Short but sweet.
Most of my reactions to the Josh Green piece for The Atlantic on the epic clusterfuck of the Clinton campaign are opinion and not analysis, so I'm posting them here rather than at FiveThirtyEight.
On Mark Penn (emphasis added):
In light of this history, he got off to an inauspicious start when Clinton entered the race in January 2007, by demanding the title "chief strategist" (previously he had been one of several "senior advisers") and presenting each of his senior colleagues with a silver bowl inscribed with the words of Horace Mann: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."
Dear Mark,
Be ashamed to die.
"Save it for 2050."
Meaning, the world as it is isn't ready for Obama and his diverse background. Right now, America isn't ready for someone who isn't authentically American, sez Penn. Someone "not fundamentally American in his thinking and his values."
What is amazing about this is, Mark Penn doesn't remotely believe that Barack Obama isn't American. It's simply an amoral anything-to-win move: make Americans fear "the other." Divide Americans against each other by stoking their fears and worst instincts.
That's what victory you tried to win "for humanity."
You got fucking stomped, Mark. You fucking hack. You sloppy, corpulent Jabba motherfucker. Your defeat is delicious as hell. The fact that your own campaign team mostly loathed you speaks volumes about your utterly failed humanity.
"win some victory for humanity?"
Try "dustbin of history," asshole.
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Hope everyone caught that one of Penn's strategies was to push an anti-Obama message (on Iraq) by using Howie Kurtz.
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On a separate topic, there is an error in the piece here:
On Super Tuesday, however, Clinton fell well short of projections, and according to NBC News, Obama finished the day having netted about 10 delegates and narrowed the gap. The slow-motion collapse of Clinton’s candidacy began to accelerate.
Obama didn't narrow the gap. He was ahead and stayed ahead. Recall, Obama was +1 in Iowa (16-15-14), +1 after New Hampshire (9-9-4), +2 after Nevada (13-12), and +15 after South Carolina (25-12-8). Obama then gained 13 delegates on February 5. Going from +15 to +28 is not "narrowing the gap." What it is, is, actually, the opposite of that. Editors at The Atlantic should have caught this.
