Mark Penn Out is Bad for Obama

[NeedleCast]

Other than Hillary herself, no one has done a better job of helping Obama's numbers than Mark Penn at the helm. It's possible that with someone other than Penn's ego-maniacal self running the show that Hillary will actually do better. Most likely still going to be to little, to late. I'm still going to miss Penn's "scorched earth" campaign that seemed totally unable to grasp new methods in both grass roots and technological campaigning.

Bye Mark, I for one, am going to miss you almost single-handedly giving this campaign to Obama.

[bowens43]

1. It's too late for hillary.

for her it's all over but the crying....wait, she cries regularly now, doesn't she?

[polpilot]

3. Obama's in control. Nothing will stop him. Nothing.

[HereSince1628]

5. Be nice or you'll get hit with a book bag.

[JTFrog]

2. He's not out. Not even a new job description, just a new title.

Smoke and mirrors.

Don't expect people to fall for it. She'll have to fire him a few more times before he's really gone.

[virtualobserver]

11. maybe she should denounce and reject him, then give him a back rub

[NeedleCast]

12. That's Good Then

As long as he's around to torpedo Hillary we should be in good shape.

[zulchzulu]

14. Bingo! Mark Penn is STILL working for the Clinton campaign

He's still working for Hillary albeit not in the "title" given. According to various news sources, he will continue polling and other "advisement"...

[Vinca]

4. Wolfson hasn't done a whole lot better.

And, of course, she's got people like Carville sticking up for her.

[SharonRB]

6. I had the same reaction when I heard he was out

Aufvederzain, Mark. You're out!

This is probably not a good thing for we Obama supporters.

[JohnnyLib2]

7. Hmmm. Wonder what Clinton is up to with this and the Iraq revision?

Makes you wonder.

[OzarkDem]

8. Geoff Garin is in

He ran her successful senate campaigns and has a good track record..

http://www.hartresearch.com/about/bios/garin.html

[JayFredMuggs]

The average primary union voter ...

in PA sees the resignation of Penn, (however it's phrased) as a major stumble for Clinton, showing she wasn't really pro-labor, start considering Obama a reasonable alternative.

This may well put Obama over the top in PA. With that done, hopefully the Hillary folks will do the math, see the writing on the wall, and give up this ridiculous campaign, a campaign intended only to satisfy the Hillary ego.

[Political Heretic]

9. lol, that's true. However at this point I think its too late.

The wheels are truly coming off the clinton wagon.

[mod mom]

10. He is NOT out NPR stated this morning he will be polling & advising. This is another ploy

by the Clinton's to distance themselves from free trade and the Colombian president, but there is more than Mark Penn-like say Bill Clinton:

When the Clintons Mine Big Bucks
By Steve Weissman
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Thursday 03 April 2008

-snip

In June 2005, Giustra provided his luxurious MD-87 jet for Clinton to make speeches in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. According to Bloomberg News, the tour earned Clinton $800,000 in personal income. Giustra "has since put his plane at Clinton's disposal at least a dozen times to raise money for charity, his wife's presidential campaign or himself," Bloomberg reported.

American law does not permit Giustra, as a Canadian, to contribute directly to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Whether providing his plane to raise campaign money counts as a contribution, I leave to the legal eagles.

A far more telling payoff involved Colombia, which has long faced international condemnation for its well-documented violations of labor and other human rights. In the oval office and after, Bill Clinton never let this get in his way, steadfastly backing a free trade agreement with the country along with a $3 billion "Plan Colombia" to fight drug traffickers and guerrillas. As he publicly told Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and others in Bogota, he was "absolutely convinced that it was vital to American interests that Colombia succeed" against the left-wing narcotraficantes.

In September 2005, Clinton hosted "a philanthropic event" at which one of his aides arranged for Giustra to meet Uribe. According to The Wall Street Journal, the two men sat in the hallway speaking for about ten minutes. A Clinton aide later told Giustra the meeting had gone well.

Giustra wanted Colombian oil. He was working with a Canadian group that subsequently paid more than $250 million to operate oil fields in conjunction with Colombia's state-owned petroleum company. Giustra's associates - now operating as Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. - also signed an oil pipeline deal and was invited to do further oil-development work in Colombia, the Journal reported.

-snip

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040308R.shtml




Also, Bill Clinton has a friendship with President Uribe to the extent that he was invited as the honoree of the "Colombia Is Passion" award. Bill Clinton returned the favor by hosting Uribe as a “featured attendee” at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York last September.

More information can be found at Al Giordiano's report here:

http://narconews.com/Issue52/article3055.html



U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG "IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN

U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG
"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991

Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"


Confidential DIA Report Had Uribe Alongside Pablo Escobar, Narco-Assassins

Uribe "Worked for the Medellín Cartel" and was a "Close Personal Friend of Pablo Escobar"



Washington, D.C., 1 August 2004 - Then-Senator and now President Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia was a "close personal friend of Pablo Escobar" who was "dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín cartel at high government levels," according to a 1991 intelligence report from U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials in Colombia. The document was posted today on the website of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research group based at George Washington University.

Uribe's inclusion on the list raises new questions about allegations that surfaced during Colombia's 2002 presidential campaign. Candidate Uribe bristled and abruptly terminated an interview in March 2002 when asked by Newsweek reporter Joseph Contreras about his alleged ties to Escobar and his associations with others involved in the drug trade. Uribe accused Contreras of trying to smear his reputation, saying that, "as a politician, I have been honorable and accountable."

The newly-declassified report, dated 23 September 1991, is a numbered list of "the more important Colombian narco-traffickers contracted by the Colombian narcotic cartels for security, transportation, distribution, collection and enforcement of narcotics operations." The document was released by DIA in May 2004 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Archive in August 2000.

The source of the report was removed by DIA censors, but the detailed, investigative nature of the report -- the list corresponds with a numbered set of photographs that were apparently provided with the original -- suggests it was probably obtained from Colombian or U.S. counternarcotics personnel. The document notes that some of the information in the report was verified "via interfaces with other agencies."

More:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm

[Changenow]

22. Ploy? or lie? nt

[GodlessBiker]

13. Indeed. She should get rid of her entire campaign staff and that will be even worse for Obama.

But I understand your point.

[berni_mccoy]

15. I agree. He has been a disaster for her. But I'm still glad he's gone.

[zulchzulu]

16. Hillary Clinton's wacked out campaign is a glimpse of how she would be President

It's not going to happen, but her campaign is a perfect illustration of just how bad her administration would be if she were President. Off-message, too many messages, arrogant attacks, shedding advisors like fleas and with a husband who wants to add more shit to the soup because he says so.

This latest tack in the race should show just how a Clinton II administration could be caught up in scandal after scandal.

[Cheap_Trick]

17. Hillary

has been her own worst enemy.

[anigbrowl]

18. Wolfson is pretty lame as well

I don't think this is going to make a whole lot of difference, in all honesty.

[WolverineDG]

19. The knives are out for Penn now

Dee Dee Myers was just on MSNBC blaming him for everything except the Lindbergh kidnapping. Too much too little too late, in my view. Hillary hired him & let him run the show. It's her fault for following his advice, not his.

dg

[Barack_America]

20. Actually, the timing of this could not be better for Obama...

Our primary here in Pennsylvania is just two weeks away. The polls are closing and it now appears that the Clinton campaign is imploding. Also, Hillary's possible weaknesses on free trade complements the admission that they are filthy rich nicely. Just wait until someone makes the link between Penn's "conflict of interest" meetings and Bill's own business connections.

Then it will be check.mate.

[backscatter712]

21. Even though he's not gone, this really gives Clinton's camp a black eye.

It's gonna take a few news cycles before Clinton can find a way to get the bobbleheads to stop talking about it, and that will be reflected in the polls.

And Clinton's decision to keep Penn working with a different job title has the potential of backfiring as well - if the media hooks onto to the story that Penn's firing wasn't really a firing, she'll never hear the end of it.