Strength and Experience?

Sen. Clinton's controversial Chief Strategist Mark Penn released a campaign memo last week entitled "Strength and Experience." In his memo, Penn cites numerous polls showing Hillary's image and favorability rising above other presidential candidates. Not only have I seen polls that show the opposite, I don't think that anything a sleazy, indecisive opportunist like Penn can be taken seriously.

First, Hillary's strength. Where has she shown this great strength? In her stance on Iraq? In her parenting? Or perhaps in hiring people to threaten and manipulate the subjects of her husband's philandering? No, nor does it take much strength to follow the flow and pander to any audience placed before you.

Second, Hillary's experience. Experience with what exactly? Trying again to push an already failed healthcare plan? Her time sleeping in the cozy bed of the White House, behind her popular yet tainted husband? Maybe it is her experience in law, when she put herself in positions that could only be used to advance her position politically?

This is the great strength and experience Mark Penn is referring to? Thanks Mr. Penn, but no thanks. You can go back to spying on your former employees now.

Scoundrels, Part 2

Hillary Clinton is taking some heat for her presidential campaign's chief strategist, Mark Penn. Penn is the CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a public relations company whose clients include tobacco and pharmaceutical firms, along with many other "evil" institutions. She chooses a chief strategist who has helped companies who she is politically against, at the very least against her views on health care and our delicate environment. This seems to prove further hypocrisies in the beast that is Hillary. Mr. Penn does not think that there is any conflict of interests, of course to him this is all very normal since he has been a manipulative tool of the Clintons since 1996. Penn said, "I don't think that there's any obligation that the firm's clients agree on every issue that's out there either with themselves or Sen. Clinton." No, there certainly isn't an obligation, but I think we all expect a little more from this extremely self-righteous presidential candidate.

Another example of the complex hypocrisy in this Clinton/Penn relationship is in Hillary's stance on eavesdropping for public safety. She said that this system is "far-fetched" and damned it by saying that it is "a secret program that spies on Americans!" But recently Mark Penn was accused of illegally monitoring a former employee's e-mail. We will see how that plays out in court, but for now, these are more examples of Hillary Clinton's hypocrisy. After eight years as the first lady, I never thought she would have made it this far. But clearly, many Americans can turn their cheek as easily as Hillary herself.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/08/wclinton108.xml