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Mark Penn, recently referred to by a rival as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) “Karl Rove,” said Thursday morning that Clinton does not see winning the Democratic nomination as a sure thing. “I really feel in every campaign there’s absolutely no sense of that,” Penn said. He added: “We are out there running an all-out primary campaign, make no question about it.” Clinton’s rivals have in recent days accused the senator of looking past the primary to the general election, and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) made what he sees as her false sense of inevitability the butt of late-night jokes Wednesday night. “Hillary is not the first politician in Washington to declare 'Mission accomplished' a little too soon,” Obama told Jay Leno. At a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor, Penn, who just released a book entitled Microtrends, said that Clinton is doing the “opposite” of a candidate who thinks he or she has an election wrapped up by tirelessly hitting the campaign trail and announcing new policy proposals. “We understand full well how quickly these things change,” he said. Penn also said, without specifically naming Clinton’s opponents, that her Democratic rivals are going more negative, but their intended effect is “boomeranging.” He said that is especially true when those rivals include former President Clinton in their attacks, as Obama indirectly did earlier this week. “I’m often puzzled when [our] Democratic opponents will take a swipe at President Clinton and his leadership when he is regarded so well,” Penn said. The senior Clinton strategist also spent some time addressing the Republican field, agreeing with the conventional wisdom that most Republicans are unhappy with their choices. “I don’t think the Republicans have any real outstanding stars in terms of their candidates, and I don’t think Republicans think that,” he said. Penn added: “I think you couldn’t find a more volatile election than the Republican primary.” Penn said Clinton stands to play better in some parts of the South than former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) because his polls show that 24 percent of GOP women would turn out for Clinton. Penn said Giuliani has “no connection” to core GOP voters, and his nomination could fire up a conservative third party. That said, Penn said he does believe either Giuliani or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination. |
