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Doubts seize Clinton camp after Penn exit
The question for some staff members of Hillary Clinton's campaign on Monday was why it had taken her so long to remove Mark J. Penn as its chief strategist. Other aides wondered how the campaign would function without Penn.
- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post
- Published: 23:38 April 8, 2008
- Former US president Bill Clinton greets supporters after giving a speech while campaigning for his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, at a rally in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, on Monday.
- Image Credit: AP
Washington: The question for some staff members of Hillary Clinton's campaign on Monday was why it had taken her so long to remove Mark J. Penn as its chief strategist. Other aides wondered how the campaign would function without Penn.
However, despite Penn's announcement on Sunday that he was giving up his strategist role, it remains to be seen how removed he will be. He was on a top-level conference call on Monday, one insider said; he is helping Clinton prepare for the next Democratic debate, on April 16.
Even after Clinton ousted Patti Solis Doyle and installed Maggie Williams as campaign manager in February, some advisers thought Penn should be moved out of his chief strategist role. But Clinton did not take any such action.
Williams is "doing what she has wanted to do all along, just in her own time," the insider said. "She couldn't get rid of Mark until he gave her the rope" with which to hang him. That was his meeting with the Colombian ambassador to the United States to discuss promotion of a free trade treaty that Clinton opposes.
The timing of Penn's meeting came at a particularly inappropriate time, just as Clinton was trying to win the support of the United Steelworkers of America, who had earlier endorsed former senator John Edwards and had not picked between Clinton and Barack Obama since Edwards left the race.
Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who is not associated with the Clinton or Obama campaign, said he doubts Penn's new role will mean significant changes.
"We are very near the end of the race and the course has largely been set," he said in an e-mail message on Monday. "The new message mavens may tack 10 degrees one way or the other, but it's just too late for any wholesale changes in message or strategy."
Fundraising: Mccain stays afloat
John McCain raised more than $15 million (Dh55 million) in March for his presidential campaign, a top performance for the Republican nominee that still falls far short of the massive cash gathered by Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The amount was confirmed by two campaign officials speaking on condition of anonymity because the numbers have not been made public.
One official said McCain intends to accept public financing in the general election - a sum of about $84 million. McCain donors are now being asked to supplement that public financing with donations to the Republican National Committee, with a goal of raising $120 million through a joint Victory Committee.
McCain's March fundraising and the decision to seek public financing in the fall are two separate tracks that highlight the superior fundraising by the Democratic candidates.
- AP
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