R
Raymond
Guest
Mark Penn Ties Drag Clinton Down
Mark Penn, CEO of the global PR firm Burson-Marsteller (B-M) and
president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates
(PSB), Pollster and campaign consultant Mark Penn, perhaps the closest
politcal adviser to former president Bill Clinton, is helping guide
Hillary
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/29/mark-penn-ties-drag-clint_n_89243.html
Buzz up!on Yahoo!As the Clinton campaign struggles to pull out of a
potentially terminal nosedive just four days before the decisive Ohio
and Texas primaries, much of the blame for the former First Lady's
difficulties is falling on the shoulders of her controversial chief
strategist, Mark Penn.
Critiques of Penn run a wide gamut:
that he mistakenly assumed that Hillary Clinton would easily
bulldoze the opposition,powered by money, endorsements and a legendary
name.
that his strategic strength resides in managing general election
campaigns but he has an unreliable sense of the primary electorate.
that Penn had an inadequate back-up plan for Obama's emergence as a
challenger, allowing the Clinton campaign to founder in full public
view -- trapped and exposed.
Penn will doubtless be the subject of endless debate, just as
journalists and strategists interminably discuss the serial defeats of
presidential candidates guided by former Democratic consultant Bob
Shrum and the failure of Karl Rove to achieve his promised permanent
pro-Republican realignment.
Strategic and tactical fault-finding, however, miss the key point.
Clinton's Mark Penn problem does not lie in the strategist's advice
and counsel -- it lies in Penn himself.
As the CEO of powerhouse PR giant Burson-Marsteller, Penn heads a
bipartisan corporate conglomerate specializing in influence peddling,
lobbying, phony front groups, and manufactured hype. Penn, the network
of companies that he oversees, and the corporations to which he
answers, represent precisely what voters have come to dislike most
violently about Washington: the relentless cultivation and
manipulation of political connections to generate wealth for a handful
of operatives, all at taxpayer expense and in blatant defiance of the
public will.
There is no one in politics today who has ascended the special
interest ladder as steeply as Penn. He's no Jack Abramoff, but in the
public mind Penn, and the corporate structure that supports him, are
an integral part of the same lucrative and corrupt system that
produced Abramoff.
The problem Penn poses for the Clinton campaign is reflected in the
numerous stories in the media about Penn's conflicts as CEO of Burson-
Marsteller Worldwide, on the one hand, and as chief strategist for
Hillary Clinton, on the other.
To cite one example, just when Clinton was faulting Obama for his ties
to Exelon Corporation, it was disclosed that Exelon had paid Burson-
Marsteller over $230,000 in contracting fees.
Similarly, after Blackwater USA security guards killed 8 Iraqi
civilians, the company turned to BKSH, a subsidiary of Penn's Burson-
Marsteller, for strategic advice on how to minimize the negative
impact of dealing with Congressional inquires.
Such conflicts only touch the surface. For the media, Burson-
Marsteller and its affiliated companies could easily become a full-
time beat pumping out a cascade of additional stories:
The creation of such seemingly innocuous organizations as the
National Smokers Alliance, European Women for HPV Testing, and the
Coalition for Clean and Renewable Energy - organizations which are in
fact the creation of corporations seeking to win lucrative support for
contentious fights over smoking in public places, the promotion of
highly-remunerative testing for a sexually transmitted human papilloma
virus, and the expansion of nuclear power facilities.
The laundry list of controversial Burson-Marsteller -- and its
subsidiary BKSH -- clients includes US Smokeless (i.e., chewing)
Tobacco, Johnnie Walker (distilled spirits), Morongo Casino Resort &
Spa (gambling), Lockheed Martin (weapons), and Chevron Texaco (oil/
gas) and Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, and Wyeth/Amgen
(pharmaceutical).
Penn's work for BOTOX, as described on his firm's website, sharply
contradict Clinton's feminist commitments and ironically clash with
her particularly strong support among older women:
"Burson-Marsteller worked to redefine the BOTOX image to speak to its
benefits, drive a relationship with potential end users, minimize
safety concerns and reflect its flexibility. Among the critical issues
that needed to be addressed were consumers' perceptions regarding the
side effects and toxicity of BOTOX Cosmetic....A multimedia initiative
targeted key print, broadcast and online media outlets in top U.S.
markets, and physician "key opinion leaders" conveyed scientific
messages that provided objective, independent thought. The campaign
resulted in more than 743 million positive media impressions for the
BOTOX brand. Among prescription products, these results are second
only to the benchmark launch of Viagra. In the first nine months of
2002, sales increased $90.3 million over the same period in the
previous year. Media highlights include coverage in The Wall Street
Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek (cover story), Time,
Associated Press, Reuters, Dow Jones, Bloomberg and UPI. The BOTOX
brand was also featured in stories on "Good Morning America," "Today
Show," "CBS Early Show," ABC, CBS, FOX CNBC, CNN, CNNfn, Fox News
Channel and MSNBC.
An equally controversial list of foreign clients including the
Pakistan People's Party, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Colombia,
Armenia, and Greece.
From the point of view of any news organization, Mark Penn, who has
evolved from a relatively obscure Bill Clinton pollster into the
helmsman of the Hillary Clinton campaign, is a walking, talking target
-- an over-the-top example of the seductions of Washington, a lethal
combination of political opportunism and corporate profiteering.
At this late stage of the campaign, it should come as little surprise
that his top position in Hillary Clinton's enterprise would be used to
question her campaign's judgment. A succinct portrait of Penn's
liabilities was published as early as a year ago by the Washington
Post in this relationship map:
Mark Penn, CEO of the global PR firm Burson-Marsteller (B-M) and
president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates
(PSB), Pollster and campaign consultant Mark Penn, perhaps the closest
politcal adviser to former president Bill Clinton, is helping guide
Hillary
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/29/mark-penn-ties-drag-clint_n_89243.html
Buzz up!on Yahoo!As the Clinton campaign struggles to pull out of a
potentially terminal nosedive just four days before the decisive Ohio
and Texas primaries, much of the blame for the former First Lady's
difficulties is falling on the shoulders of her controversial chief
strategist, Mark Penn.
Critiques of Penn run a wide gamut:
that he mistakenly assumed that Hillary Clinton would easily
bulldoze the opposition,powered by money, endorsements and a legendary
name.
that his strategic strength resides in managing general election
campaigns but he has an unreliable sense of the primary electorate.
that Penn had an inadequate back-up plan for Obama's emergence as a
challenger, allowing the Clinton campaign to founder in full public
view -- trapped and exposed.
Penn will doubtless be the subject of endless debate, just as
journalists and strategists interminably discuss the serial defeats of
presidential candidates guided by former Democratic consultant Bob
Shrum and the failure of Karl Rove to achieve his promised permanent
pro-Republican realignment.
Strategic and tactical fault-finding, however, miss the key point.
Clinton's Mark Penn problem does not lie in the strategist's advice
and counsel -- it lies in Penn himself.
As the CEO of powerhouse PR giant Burson-Marsteller, Penn heads a
bipartisan corporate conglomerate specializing in influence peddling,
lobbying, phony front groups, and manufactured hype. Penn, the network
of companies that he oversees, and the corporations to which he
answers, represent precisely what voters have come to dislike most
violently about Washington: the relentless cultivation and
manipulation of political connections to generate wealth for a handful
of operatives, all at taxpayer expense and in blatant defiance of the
public will.
There is no one in politics today who has ascended the special
interest ladder as steeply as Penn. He's no Jack Abramoff, but in the
public mind Penn, and the corporate structure that supports him, are
an integral part of the same lucrative and corrupt system that
produced Abramoff.
The problem Penn poses for the Clinton campaign is reflected in the
numerous stories in the media about Penn's conflicts as CEO of Burson-
Marsteller Worldwide, on the one hand, and as chief strategist for
Hillary Clinton, on the other.
To cite one example, just when Clinton was faulting Obama for his ties
to Exelon Corporation, it was disclosed that Exelon had paid Burson-
Marsteller over $230,000 in contracting fees.
Similarly, after Blackwater USA security guards killed 8 Iraqi
civilians, the company turned to BKSH, a subsidiary of Penn's Burson-
Marsteller, for strategic advice on how to minimize the negative
impact of dealing with Congressional inquires.
Such conflicts only touch the surface. For the media, Burson-
Marsteller and its affiliated companies could easily become a full-
time beat pumping out a cascade of additional stories:
The creation of such seemingly innocuous organizations as the
National Smokers Alliance, European Women for HPV Testing, and the
Coalition for Clean and Renewable Energy - organizations which are in
fact the creation of corporations seeking to win lucrative support for
contentious fights over smoking in public places, the promotion of
highly-remunerative testing for a sexually transmitted human papilloma
virus, and the expansion of nuclear power facilities.
The laundry list of controversial Burson-Marsteller -- and its
subsidiary BKSH -- clients includes US Smokeless (i.e., chewing)
Tobacco, Johnnie Walker (distilled spirits), Morongo Casino Resort &
Spa (gambling), Lockheed Martin (weapons), and Chevron Texaco (oil/
gas) and Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, and Wyeth/Amgen
(pharmaceutical).
Penn's work for BOTOX, as described on his firm's website, sharply
contradict Clinton's feminist commitments and ironically clash with
her particularly strong support among older women:
"Burson-Marsteller worked to redefine the BOTOX image to speak to its
benefits, drive a relationship with potential end users, minimize
safety concerns and reflect its flexibility. Among the critical issues
that needed to be addressed were consumers' perceptions regarding the
side effects and toxicity of BOTOX Cosmetic....A multimedia initiative
targeted key print, broadcast and online media outlets in top U.S.
markets, and physician "key opinion leaders" conveyed scientific
messages that provided objective, independent thought. The campaign
resulted in more than 743 million positive media impressions for the
BOTOX brand. Among prescription products, these results are second
only to the benchmark launch of Viagra. In the first nine months of
2002, sales increased $90.3 million over the same period in the
previous year. Media highlights include coverage in The Wall Street
Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek (cover story), Time,
Associated Press, Reuters, Dow Jones, Bloomberg and UPI. The BOTOX
brand was also featured in stories on "Good Morning America," "Today
Show," "CBS Early Show," ABC, CBS, FOX CNBC, CNN, CNNfn, Fox News
Channel and MSNBC.
An equally controversial list of foreign clients including the
Pakistan People's Party, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Colombia,
Armenia, and Greece.
From the point of view of any news organization, Mark Penn, who has
evolved from a relatively obscure Bill Clinton pollster into the
helmsman of the Hillary Clinton campaign, is a walking, talking target
-- an over-the-top example of the seductions of Washington, a lethal
combination of political opportunism and corporate profiteering.
At this late stage of the campaign, it should come as little surprise
that his top position in Hillary Clinton's enterprise would be used to
question her campaign's judgment. A succinct portrait of Penn's
liabilities was published as early as a year ago by the Washington
Post in this relationship map: