Mark Penn Redux

To be clear, the reason I say liberals should fear Mark Penn actually has little-to-nothing to do with Iraq. My strong guess is that Penn and I disagree about foreign policy, but that would just be inference based on the people and organizations he's associated with; he doesn't have a strong profile on the topic and I don't really know what it thinks. The trouble with Penn is his monomaniacal insistence that what the Democratic Party needs to do is move to the right on economic issues in hopes of becoming more appealing to prosperous white men.

I'm not sure if Jon Chait's 2002 Penn takedown is available to non-subscribers (maybe this works) but if so it should be read. Alternatively, this (PDF) from Ruy Teixeira makes many of the same points albeit at greater length. The "populism" debate inside the Democratic Party isn't really my issue and I have mixed feelings about some aspects of it, but I think it's fairly clear to everyone that relatively downscale white voters -- especially, but not exclusively, women -- who tend to have progressive views on many topics are where the electoral action is. I bet these guys like Penn's ideas, though.

Comments

I don't get so worked up about him. Way I figure it, he's a pollster, no doubt a real pro at that. Give him his due. The problem's with a candidate who lets a pollster drive the message.

Posted by: John Haber on February 12, 2007 09:29 AM

Hate to be the cynic, but given that the estimated cost of a successful bid for the presidency is now a half-billion dollars, seems like the electoral action is where the donors are. Hence Mark Penn.

Posted by: Headline Junky on February 12, 2007 10:39 AM

He's not a good pollster though. Or at least, his public statements don't show that. Only last month did MY link to a pretty thorough takedown of his oped regarding Hilary's inevitability that entirely ignored phrases like "name recognition" and "unfavorability numbers". Maybe his public statements are all lies that don't reflect his true expertise, but then who cares anyway?

Regardless, his analysis will be less helpful to HRC in the primary than it will be in the general, so if it's wrong then we'll be spared the worst of it.

Posted by: Tony V on February 12, 2007 11:35 AM

Mark Penn Redux Hate to be the cynic, but given that the estimated cost of a successful bid for the presidency www.tutuncuogluevdenevenakliyat.com

Posted by: Evden Eve Nakliyat on February 21, 2008 07:24 PM

erotik shop

Posted by: erotik shop on May 14, 2008 08:24 AM

thanks ..

Posted by: erotik shop on June 13, 2008 11:28 AM

Post A Comment

advertise_liberally.gif