An email invitation to an "inaugural brunch" just arrived in our inboxes. The topic: "What to Expect and How to Project Yourself in the New Washington."
The guests of honor: Mark Penn and Karen Hughes (among others).
Uh, aren't those the poster children for the old Washington?
Biden Heading Up "White House Task Force On Working Families"
The Obama transition team announced this morning the creation of the "White House Task Force on Working Families," which will be chaired by Joe Biden and also include the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce, and Health and Human Services, plus many other top economic advisers. The task force's goal is to craft policies furthering the areas of education, work/family balance, labor standards and workplace safety, and income and retirement security.
Obama Expands Stimulus Targets To Cope With Rising Unemployment Projections
Barack Obama has reportedly expanded his economic stimulus plan to have a target of creating three million new jobs, up from a prior goal of 2.5 million jobs. However, the New York Times points out that even this would fall short of the projected four million jobs that many economist believe would be lost if no action were taken in an economy that is only getting worse and worse.
Report: Obama Team To Say Rahm Only Spoke With Blago Once
George Stephanopoulos reports that an upcoming internal report from the Obama transition team will say that Rahm Emanuel only had one conversation with Rod Blagojevich, a courtesy call after Rahm was named as White House Chief of Staff. The alleged conversation was mostly about Rahm's own House seat, with only a "passing reference" to the Senate seat and with no deals over it being discussed.
Poll: Public Optimistic About Obama
The new ABC/Washington Post poll finds 68% of adults saying they are optimistic about the policies that Barack Obama will pursue upon taking office, and 65% support a large infrastructure-based economic stimulus plan such as the one he's laid out. In addition, a 51% majority wants him to make major changes to the health care system right after taking office, compared to 26% who say he should wait and only 20% who say he shouldn't do it at all.
Hillary's Debts At $6.4 Million
Hillary Clinton's campaign debt is now $6.4 million, lower than it was at any previous time this year -- and the amount is owed to just 16 specific creditors, the most notable one being Mark Penn. Hillary is in a bit of a race against the clock to get the money paid off, as she will be unable to personally conduct fundraising activities after she is sworn in as Secretary of State.
Cheney On Biden's Rhetoric: "I Don't Take It Seriously"
During an interview aired today on Fox News Sunday, Dick Cheney ridiculed Joe Biden for having attacked Cheney's performance in office, and said it was Biden who doesn't understand the Constitution. "I write that off as campaign rhetoric," said Cheney. "I don't take it seriously. And if he wants to diminish the office of vice president, that's obviously his call."
Mitt Laying Groundwork For 2012, Using Leadership PAC Money
The Boston Globe reports that Mitt Romney appears to have his eyes on 2012 -- and he's using money from his personal leadership PAC, which was ostensibly set up to support other Republican candidates. Only 12% has actually gone to down-ticket GOP candidates, a fraction of the total amount that has been spend on political consultants and fundraisers.
No Obama Or Biden Events Today
Barack Obama is holding private meetings today in Chicago, while Joe Biden also meets with people in Washington. There are no public events scheduled for today.
WaPo: Obama Will Change Balance Of Federal Courts
The Washington Post reports that Barack Obama and the big Democratic majority in the Senate now have the opportunity to flip the ideological balance in many lower federal courts -- the places where most case law is truly handed down. "The change will be most striking on the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, long a conservative bastion and an influential voice on national security cases, where four vacancies will lead to a clear Democratic majority," the Post says.
CQ: 2010 Senate Map Narrowly Favors Dems
CQ points out that Senate Republicans face another tough map in 2010, though it's not quite as bad as 2008 was. More Republican seats will be up for election than Democratic ones, with six GOP-held seats in states won by Barack Obama, compared to only two Dem-held seats in McCain states.
Senate Dems Don't Rule Out Joining Minnesota Dispute
Roll Call reports that Senate Democratic leaders are not ruling out an intervention into a disputed election result in Minnesota. "As the process moves forward, Sen. Reid will be watching to make sure that the proper authorities in Minnesota are looking very carefully to make sure that no voter is disenfranchised," said Reid spokesman Jim Manley.
Mark Penn Denies Calling Obama Unelectable
Mark Penn told the Independent in England that he did not write in internal Hillary campaign memos that Barack Obama was unelectable. "Huh. No. It doesn't say that at all," Penn said. For the record, Penn wrote: "The right knows Obama is unelectable, except perhaps against Attila the Hun."
A scorching new mailer authorized by the McCain campaign directly questions Obama's patriotism by saying he put the interests of "Hollywood above America" during the bailout negotiations, and ratchets up the "celeb" attacks by saying he "partied with Hollywood's elite" at a time of national crisis.
The mailer -- sent in by a reader in Virginia -- uses these attacks to stir fears of Obama as a vaguely sinister other with a questionable background, closing with this stark warning: "We need a President who puts America first. Barack Obama. Not who you think he is."
Mystifyingly, the mailer shows Obama alongside familiar bogeywoman Barbra Streisand, but also...Leo DiCaprio. Click on the images to enlarge:
The mailer, the latest in a huge wave of under-the-radar attacks from McCain that depart from the McCain campaign's public message, is an amped up version of the robocall we reported on the other day that made similar accusations. It was paid for by the RNC, but authorized by the McCain campaign.
I just reached former Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson to ask him for comment on Josh Green's big piece in The Atlantic reporting that chief Hillary strategist Mark Penn suggested a big effort to draw a contrast with Obama's "limited" roots to American values and culture, as Penn put it in a memo.
Wolfson's response: Penn's idea was a bad one, and all of Hillary's senior advisers rejected that approach.
"Mark had plenty of good ideas on the campaign," Wolfson said. "This was not in my opinion one of them. It was never seriously considered, in any way shape or form."
Wolfson insisted that Penn's approach wasn't ever a real topic of debate within Hillaryland.
"There were lots of long running debates within the campaign about strategy. This was not one of them," Wolfson continued. "I don't ever remember having a lengthy or serious conversation about this. None of her advisers supported this approach when presented with it."
Wolfson even insisted that Penn didn't continue to press for this approach: "In fairness to Mark, I don't remember him particularly pushing it," Wolfson said.
Josh Green's article reports that Hillary ultimately didn't adopt Penn's suggestions. "Clinton wisely chose not to go this route," Green wrote.
The question, of course, is how does the idea that senior advisers and Hillary rejected Penn's approach square with the fact that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (along with other associations) became such a big issue in the campaign? Ultimately the media broke the Wright story, though that hardly rules out the possibility that some Hillary advisers were partly responsible for making that happen.
When the Wright story broke, the Hillary camp was initially reticent about it for a time, until Hillary herself responded to a question at an edit board meeting by saying: "He would not have been my pastor."
Of course, one could also argue that making an issue out of Wright is not necessarily synonymous with an all-out campaign to exploit Obama's "limited" roots in American values and culture, though they certainly have similar shading.
Josh Green's big piece in The Atlantic on all the behind-the-scenes drama that gripped Hillaryland during the campaign has just been posted online, and the host of internal campaign memos he's obtained are now up. They contain a bunch of new revelations about chief strategist Mark Penn.
Green's piece already got a bit of attention when an advance copy leaked out. But now that the actual memos are posted, there are buckets of new Penn sliminess to wallow in. Among the new revelations:
* Penn proposed targeting Obama's lack of American roots -- but also said the campaign could never do this publicly. Early accounts of Green's piece note a key revelation: That in a memo on March 19, 2007, Penn explicitly proposed drawing attention to what he called (with a rather jarring oxymoron) a "very strong weakness" for Obama: "His roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited."
But the memo has something that makes this even better: Penn said they'd never publicly do this. "We are never going to say anything about his background -- we have to show the value of ours," he wrote, adding: "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."
Report: Penn Wanted To Deride Obama's Americanness
In a revelation that will lower his stock in Democratic politics even further than it already has been, a newly-released set of internal memos shows that Mark Penn aggressively pitched a xenophobic strategy for the Hillary campaign to use against Barack Obama and his "lack of American roots." Penn wrote: "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."
Both Candidates Off The Trail Today
Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain have any public events scheduled for today. Obama is of course on his Hawaiian vacation this week, and McCain does not have any announced events, either.
Edwards' Ex-Mistress: No Paternity Test
John Edwards' former mistress Rielle Hunter has issued a statement ruling out any paternity test for her daughter. Edwards said he was willing to take a test in order to prove he is not the father, but Hunter's refusal means no such test will actually occur.
Georgian President Speaks With Both Candidates
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili spoke Saturday with both Barack Obama and John McCain about the invasion of his country by Russia. Both candidates assured Saakashvili that they want full recognition of Georgia's sovereignty, and have condemned Russia's actions in this conflict.
McCain Declining To Endorse Energy Compromise
John McCain is so far refusing to take a position on the "Gang of 10" energy compromise, which Barack Obama has already signaled he could support, which would allow a combination of offshore drilling and increased investment in alternative energy. The Hill notes that if McCain comes out against it then he'll be standing in the way of a bipartisan energy plan, but if he endorses it he'll cede a clear distinction he has with Obama.
Report: Lieberman Being Vetted For McCain's VP
The Financial Times reports that Joe Lieberman is being vetted to be John McCain's running mate. While it would certainly be interesting to have a party-switching running mate who ran on the other party's ticket just eight years earlier, this still seems unlikely -- Lieberman's socially liberal positions on issues like abortion and immigration would likely alienate many conservative activists.
Obama Web Vid: McCain's New Ad "Is A Lie"
The Obama campaign has released this Web video, in which economic adviser Brian Deese debunks the claims in John McCain's latest ad charging that Barack obama would raise taxes on the middle class. "In summary, this ad is a lie," Deese says:
Wouldn't you know it, but former Hillary chief strategist Mark Penn now thinks Barack Obama has a good shot at winning the general election -- after spending months bad-mouthing his chances.
Penn arrived at this conclusion in a fairly novel way, however: He says that the key to the election will be a group of people he describes as "active grannies."
"In the coming months, the big viewers of cable television, the conventions and the debates will be the active grannies," Penn writes in a new column for the Politico, "and they will be torn between wanting to vote for the kind of change they voted for in 1992 and wondering whether Obama has cleared the experience hurdle they are concerned about."
"If I had to handicap the race now, Obama has a huge opportunity with this group," Penn later adds.
Of course, this is the same demographic that was supposed to deliver the nomination to Hillary...
GQ is about to post a very interesting, and long, interview with Mark Penn that has a bunch of news in it.
We have some advance excerpts. Here, for instance, is Penn saying that he recognized early on what a phenomenon Obama is and wanted to attack Obama more aggressively, particularly on Iraq, but unnamed others on the campaign opposed it:
GQ: How did you underestimate him [meaning Barack Obama]?Mark Penn: I think I never underestimated it, that once you had that kind of candidate, that that kind of candidate could be real trouble. And that if that candidate... You know, if Obama won Iowa, it would really change, dramatically change, the situation going forward. And consequently, I really wanted to question Obama as early as possible.
GQ: You wanted to hit him harder?
Well, I wanted to question the basic underpinning of his campaign... His problems in his campaign were (1) that he didn't have the usual experience of somebody running for president, and (2) that the positions he took on Iraq--you know, that were revered by the press--didn't really hold up when you look through his record in the Senate.
GQ: Why didn't you?
Well, I started down that road.... President Clinton took on the Iraq back-and-forth. But the rest of the campaign didn't want to tackle Iraq. They always felt that that was a losing proposition for her, and they always pulled it back.
Penn also sharply attacked the press, arguing that members of the media "fell in love" with Obama...
GQ: When you talk about the media and the treatment of her, you know, part of it--in the beginning of the campaign, back when it seemed like she was the inevitable nominee--she was really distant from the press. Don't you think that had something to do with the fact that the press fell in love with Obama?Well...no. [laughs] The press fell in love with him, period.
GQ: Why?
The press always falls in love with the new cool intellectual candidate. You know, he is their kind of candidate. Go back through history. They didn't like Al Gore. They loved Gary Hart. They love those kinds of candidates, always have. But--but--but look, I think that he was the first African-American, you know, credible presidential candidate was a factor behind how much the press was enthusiastic about him. But she was also the first woman candidate. But the standard...
You know, the microscope that they put her under, that they did not put her opponent and opponents under, was just incredible. I don't think anybody has ever been put under this kind of microscope running for president. There were certain times early in the campaign where she would try to be...do what people tell her, and say, "Hey, I'll be more relaxed, I'll tell a little joke." But every time she told the joke, it became a, you know, a federal case. Her words are parsed. Every single word is parsed. By the right, by the left, by the press.
More coming from the interview soon.
Hillary's former chief strategist denies that story we posted on below saying that Penn didn't know that Dems don't do winner-take-all primaries.
I have no idea what's true here. It's worth noting, however, that if Penn didn't know this, he would have managed to get through Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign (though in fairness there were no primaries) and Joe Lieberman's in 2004 without ever learning this basic fact about the nomination process.
Anything is possible, I suppose, particularly when it involves Penn.
With the Clinton campaign widely viewed as being on its last legs, staffers are now more free than ever to dish out some dirt on the many strategic blunders of Mark Penn.
The latest: At a strategy session last year, Penn reportedly said that a Clinton win in California would effectively wrap up the nomination by awarding her all of the state's 370 delegates.
As we all know, Democrats don't do winner-take-all primaries, but instead use a form of proportional representation that has been in force for about 20 years -- a fact that didn't seem to sink in with the Clinton campaign and their big-state strategy.
Obama, today in Indiana:
“I think it was surprising to me that a high ranking, if not the highest ranking, member of Senator Clinton’s team would be engaged in business activities and lobbying that was directly contrary to the position Senator Clinton had taken,” he said.But if one of his advisors had done the same thing?
“Let me put it this way: I’m not surprised that Senator Clinton found herself in an uncomfortable position as a consequence. And I know that if staff of mine were putting me in that kind of position, I would get rid of them.”
Hillary spokesperson Jay Carson's response:
“When Sen Obama’s top economic advisor told the Canadian government not to take his anti-NAFTA rhetoric seriously, he and his staff misleadingly denied that the meeting ever occurred, and then took absolutely no action,” Carson said in a statement. “It’s good to know he has a higher standard for our campaign than his own.”
That last barb was a pretty good line, Jay, though I'm sure lots of folks will be objecting to the Goolsbee-Penn comparison, since they're hardly of comparable stature within the campaigns and were engaged in different types of activities.
Late Update: Oh, and Penn was getting paid; Goolsbee wasn't.
Late Late Update: It's also worth noting, however, that Goolsbee was reported (though it's been disputed) to have been characterizing Obama's position, while Penn wasn't characterizing Hillary's position. Meanwhile, here's video of Obama:
Although Mark Penn is still involved in the Clinton campaign, his overall influence has reportedly diminished to the point where something notable has happened: On the campaign's internal conference calls, his ideas can be shot down.
"Every little ad and direct-mail and radio spot and speech had to have Mark's approval on it—he could look at everything he wanted," one staffer said. "That's no longer the case."
Mark Penn isn't going anywhere.
On the Hillary campaign's conference call moments ago, Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson left zero doubt: Camp Hillary will not be heeding the Obama campaign's demand that they fire Penn completely.
Asked about reports that Penn is still participating on internal campaign strategy calls, Wolfson said, "I'm not going to send out a daily email about who's on which calls and who isn't," clarifying: "Mark is no longer senior strategist, but he will be playing a continuing role in strategy."
Pressed by a reporter to explain the difference between Penn's former and current status, Wolfson said: "The difference would be between the editor in chief of your newspaper and one who plays an important role at your newspaper."
He added that "anyone at a workplace" would understand "the difference between someone who is playing the key role" and "someone who is playing an important role."
So there you have it: Penn will continue playing an "important" role.
After leaving this to surrogates for a couple days, the Obama campaign is ratcheting up the pressure on onetime Hillary chief strategist to ax Mark Penn once and for all, in the apparent hope that keeping Penn front and center will weaken her grip on her base of blue collar voters in Pennsylvania and other remaining states.
On an Obama campaign conference call moments ago, the Obama camp rolled out high-profile labor supporter James Hoffa, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who called on the Clinton camp to end Penn's association completely.
"You can't have a guy on your payroll who's lobbying for Colombia," Hoffa said, adding that it was time for her to "end his services completely." He blasted Penn for "taking money from a foreign nation" to boost the free trade agreement that "she says she's going to vote against."
Hoffa added that Penn was a continuing drain on Hillary's "credibility," claiming that Penn is "still calling the shots," which is certainly debatable -- while Penn is still playing a role, obviously, Geoff Garin has taken over as senior strategist.
One other interesting nugget from the call: Hoffa referred to some internal polling that he claimed showed that Obama's race was not resonating as an issue among union members.
Geoff Garin, the new chief pollster for the Clinton campaign, says that he wants the campaign to focus on the positives for Hillary — an indication that he might be a change of pace from Mark Penn's reported desire to focus more on going negative against Barack Obama.
The key questions, of course, are whether Garin can accomplish this with the voters, and whether Mark Penn's influence truly has diminished enough that he can get it off the ground to begin with.
Here's an interesting postscript to the saga of Mark Penn, who stepped down from his role as Hillary's chief strategist yesterday:
Penn had an earlier version of the infamous 3 A.M. ad that was much more of a negative spot attacking Barack Obama, and the attack prompted objections from other senior Hillary advisers, a Hillaryland source familiar with internal discussions over the ad tells me.
Among those senior advisers who objected to the ad's negative content was senior ad guru Mandy Grunwald, who's clashed with Penn in the past, the source says.
Just after Hillary's Ohio and Texas wins, Penn credited the actual ad, which contained no direct hit on Obama, with breaking his momentum.
But the version that did this -- to the extent that the ad worked -- was a later, and more positive spot, than one initially proposed by Penn, the source says.
"This was the way it was originally conceived," the adviser says. "It did not say the words `Barack Obama.' But there was a contrast part. It had a clear hit on Obama and it also had a much more negative feeling with the music."
The adviser continues: "The original ad asked, Who would you prefer answering the call -- someone with strength and experience, or someone who's untested?"
The clash over the ad underscores yet again the extent to which Penn clashed with other senior Hillary advisers about the campaign's message and direction. Some Hillary advisers hope that Penn's departure will signal less reliance on heavy-handed assertions about Obama's supposed weakness in comparison with Hillary and more of an emphasis on humanizing Hillary and showcasing her leadership abilities.
The disagreement over the ad also undercuts Penn's own justification for the ad. Shortly after news of the ad broke, Penn described the ad during a conference call with reporters as "a positive spot" with "very soft images."
The Hillary campaign and Penn's office both declined to comment on the clash over the ad; Grunwald didn't return repeated calls.
Hillary Clinton has a new ad in Indiana featuring popular Sen. Evan Bayh, who declares that Hillary will have "a spine of steel" in fighting for the state's workers:
Interestingly, Bayh promises that Hillary will fight against unfair trade deals — a sign of just how off-message Mark Penn was in his dealings with the Colombian government. It's not clear whether this ad was taped before or after the Penn story hit.
Mark Penn's demotion from his position as Hillary Clinton's top strategist has done little to solve the problem Penn has created for her with Big Labor.
The Change To Win labor federation, which has endorsed Barack Obama and has an estimated six-million members from seven big unions, has put up a blog post with the simple title, "Mark Penn Still Has To Go."
And they don't just mean Penn has to go from the campaign — they mean he has to be kicked out of the Democratic Party entirely.
"Our message on this matter is simple," writes Jason Lefkowitz, the federation's online communications director. "People who represent union-busters should not be welcome in the Democratic Party. People who represent death squads targeting trade unionists should not be welcome in the Democratic Party."
Today's Gallup tracking poll gives Barack Obama a nine-point national lead over Hillary Clinton, well outside the margin of error. Here are the numbers, compared to yesterday:
Obama 52% (+3)
Clinton 43% (-3)
Gallup's analysis notes that Obama had an especially good polling day on Sunday, possibly owing to the combination of Mark Penn's demotion and media coverage of the Clintons' tax returns. We'll find out in the next few days whether this is just statistical noise, or something sustainable.
The daily Clinton campaign conference call, usually consisting of the daily slam against Obama followed by a freewheeling Q and A, took an unusual form this morning.
Instead, the call was purely about policy, focusing exclusively on questions about Hillary's new initiative on breast-cancer awareness — perhaps because the campaign is determined not to have to answer any more questions about Mark Penn's departure.
For those who want to listen, here it is:
Some more details have come out about Mark Penn's demotion from top Clinton strategist to mere pollster, showing that the Colombia meeting was the final straw that broke the Clintons' confidence in him.
Hillary Clinton, previously loyal to Penn, was reportedly enraged at the news that he'd met with the Colombian ambassador, leading her and Bill to insist that he be removed from his post as the chief strategist. And thus may have ended a close political relationship that goes all the way back to 1996.
Some more details have come out about Mark Penn's demotion from top Clinton strategist to mere pollster, showing that the Colombia meeting was the final straw that broke the Clintons' confidence in him.
Hillary Clinton, previously loyal to Penn, was reportedly enraged at the news that he'd met with the Colombian ambassador, leading her and Bill to insist that he be removed from his post as the chief strategist. And thus may have ended a close political relationship that goes all the way back to 1996.
