The Mark Penn Principle

Dear Stupefied Fans:

Please forgive the long delay since my last entry. I've been in a "state of shock" (a phrase coined by my sister who lives in a Staten Island Assisted Living facility). And it has pretty much followed the course of the Iraq war.

Now we know why Hillary's campaign is such a shambles: Mark Penn, CFO, Burson Marsteller.
It seems that the Peter Principle is truer than ever. The most arrogant, duplicitous and shallow rise to the top.

I used to think Hillary was pretty smart, at least intellectually. But her big brain can't seem to override a penchant for big, boorish men. She made a big deal out of this lobbyist's Colombian connection. But she's keeping him as her pollster?
C'mon there must be somebody else who can run polls.

Penn guided Hillary Clinton's campaign to focus on big states (according to reporter John Broder, New York Times News Service). Yet his book "microtrends" pushes niche marketing. Pretty smart way to make lots of work for his agency, wouldn't you say?

According to the In These Times story, author Ezra Klein says, "His new book Microtrends is so bad that the question—in a fair world—isn’t whether it will destroy his own reputation, but whether it is so epically awful as to take the entire polling industry down with it."

Then what is the reason for Penn's success??? Sheer Arrogance.