillary when people contribute to your campaign, your may want to be organized enough to ask them for more money.
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | April 6, 2008 9:00 PM
Ok...it's clear to me now that the Clinton campaign is off the tracks. Maybe it is time for her to concede and let us concentrate on McCain. Please, Mrs. Clinton, stop the campaign, throw your support in for Obama, and let's start challenging the Republicans instead of each other.....Please!!
Posted by: Lisa | April 6, 2008 9:34 PM
YOU GUYS ARE EVEN DOING IT ON THIS POST! Why is it 'racist' to point out the Obama campaign (or are you guys here unpaid vols?) uses twisted tactics? What do I mean?
McCarthy-like claims of 'racism'--
1. calling out Hilary for rightly stating that LBJ signed the civil rights bill
2. calling out Bill for saying Obama's appeal was similar to what Jesse Jackson received
3. calling out Geraldine Ferraro for saying that she herself had benefitted in the same way Hilary and Barack now benefit for being something other than a white male.
Really really dirty McCarthy like tactics--calling Geraldine Ferraro's employer and trying to get her fired. And, how STRANGE that she has to go on fox to explain this crap.
Posted by: golden oldie | April 6, 2008 11:37 PM
Uh, Lisa--it's SENATOR Clinton. Sorry you didn't get the memo that Hilary had hung out her own shingle.
And, no, it is the young Republican lite poser Obama who needs to drop out of the race. OMG was I just racist for using the word 'race'?
Posted by: golden oldie | April 6, 2008 11:40 PM
Stephen Rose---Geraldine Ferraro did NOT pin the racist label on herself. The Obama operatives and Obama himself did. Which is why he must end his premature campaign. He lacks good judgment and needs to sit at the knees of the Clintons and get a clue. As do you. Calling people with whom you disagree racist is profoundly un--American. Calling Ferraro and the Clintons Fox 'contributors' is false enough to make me wonder whether you're on the Obama campaign payroll.
Posted by: Golden oldie | April 6, 2008 11:59 PM
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 8:14 AM
This points again to Clinton's much-repeated and very questionable claim about her experience and readiness.
Why didn't she fire the guy?
And why not fire him sooner?
Posted by: John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada | April 7, 2008 8:24 AM
Hillary enjoy your return to the Senate!!!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | April 7, 2008 3:05 PM