Ivy League Conservatives

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Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s chief campaign strategist, has resigned. This is a fairly predictable move, considering how dismally Clinton’s 2008 campaign has actually been compared to how Clinton supporters thought her campaign would go.From Hot Air:

Penn left under a cloud after the Wall Street Journal pointed out that he had represented Colombia on a free-trade treaty that Hillary opposes. He could just as well have been fired for the fumbling manner in which the campaign has declined from a coronation to a collapse:

Mark Penn, the pollster and senior strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid, left the campaign Sunday after it was disclosed he met with representatives of the Colombian government to help promote a free trade agreement Clinton opposes.

“After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton Campaign,” campaign manager Maggie Williams said in a statement released Sunday. “Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign.”

Communications director Howard Wolfson and pollster Geoff Garin will craft strategy for the campaign going forward, Williams said. ….

The trade deal flap effectively ended an unusually tight relationship between Penn and both Clintons since Penn was recruited to provide polling and strategic advice to Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign in 1996. He went on to craft strategy for the former first lady’s successful 2000 Senate race in New York.

Penn won’t be on the outside looking in, at least not entirely. Penn and his company will continue its role as chief pollster and will still provide analysis and advice. In fact, since Penn had supplied both along with crafting the strategy of the campaign, it left him in control of both the direction and the feedback of that direction for the entire effort.