So Much for Mark Penn...and Any Pretention of Clinton's Acumen

Yep, he's gone.

Well, ok, not "gone". He's still going to be polling and whatnot. But he's not going to be grand high poobah any more. And THAT is surprising.

Why? Well, because of optics. Yes, the optics of that whole Colombia thing were--and are--absolutely terrible. no doubt about that. Clinton savaged Obama over the NAFTA thing, and then her main strategist does the same damned thing, with a far more controversial playmate than Canada.

But then again...

Let's face it, the news cycle isn't that long. It's very unlikely that the Colombia thing would have created a lasting impression among the primary voters that she's trying to sway, and the media would have been distracted by some other shiny object long before it made a difference. Look at Wright... he's already fading into "Wright who?" irrelevance in the eyes of many, and that's a far nastier problem than a little chat with the Colombians would ever have been.

The worst thing to do is to renew that news cycle, yet that's exactly what she did. By ditching Penn, she renews all the discussions of Colombia by adding a new insidery wrinkle to the story. (And the media adores inside baseball. Whatzisname got that right, at least.) Every news story out there is going to recap, yet again, the situation that led to Penn leaving.

She also plays heavily into the media's treasured narrative of her campaign being disastrously embattled. That means that the news cycle for this is going to be pretty damned resilient, and every single time they talk about it, they'll refresh Colombia in people's minds.

This is supposed to be the invincible political team that was going to steamroller their way to the nomination? To heck with Obama, I'm glad that these guys got "vetted."

I'd predict the doom of the Hillary campaign, but honestly, there just doesn't seem to be much point. Even if she wins Pennsylvania, this is going to dog her until the moment she's finished with this election. Obama's almost better off just ignoring her and going after McCain at this point. Leave the poor woman to the tender ministrations of her own disastrous team.