Dems everywhere, most notably at Clinton campaign headquarters, breathed a sigh of relief late Sunday when the campaign announced that Mark Penn was no longer Clinton’s top campaign strategist. There was some talk that Penn would maintain some kind of role with the team, but no one took that seriously — when the campaign replaced Patti Solis Doyle as Clinton’s campaign manager, they said the same thing, but it was just a courtesy to lessen the blow of being fired.<\/p>\n
Indeed, consider how Sunday night’s news was perceived. The political world learned that Penn was “forced out.” He’d been “replaced.” It’s the latest campaign “staff shake-up.” Penn “stepped down,” involuntarily.<\/p>\n
But yesterday, after the news surfaced, we started to get the sense that Penn may have lost his title, but he hasn’t actually gone anywhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Penn took part on the campaign’s morning message call [yesterday] morning, as usual.<\/p>\n This afternoon, he is also scheduled to be on a call with Clinton and other aides to begin to prepare for Saturday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Mr. Penn “is still going to be very much involved,” a senior campaign official said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, if Penn is still “very much involved,” he’s still part of the team, he’s still on the conference calls shaping the campaign’s message, and he’ll still responsible for preparing Clinton for upcoming debates, it starts to look as though Penn lost his title, but very little else.<\/p>\n The New York Daily News reported<\/a> that Penn will maintain his “role as an adviser and pollster” for the Clinton campaign, and quoted a Penn confidant saying, “Reports of Mark’s death are greatly exaggerated.” A senior Clinton adviser added, “You don’t break a circle like that easily and quickly.”<\/p>\n This certainly doesn’t sound like a guy who has “stepped down.” [H]e confirmed that while his title with the campaign had changed — and his work load would undoubtedly decrease — he still would play a direct advisory role for Clinton. <\/p>\n “I think you’ve heard that I made the decision to step down as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign. Penn Schoen and Berland is going to continue to poll for it and I’ll continue to play a role advising Senator Clinton and former President Clinton as well as the rest of the leadership of the campaign,” he said. <\/p>\n Later, he added: “The title, the position of chief strategist tended to be one that drew a tremendous amount of attention. And, number two, yes, I will have more time. We will continue – Penn and Schoen will continue to do the polling and I will be advising, but the net of it will still be that I will have more time than I otherwise would have had so that definitely is going to be the case.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The interesting angle to watch, then, moving forward is whether the same voices urging Penn’s ouster late last week pick up again in response to reports that Penn didn’t actually step down. Most notably, Gerald McEntee, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and one of Clinton’s most prominent supporters, reportedly pushed aggressively for Penn’s dismissal, which contributed to Sunday’s announcement.<\/p>\n If McEntee sees reports that Penn is still a key figure in the Clinton campaign, will he start working the phones again? I suspect he will.<\/p>\n
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\nThe Huffington Post added<\/a> that Penn hosted a conference call with Burson Marsteller’s managing directors to “persuade them that the fallout from his resignation was both overblown and would soon pass.”<\/p>\n