April 8, 2008
Look Closer (A.B. Stoddard)
It sure sounds real: Mark Penn got thrown under the bus, kicked off the Clinton campaign, dumped. But it isn't true.
After longtime advisers including Harold Ickes — as well as American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees head Gerald McEntee — urged Hillary Clinton to dump Penn over the weekend, she followed suit. But as with many things Clintonian, you usually have to look twice. Penn is on conference calls with top advisers and strategists, he continues to advise the Clintons and he will be helping her with preparations for the upcoming Pennsylvania debate on April 16.
Penn is the genius who discounted the importance of the early states but stressed the importance of Clinton as inevitable, invincible and all-knowing. She wasn't any of those three, but she is loyal. Penn has served the Clintons well for more than 12 years and no matter what his mistakes, she stuck by him — even after those brutal comments he gave The Los Angeles Times recently, when he divorced himself of any responsibility or authority in the campaign.
No matter that the Penn role in lobbying for a Colombian trade deal threatened her very political existence — so dependent as it is upon winning union support by a large enough margin to fuel a comeback. Clinton knows her continued association with Penn is a liability. But she thinks her voters won't find out about it.
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Yes, the only way for her to even hope to win was to invent a position on the Colombian deal that nobody believes in because it's stupid. Of course anything that comes out of her mouth and any of her action have no connection to any reality other than political reality, so what's the surprise? She stands for nothing but winning, and she can't even do that lately.
Comment by Igor R. — April 8, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
re:Rice as mccain's veep: it may well confuse the rightward leaning swift boat planning group to have a 71 year old who has set the stage for a black women who could be president running against a balck man who could be president;
seems they have a lose,lose situation on thier hands
Comment by robert berman — April 8, 2008 @ 2:14 pm
robert berman, you casually implied that being rightward leaning is the same as being a racist. You're pathetic.
Comment by Igor R. — April 8, 2008 @ 4:58 pm
What, something MRS Clinton said or did is not true. I guess we'll just have to give her points for consistency.
Comment by james d granata — April 8, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
That Senator Clinton did not absolve clearly and cleanly her relationship with Mr. Penn points to what her detractors feel highlights a character flaw, one with a recurring thematic: concern over the ease with which she expands and navigates gray areas. Or, as Linda Douglass put it on "Hardball" Monday evening: "Senator Clinton is tone deaf on ethical issues."
Comment by Rob A. — April 8, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
Rob A, Sen. Clinton lacks any redeeming value. As such, being tone deaf on ethical issues is only a minor point.
Comment by Igor R. — April 9, 2008 @ 6:12 pm