The Man in the Middle

[Samantha]

Take a look at the man in the middle:



His name is Mark Penn. When Hillary lost her bid in 2008, some privately said she should have never utilized Mark Penn in her campaign. Some say his specialty is smear campaigns: throwing dirt, employing seedy tactics, dirty tricks -- whatever it takes to win. He goes where other dirty political tricksters are reluctant to go.

I recently read he has started working with her campaign once again. Whenever I see a thread accusing Bernie Sanders of being sexist, exaggerating his civil rights record, lying about this, exaggerating that, I immediately think of Mark Penn. Could his fingerprints possibly be on this, I wonder.

Here is the point. Bernie Sanders is a dignified, intelligent, hard working public servant currently working in the United States Senate. Everyone has the right to disagree with him on the issues, but someone like him who publicly reiterates he doesn't run negative campaign ads and doesn't want to indulge in the soap opera deserves to be treated with more respect.

Seldom do we have the opportunity to conduct an election and side-step all of the unhealthy ingredients we traditionally abhor. Just discuss the issues and debate them openly and honestly. What a dream!

So just remember the next time some slime hits the fan against one of our Democratic Presidential candidates, whether it is Sanders, Clinton or O'Malley, ask yourself this question: is there a Mark Penn or a Mark Penn clone behind this smear?

Sam

[GoneFishin]

1. It's hard to prove, but those cheesy attacks have a certain recognizable stink to them.

[Samantha]

3. Yes, they do

And thank you for pointing that out.

Sam

[MisterP]

6. I once smelled the innards a long-dead chiton washed up on the PNW shore

Brock as well as Penn's tactics all smell like that

[Samantha]

7. Do you honestly think most people are aware of this odor

or do they immediately jump the gun and fire insults at the intended target of the smear?

I personally think some are aware, but passions run so high in extremely competitive elections, sometimes people just fire off a instinctive response before taking a moment to contemplate the issue and its validity, or lack thereof.

Thank you for posting on my thread.

Sam

[MisterP]

8. do you mean the odor of the smears, or the odor of a chiton? :P

if it's the former, this all is exactly what's turning people off Politics As Usual

[Samantha]

9. In the field of politics, both foul smells are probably interchangeable

It is a "climate change" that political junkies immediately sniff.

Then they seek to identify the source.

Sam

[merrily]

2. "whatever it takes to win" Yet, I could have sworn she lost.

I'm pretty sure the man on the end and the woman not in the pic outrank Penn campaign wise. He can suggest all the sh*t he wants, but they can veto.

[Samantha]

4. The point I was trying to zero in on here

is that we should not immediately attack the target. Think before we react.

Thank you for posting on my thread.

Sam

[merrily]

5. I know and I agree with your point. I wanted to make a couple of additional points.

[AtomicKitten]

10. Mark Penn is doing polling for Hillary, which explains a lot.

Guess who's polling on Hillary? Mark Penn is no longer her campaign guru, but he's still testing the waters for Clinton. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/clinton-mark-penn-polling-214637#ixzz3rWAQ5K1y

Mark Penn is no longer Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist and pollster, but her former campaign guru is still putting polls about his old boss into the field — the ultimate insider is testing theories on how to make her electable during an outsider election.

<snip>

" ... is putting polls about his old boss into the field ...."

[Samantha]

12. I did not know he was doing polling for her, AtomicKitten

That really explains a lot. I think a lot of the polling we have seen have exaggerated margins favoring Hillary Clinton, and I feel sure Penn could engineer that. He probably has a separate poll which he shares with her, giving her a more accurate read on where she literally stands.

I believe if she really had those types of huge advantages, her campaign would not be working so hard to convince us her win of the primary is a done deal. Just my opinion.

Thanks for posting this for us.

Sam

[UglyGreed]

11. The source of the

conference call perhaps???

[Samantha]

13. Hi, UglyGreed

I think I missed something here. Which conference call do you have in mind?

What did you think of the debate last night?

Sam

[UglyGreed]

14. The conference call

which Mark Longabaugh was said to throw a fit about the debate format being changed. I was just being sarcastic and wondering if it was Hillary's camp which was the source that leaked it to the media. I thought Bernie did great and held his own. I was also glad to see both O'Malley and Bernie finally try to hold Hillary accountable for her flip flops, war mongering, ties to Wall Street and such. Over all a good night

[Samantha]

15. I just found this post and thought it was quite the coincidence

I just posted on a thread I found on the home page that incident was designed to embarrass Bernie Sanders and that his campaign denied ever objecting to the switch to cover the Paris terrorism events. So I obviously do not know if Penn launched this, but it is the type of thing he is famous for.

I too thought Sanders did great, and I thought O'Malley served himself very well. I like them both, but I am supporting Sanders. O'Malley would be an excellent choice for Sanders second. He was a great governor in Maryland for 8 years. He made me proud to live here.

Thanks for posting on my thread.

Sam