Somewhere, Mark Penn is having a terrible day. He must feel like leaning out his office window and screaming, “I told you so, you bloody fools! But would you listen? Would you? No, no you bloody well wouldn’t…” Remember the memo he passed around the Clinton campaign on March 19th 2007? You should, because I rather think the Republican party has.
To recap, Penn noted that Obama’s campaign for the Democratic party’s nomination was supported by four factors: 1. Authenticity, 2. Left/Right appeal, 3. [Being] Black, 4. New and fresh. That was true then and it remains true today. But Penn also saw four weaknesses: 1. Lack of experience, 2. Lack of American roots, 3. Removed from working man/woman, 4. Phony/Just another politician. A good deal of this was also true then and some of it remains so today.
Penn then advised Clinton that:
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