Even More Penn

More good stuff from Mark Schmitt on the Mark Penn issue. Schmitt makes the point that Penn combines his multitudinous conflicts of interest with a methodology that leaves him very free to come up with whatever result he wants to find: "Penn's choice of categories has little to do with the actual data and everything to do with his presumptions going in -- populism doesn't work, don't criticize corporations -- which in turn have a delightfully precise correspondence with the interests of the clients of the firm of which Penn is Worldwide President and CEO."

To bring this back to the point I made yesterday, I think the thing to remember here is that Hillary Clinton isn't a political naif and Penn's basic notion of the shape of American politics doesn't change year-to-year. One would only give him such a large role in one's campaign if one already wanted to run and govern in the sort of way that Penn would predictably suggest.