Specifically, Penn stated: "all of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared toward showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050," and, "It also exposes a very strong weakness for him -- his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values." So P
Clinton should have canned Penn when he wrote the memo in March of 2007. Instead, she allowed him to "run" the campaign (run is in quotes because it is unclear who was the helm of the campaign at all) until April 6, 2008 when she found out that Penn had been doing deals with the Colombians to help secure a trade deal that she had already publicly opposed. Behavior like this is hardly surprising, as Al Gore fired him early on in his presidential run for "flippant" responses in meetings and t
Obama has repeatedly said that his opponents - namely Republicans - will try to point to his background and scare voters because his is not the upbringing and image of most politicians - wealthy, privileged, white. The sad fact is that Obama is right. Not only have the Republicans been doing this since the primaries, but now we find out that some of the Democracts pondered doing the same thing. Instead of illegitimizing Obama's role as an American, Penn has simply validated Obama's musings on his opponents and their willingness to take the low road when it comes to politics and race. I can say the following with confidence: I will never vote for someone who uses Mark Penn as an adviser. Peace.
Photos - Mark Penn (www.guardian.co.uk), Obama and Clinton (www.msnbc.msn.com), Penn again (www.businessweek.com)
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