The campaign memos released by the Clinton campaign confirm an early suspicion that I had. Below the fold is a time-line of events followed by analysis.
March 19th, 2007;
Mark Penn proposes attacking Obama for his "lack of American roots.( http://www.theatlantic.com/... )
November 17th, 2007; Robert Novak claims the Clinton camp is warning super-delegates that they have the dirt on Obama.( http://www.realclearpolitics.com/... )
December 17th, 2007; Bob Kerrey talks about Obama's "Muslim roots" and attendance of a "secular madrassa." ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... )
December 30th, 2007; Mark Penn discusses strategy, contingency plans should it end up a Clinton-Obama fight. The quote from Penn, "release the tapes", begs Jack Tapper to ask "what tapes?"( http://www.theatlantic.com/... )
March 5th, 2008; Twin Texas and Ohio wins, Clinton's candidacy survives to fight another day. Mark Penn gets credit for his "3 AM" ad.
March 10th, 2008. Monday. Geraldine Ferraro enters the race and claims that Obama is an "affirmative-action candidate."( http://www.motherjones.com/... )
March 11th, 2008. Tuesday. Geraldine Ferraro continues to raise all Hell. People are puzzled that Clinton has not removed her from her role on the fund-raising committee. Clinton widely criticized.( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... )
March 12th, 2008. Wednesday. Geraline Ferraro refuses to apologize, Hillary Clinton refuses to fire or reprimand her. Hillary Clinton does nothing. Ferraro exits the race on her own.( http://www.nytimes.com/... ) That night, enraged at how Hillary Clinton has acted(or not acted), Keith Olbermann dedicates his Special Comment to the flap over Geraldine Ferraro, namely Clinton's "tepid" and "shameful" response.( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/... ) I highly recommend watching that clip of Olbermann again just to time-warp yourself back to mid-March. It's important for what follows.
March 13th, 2008. Thursday. Tapes of Reverend Wright hit the airwaves.( http://abcnews.go.com/... )
March 14th, 2008. Friday. Mark Penn smiles. Who's Geraldine Ferraro?( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/... )
Analysis;
The idea that Obama's supporters and donors should help Hillary Rodham Clinton payback Mark Penn for his services to her candidacy is a ridiculous notion that can only be entertained by delusional cultists.