Did Mark Penn really not know the first thing about Democratic primaries?
Time’s analysis of why the Clinton campaign failed is well worth reading. One anecdote in it, in particular, is generating a lot of buzz here in DC: 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?"
If this is true, then it is quite incredible. Expect a lot more of this kind of thing to come out in the next few days as the blame game moves into top gear.