Occassional Mark Penn Blogging

Also on the Brad Plumer blog, I read this:

In other cigarette news, it seems like Hillary Clinton's main political advisor, Mark Penn, has spent a lot of time over the last two decades shilling for Big Tobacco. Now, I don't think it's entirely "indefensible" to oppose, say bans on smoking in bars, but it's more than a little creepy that Penn and Doug Schoen went about helping to create "smoker's rights" astroturf groups on behalf of RJ Reynolds.

To me, what's creepiest about this Penn stuff is that Clinton obviously don't think it's creepy. She thinks he's great!

Comments

These are the types of reasons people don't like Hillary. Shill for Big Tobacco. Union buster.

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | July 10, 2007 9:01 AM

I have to apologize on behalf of Steve Jobs and all other iPhones. This was not blogged on me. That is all.

Posted by Matt's iPhone | July 10, 2007 9:27 AM

Creepy schmreepy!

Maybe it's just that the plurality of Democrats who support Clinton prefer candidates who hire strategist who have a proven track-record at helping Democrats win!

Posted by JoeCHI | July 10, 2007 11:13 AM

What about Axelrod and Obama? You think political clients pay for Axelrod's lifestyle? Is it any wonder that ASK Public Strategies doesn't list their clients? EVERY political consultant worth his shirt works for big bad corporations doing things that are often antithetical to their political beliefs. The fact that Penn gets beat up for this is hilarious.

Posted by Reality check | July 10, 2007 11:15 AM

I suppose in the new america citizens will only have rights to make healthy choices. Utopia!

Let's get those anti-Utopians!

__

Posted by Me | July 10, 2007 11:31 AM

From Penn's profile over at Wikipedia, his three major wins are 1) Blair's third term 2) Clinton's second term and 3) Clinton's Senate run. Blair's Tory opponent was a reactionary, xenophobic joke, which many Tories (especially those not as old as dirt) knew at the time. The party was in disarray, which is partly why they chose Cameron as their knew party leader to help re-vitalize the Tories. Hillary Clinton ran against an empty suit for the Senate. So he has one success, Clinton 1996, which took place in a much different environment. The center was a bit left then, yet his advice is always still move towards the center, no matter how far right the center goes. Being smarter than Shrum is like being more attractive than James Carville: It's not exactly an accomplishment. His connections seem creepy even for a strategist, he has only one real success, he gives bad advice and yet he is somehow a positive boon to the Clinton campaign?

Posted by Reality Man | July 10, 2007 11:34 AM

Sheeesh, Matt! I hate to be an online copyeditor, but two glitches in a two-line post is too much.

It's "occasional", not "occassional". And the sentence re Clinton should say "doesn't", not "don't". (I hope you weren't striving for effect w/ that "don't". If so, it didn't work.)

Posted by Please Be More Careful | July 10, 2007 2:28 PM