You know who's happy about Mark Penn finally quitting/getting fired from the Clinton campaign? Everyone except Barack Obama, who considered Penn his ace in the hole for winning this whole endless election. But now that we won't have that old unctuous creep to kick around anymore, let's see what the rest of the Internetosphere is saying about the Numbers Swami Who Fell To Earth.
Let's stipulate that, yes, Penn was a detriment to the campaign, and possibly the worst spokesman imaginable for Hillary Clinton: he managed to combine arrogance, entitlement, and ostentatious insincerity in a way that heightened those very traits in a candidate who herself possessed them in spades.
Michael Crowley:
Is it possible Penn decided Hillary's chances are too slim to keep sacrificing his corporate work?
Marc Ambinder:
He had few allies inside the campaign, he was subject to withering criticism in the press, and he simply refused to give up his outside work, some of which conflicted with Sen. Clinton's policy positions.
Jason Horowitz:
Dating back to at least Clinton's loss in Iowa, staffers have been privately wishing him the worst.
Joshua Marshall:
When you figure how much grief this swaggering oaf has caused the Clinton campaign, if you're going to can him you'd think you would want to present it as something of a clean break, even if in the background some ties might actually remain.
Anne Kornblut:
[Penn was] a sometimes rumpled and often argumentative figure...
DHinMI (Daily Kos):
Why the Clinton campaign would even keep him around is baffling; he has always sucked. It's hard to find information about his past clients via Google searches, but he's on a tremendous losing streak, one that's rumored to be at least 13 straight.
Harold Ickes:
Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.
