The Dead Guy

Mark Penn

A big hullabaloo was made Sunday of Mark Penn “resigning” his position as Chief Strategist. However, Clinton Campaign Manager Maggie Williams states, “Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign.” This is what he (and his firm) did under his official position of “Chief Strategist”. Nothing has changed. He’s still doing the same work he did before, just without the title. This is nothing more than the ol’ 3-Card Monte trick and the “Jack” has been palmed so that the public can’t point him out.

***UPDATE (April 7 - 12:53 pm CDT) “Mr. Penn “is still going to be very much involved.”" - source The Atantic’s Marc Ambinder. Why did he resign? Well, it goes back to Free Trade and NAFTA. Remember:

1. President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law, which went into effect in 1994. At the time, First Lady (now Senator) Hillary Clinton was public in her support of her husband’s efforts with NAFTA.
2. In 2004 Senator Clinton stated, “I think on balance NAFTA has been good for New York and America.”
3. As she started ramping up her campaign for President - her view on NAFTA became more pronouncedly negative toward NAFTA.
4. NAFTA became huge in the 2008 Ohio Presidential Primary - with questionable information about both the Clinton and Obama campaigns possibly telling Canadian officials that their public positions aren’t necessarily their policy positions (the ol’ wink and a nod). However, an investigation is underway in hopes that the truth will come out on this consipracy.
5. Penn, as public relations giant Burson-Marsteller CEO, met with Colombian officials March 31 to help craft strategy to move the Colombian Free Trade agreement through Congress. Something that Senator Clinton is public against.
6. The Colombian government fires Penn and Burson-Marstellar as their lobbyists because of the impropriety of Penn’s actions.
7. So, in order to quell questions about Senator Clinton’s position on NAFTA and other Free Trade Agreements, Mark Penn has “resigned” as the Chief Strategist on Clinton’s presidential Campaign.

But really, is America really that stupid? He and his polling firm are still advising the campaign and still getting paid by the campaign and his ego is big enough to verbally bend others toward his will (as he did previously on campaigns). Whatever you do, don’t bet on the card on the table - the one that is important is being palmed in Clinton’s hand.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 2:26 and is filed under Hillary Clinton. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.