TPM: Penn thought primaries were winner-take-all?

[BeyondGeography]

:freak:

With the Clinton campaign widely viewed as being on its last legs, staffers are now more free than ever to dish out some dirt on the many strategic blunders of Mark Penn.

The latest: At a strategy session last year, Penn reportedly said that a Clinton win in California would effectively wrap up the nomination by awarding her all of the state's 370 delegates.

As we all know, Democrats don't do winner-take-all primaries, but instead use a form of proportional representation that has been in force for about 20 years -- a fact that didn't seem to sink in with the Clinton campaign and their big-state strategy.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/report_mark_penn_thought_dem_p.php

[Teaser]

1. dope

.

[Botany]

2. Mark Penn Clinton's 10 million dollar idiot

[roguevalley]

40. get a refund, hillary. this fat ass ain't worth a dime. and, if Obama

assumes your debt, it better not go to this asshole.

[my2sense]

3. Pitiful

WTH - This asshole is running your campaign and didn't understand the rules...bwahaha....that is funny.

[babylonsister]

4. And he was paid (or is owed) big bucks for all that wisdom!

:eyes:

[KittyWampus]

8. no, let's emphasize that Penn (someone that inept) has been a Clinton crony for YEARS.

[KittyWampus]

9. no, let's emphasize that Penn (someone that inept) has been a Clinton crony for YEARS.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. HAHAHHAAH!

:rofl:

[oviedodem]

6. She deserves what has happened because these are the type of

things that good leaders recognize and remove people like this. It is indicative of how poorly an operation she has run. Obama has top rate people on his staff from Susan Rice to Powers (I don't care what she said) all they way down to their tech staff.

[TwilightGardener]

7. Can Hillary get a refund from this schmuck?

[MindMatter]

33. A big part of her campaign debt is biills from this asshole

Obama. Don't you dare give any of my money to those idiots. I donated money to YOUR campaign, and will give more. But not a penny to these morans. I'm series.

[Kaleva]

10. The Texas two step

I remember reading reports about how the Clinton campaign didn't understand how the primary system worked in that state. The campaign which claimed that their candidate would be ready on day one was itself weeks late and millions short.

[speedoo]

11. LAST YEAR he said this? And he stayed on the payroll after saying it?

If this is true, then the incompetence of Hillary's campaign is easily explained:

The candidate has no clue about how to manage anything.

[Colobo]

12. What an ass.

[City Lights]

13. And her team is still whining that if we played by GOP rules, she would

have won by now.

Penn is an overpaid POS. She should have fired his ass a long time ago.

[AllentownJake]

14. Remember Texas?

They did interviews talking about how they don't understand the process there.

Great consultants.

[newmajority]

15. That's what happens when you hire Republicans

:rofl:

[ORDem]

16. Here's the source of that from Time. Even Ickes was horrified at Penn's stupidity.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1738331,00.html

"The Five Mistakes Clinton Made"

As aides looked over the campaign calendar, chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all. Sitting nearby, veteran Democratic insider Harold M. Ickes, who had helped write those rules, was horrified — and let Penn know it. "How can it possibly be," Ickes asked, "that the much vaunted chief strategist doesn't understand proportional allocation?" And yet the strategy remained the same, with the campaign making its bet on big-state victories. Even now, it can seem as if they don't get it. Both Bill and Hillary have noted plaintively that if Democrats had the same winner-take-all rules as Republicans, she'd be the nominee.

Clearly, she and Bill simply felt they were entitled to the Presidency.

:dem:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

17. I could have given her better advice for $100,000. n/t

[DrFunkenstein]

18. He Also Thought Ahmed Chalabi Would Be The Next Leader of Iraq

When he lobbied for him.

[Occam Bandage]

19. What. An. Idiot.

[4themind]

20. And they'd be greeted as liberators

[Pirate Smile]

21. The terrible way her campaign has been run is a huge warning sign against electing her President.

I'm sorry but it is true. The shockingly bad strategy, purely short-term thinking i.e. just get through the next election and who cares about the long-term implications, etc. is exactly what has been wrong with how the US Government has been run for a long time. We need to get away from that but it is exactly what we would have gotten from another Clinton Administration.

edit to add - ABC: Stephanopoulos said sources tell him the Clinton campaign debt is far higher than the reported $10 million — and could be double or more.

[wileedog]

36. You mean ignoring facts, appointing cronies...

... applying out of touch strategies that even your base deplores, bending rules, making shit up thinking no one will notice and spending money like its on fire are NOT effective means of leading a country?

Color Bush surprised...

[Pirate Smile]

38. It is shocking, I know.

;)

I was surprised to see that it was how she would run a campaign. Horrifying.

[roseBudd]

22. A perfect example of someone who failed to "google it" unbelievable

[Avalux]

23. DUH. Did Hillary not ever talk to the man about this?

If she had been involved with her campaign, she would have known. She trusted him and paid him millions without every knowing his strategy.

How the hell would she have run the country? Scary.

[Adelante]

24. That's where the buck stops, sparosnare

Exactly right.

[DefenseLawyer]

25. You're doin a heck of a job, Penny! n/t

[burythehatchet]

26. JUDGMENT, or lack thereof

[Skidmore]

27. That's what you get when you hire a Republican and don't manage your campaign.

This woman is incompetent in the same way Bush has been incompetent.

[kenny blankenship]

28. That's what you get when you surround yourself with Republicans

[SurfingAtWork]

29. LOL. And people want to trust Hillary with choosing an Executive cabinet?

[Plaid Adder]

30. You know, it occurred to me after hearing them crow about the win in Indiana,

that although they must all know that the delegates are awareded proportionally, they ACT like they're running a general election. In all the campaign pronouncements, etc., it's all about winning and not about the margin. If it were the general election, winning Indiana by 51% would have meant a lot more than it does at this time.

Maybe it still hasn't sunk in? I mean intellectually, as I said, they must all know it's true, but maybe this is an area where Hillary's experience of 2 general elections has actually hurt her. Her brain and gut probably automatically respond to this stuff the way they responded in 1992 and 1996.

ah well,

The Plaid Adder

[MindMatter]

34. Exactly right. They STILL don't get it.

And most of the MSM still doesn't get it.

[Ichingcarpenter]

31. I'm willing to bet the gas tax holiday was his idea also

He still is a major force in her campaign.

[DefenseLawyer]

37. Well it was floated by the McCain campaign first

I think Hillary's campaign jumped on it simply because at first the idea polled well. One would expect that it would. If you just asked a question "Should we cut your taxes and cut the price of gas?" people's first reaction will generally be "Yes!" .Penn is first and foremost a pollster, so you know he said to push it. Bill Clinton didn't decide what color socks to wear without taking a poll first. No reason to think Hillary's political strategy is any different.

[moondust]

32. It took a lot of experience and good judgment to pick that guy.

:sarcasm:

[TragedyandHope]

35. Silly

[dkf]

39. Hillary hires based on loyalty, not on competence.

Yet another trait she shares with W.

[Stand and Fight]

41. I really, truly hate to say this, but...

But this little tidbit has push me very, very close to switching my support to Barack Obama from Hillary Clinton. I've never liked Mark Penn, but I've always wondered just what the hell she was thinking letting this fat turd anywhere near her campaign... I cringe at the thought of just how loathsome that man is... Obama, on the other hand, had the sense of mind to select David Axelrod. That's damn good judgment. Mark Penn. Not so good.

[Spazito]

42. If proportional representation has been in force for about 20 years....

then it was in place during Bill's run for office. They KNEW full well how it worked in California then and NOW. Are we to believe Bill would not have been fully involved in her campaign from the start?

I'm not buying this, Penn is disgusting for many reasons but this latest "revelation" smacks of scapegoating to me.

[Stand and Fight]

43. I disagree...

If anything it makes one wonder about Senator Clinton's judgment and reason for keeping him on after this HUGE bumble.