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As Hillary Clinton, now Secretary of State, works to clear the debt from her presidential bid, it appears that Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, the WPP polling firmfounded by Mark Penn, is the only remaining creditor.
It is owed $2.3 million, down from $5.4 million as reported at the end of 2008.
In an internal memo by Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn, which PRWeek obtained last week, the agency’s top executive took issue with the way TV host Rachel Maddow characterized its past and current work. At one point in the letter, Penn writes, “Her commentary also significantly mischaracterized the nature of the firm’s past – for example, we never took a dime from Blackwater.”
However, as PRWeek has reported in the past, Burson subsidiary BKSH & Associates has worked for Blackwater. The agency has declined to comment.
Last night, Rachel Maddow returned to the subject. On her she pointed to the statement in the memo, and the seeming contradiction with a previous news report that showed BKSH had in fact worked for Blackwater. Maddow said:
Mr Penn also accused me of getting my facts wrong… If I’m wrong, I’m happy to do a correction… Is it possible that Burson-Marsteller could have worked for Blackwater but not been paid for it… Blackwater is their charity case? …I welcome any further opportunity to clear up the record.
Burson-Marsteller worldwide CEO and president Mark Penn said the recent appointment of longtime President George W. Bush confidante Karen Hughes as vice chair marks the start of an effort by the agency to create a worldwide “bipartisan braintrust.”
Well, apparently, the Penn contingent (see below) won out. Clinton continues despite Obama reaching the delegate threshold.
In other Penn news, the Guardian’s Oliver Burkeman writes a first-person article about how he met with Penn, ostensibly to talk about Penn’s book Microtrends, but ultimately ends up talking about the Clinton campaign, or so the deck says -
As Hillary Clinton’s doomed presidential bid draws to a painful close, one man has been cast as the scapegoat. In his first interview, Mark Penn, the candidate’s former chief strategist, talks to Oliver Burkeman about what went wrong
That’s not really true, but it is an interesting read. Some snippets:
“Now, my understanding is that this interview is for the paperback edition of Microtrends,” Penn begins, referring to his book, a work of popular sociology. “I think I’ve made it clear that I’m not doing on-the-record interviews about the campaign.” Nobody told me about any restrictions on what we could talk about, I reply.
[SNIP]
But she’s not going to win. “Well, you know, when the campaign’s over, either successfully or not, we’ll talk about that.” I’m pretty sure I’m being filed away as a member of the “impressionable elites”, a microtrend Penn identifies whereby working-class voters get ever more adept at making rational choices based on data, while only the more privileged - people who aren’t “living through the difficulties with healthcare, and the economy, and the mortgage, and the job loss” - can afford to indulge in frivolous chatter about hope and change. Naturally, from Penn’s perspective, this includes many journalists.
[SNIP]
Does he wish he’d taken a sabbatical from lobbying? Penn’s answer is the closest he comes to expressing any regrets about his campaign work. “I think that we - you know, with the benefit of hindsight, we might have done things somewhat differently. I’ll spend some time analysing that.” He won’t quite admit to having any regrets about the campaign as a whole, though. “In these races, if you win you all win, and if you lose you all lose. You have to take your share of the responsibility. There is always, in everything, something that could have been done differently.”
As I watch CNN call the primary for Sen. Barack Obama, I come across an article in Newsday that claims Mark Penn is still urging his candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to fight on.
Former top strategist Mark Penn, reviled by many on Hillary’s staff but still an important voice in the candidate’s ear, has emerged (to no one’s surprise) as the strongest advocate of her remaining in the race regardless of what happens in the next 24 hours, according to sources inside the campaign.
[snip]
His argument: Suspend the campaign if you must, but don’t end it, because all those Obama supers will flock to Hillary if more dirt on O emerges before the convention.
His explanation for why Hillary is the candidate to beat (Real Clear Politics)
Karen Tumulty finds some Democrats blame Hillary’s woes on Penn (Time)
Clinton campaign in turmoil? ()
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