Democrats would do best if they abandon broad economic reforms and a more leftward political program, argued Mark Penn, a strategist known best for advising Bill and Hillary Clinton, in the pages of the New York Times Opinion section. Penn wrote that the Democratic Party must “move to the center and reject the siren calls of the left.”
Progressives have long viewed Penn with deep skepticism, noting that he has repeatedly used his close ties to Democratic officials as a vehicle for promoting his corporate clients. But there’s another wrinkle to Penn’s advice: He now invests in Republican advocacy firms — and profits from the electoral defeat of Democrats.
In March, Penn’s investment firm Stagwell Media LLC announced that it had acquired a minority stake in Targeted Victory, a major Republican digital consulting company. Targeted Victory, founded by personnel from Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, provided consulting services for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. More recently, following Penn’s investment in the firm, Targeted Victory assisted Republican Karen Handel in her successful campaign against Democrat Jon Ossoff in the Georgia special election last month.
Stagwell Media did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Penn’s opinion column sparked a number of rebuttals on social media, with many pointing to his disastrous role advising Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries as a major reason people should distrust Penn’s advice. According to one report, Penn designed Clinton’s strategy based on the false assumption that California’s primary awarded delegates on a winner-take-all basis, instead of a proportional system. Such basic mistakes by the Clinton campaign were reportedly pivotal in Barack Obama’s primary victory.
While Penn gained a new fortune by advising Microsoft, in more recent years he has slowly grown an investment portfolio that includes several lobbying and public affairs firms. Penn also owns SKDKnickerbocker, a Democrat-run company that develops policy campaigns on behalf of corporate clients including for-profit colleges, AT&T, and Herbalife.
Top photo: Mark Penn, chief strategist and pollster for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, speaks to reporters in the “spin room” after the Democratic debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire on January 5, 2008.
What a piece of sh#@…Americana, huh? I’d have more respect for HRC and her like-minded colleagues (most of the Democratic Party) if they ran as Republican. Of course none of what amount’s to 95% of the political game in the U$A is about truth in advertising , the very opposite. So It’s a better “strategy” to corner the market on both sides, and get rich from the battle of the BIG BUSINESS BRIBERY GAME, known as global politic’s.
I like John Nichols advice for the Democrat party so much more
“Democrats Must Become America’s Anti-Gerrymandering Party
The opposition party should embrace a sweeping reform agenda that embraces the promise of voting rights, competitive elections, and genuinely representative democracy.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/democrats-must-become-americas-anti-gerrymandering-party/
Hell, if Dems move any further to the center they will fall off the RW cliff. Save yourselves, Dems, and move Left.
I really just want and end to this 2 party system and the super PACs. I want more choice.
Ranked choice voting
Thank you, Lee, for setting the record straight. The Democratic Party has been boll-weeviled into impotence by negative-ideology, neo-Republicans like Penn who equate party politics with their personal embetterment. He makes me gag.
Funny thing about that, when you move to the right, so does the “center”. So don’t worry, even if the DNC winds up to the right of George W Bush, they’ll still be “left of center”. Not sure who they expect to vote for them, though.
Lifes a bitch when the other party acts like the republicans did to Mr Obama eh Mike Penn… your consulting group should move to the democrat side as they will be surging starting in 2018
Ah, don’t we long for the good ole days? Remember when JFK said “ask not what your country can do for you?”. There isn’t a democrat in all 50 states that would subscribe to this. And why would they when the politics of grievance and restitution for shit that never happen to you makes so much more sense. 2018 will not be the year of a democrat party come back. Bye-Bye.
Today’s Democrats are just a rehashed version of the GOP from 1980. Zero difference.
Sure. Except for gay rights, reproductive rights, climate change and separation of church and state the dems are exactly the same.
No two parties or individuals are the same. I abhor the Democrats (I’m registered Green and vote that way), but saying that they’re the same as Republicans, even from decades ago, is not true and opens you up to right-leaning criticisms like that from TomR.
Instead of saying there’s no difference, just say that the difference between the Democrats and Republicans is much smaller than the difference between the Democrats and the Greens, or between the Democrats and what I believe in.
I wish The Intercept would cover some positive things like the Public Banking Movement for example. The whole “California killed Single Payer” thing came as a complete surprise to me since I didn’t even know it was happening. Instead, we get continuing stories of abject failure, failed protests, failed movements, etc. It’s all Doom and Gloom all the time.
Unfortunately, I think many reporters have internalized Neolibeal, Identity Politics to the point where they can’t really see the world objectively any more.
OTH, when it comes to Doom and Gloom, Linh Dinh is doing pretty good work these days by throwing away stale liberal tropes and actually looking at the world around him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmdBQfCtTJU
If you want “positive news” about organizations, read their brochures.
Don’t k know about Dinh, but Chris Hedges is great. Excellent spiritual values, and a real analysis of reality instead of the corporate crap we normally get (including sophisticated crap like NPR).
If the Dems go any more to the right the Tea party are gonna start calling for mandatory minimums for abortion providers.
,
I was a democrat for 15+ years until I finally realized they have moved so far left, they don’t even know what ‘moderate’ means. Their political platform is based on hate and division. They have turned against the Working Class, and America in general. I cannot imagine how any Working Class American could support a democrat today.
.
surely you meant “they have moved so far right, they don’t even know what moderate means”? moving far left would not entail turning against the working class; it does not mean “power to the bankers”.
Both statements can be seen as true, depending on which part of the Democratic platform you’re looking it.
In the economic platform, Democrats have been moving rightward since Bill Clinton, abandoning their New Deal / Great Society roots in favor of a more business-friendly / welfare-hostile model advocated by the New Democrats. Until Bernie, it was almost impossible to have any progressive economic ideas taken seriously (and from this editorial, it appears that’s still the case.)
In the social arena, Dems have moved increasing leftward, based on advancing social justice for minorities. As valid is this cause is, it leaves out a lot of people who don’t associate themselves with minority causes. Also, positions have become increasingly rigid and strident, to the point where any criticism of the platform is quickly labelled as hostile and racist (or sexist, ageist, etc.)
The one thing you can count on with a person such as this is his nose; it will lead to his own self-interest without error or hesitation.
So, when he says “Move to the center!” you can take that to the bank. He ain’t wrong. He’s absolutely right, for himself that is, just not for the Democratic Party.
And, since he, as reported here, is in investing in Republican advocacy firms and is profiting from Democratic defeats, it’s easy to see, based on his unerring instinct for self-interest, that moving to the center as Mrs. Clinton herself championed is the end of the Democratic Party.
And so long as the Democratic “nobles” get their golden-parachutes, I really don’t think they give a shit. They certainly have not shown much of an interest in the future thus far.
Another good one, you sure keep busy. I hope you get some time to relax, maybe write some of this in the hot tub or something.
People who act like this guy are the reason the Democrats keep losing.
I’ll start voting for Democrats again when they act like Democrats again.
Until then, I’ll leave my ballot blank for state and national offices.
The Democrats do win from the center…just ask President Al Gore, President John Kerry, or President Hillary Clinton (she won two terms by the way, due to her strong ties to Wall Street).
In contrast, Barack Obama ran as a liberal in 2008, but then turned to the center later on. And we all know how the 2008 election went…
Two things,
The “center” in Washington-speak is now somewhere in the vicinity
of Newt Gingrich
and
Obama revealed his devotion to corporate criminality numerous times
while he was in the Senate. The delusional story that he changed once
he was in the white house is repeated again and again by people who
refused to face reality in 2008 and still refuse to see that he was a
fake from his first appearance in the political arena.
I see the Democratic Party in bed with Corporate America just as much as the GOP only disguised. This is a good article showing this. Obama bailed out Wall Street/Banking and certainly not the people. That is why we have had continuing growing inequality. Obama is now getting royal kick backs for that.
He was always a foul creature, and should be ignored and isolated.
Personally I love whatever strategy he had for Crookery! One more lying, cheating, thieving Clinton would have been too much!
Great journalism. I don’t blame Penn for playing both sides to fill his pockets. The moral responsibility lies with the politicians playing with other people’s money.
This election was a Tweedle-fest.
Penn owns SKDK, the lobbyists who corrupted the Obama White House and have all but destroyed the Democratic Party: https://youtu.be/V8ERFwZoPXE
Good one
Ever notice the faces of these vile creatures and their expressions?
This person reminds me of a pig.
THIRD PARTY TIME.
we need leverage!
You’re on a roll Mr. Fang. Good job!!!
No kidding!
Seconded.
It would certainly be an improvement if Democrats began moving to the center, pushing out the Clinton right wing. Over the past 20-some years, not only did the Democrats implement more of the hard right agenda than Republicans could have ever dreamed possible, but have strongly “influenced” the media marketed to liberals, pulling them well to the right (esp. on core socioeconomic issues). In the process, they have divided and conquered their own voting base, and ensured that there is no chance of seeing a strong progressive era in the foreseeable future.
This here is the gaslighting, that Pelosi and the Democrats are “too liberal” and that the Democrats need to oust her and replace her with someone more “moderate.”
Here in SF, Pelosi is in bed with the developer consensus that clearcuts communities in favor lf well heeled luxury condo dwellers. In DC, she is a vulgar operator who thinks that tickling the keys on the Democrat issue and identity Wurlitzer is the same thing as making public policy that addresses kitchen table issues that cause anxiety in so many.
Pelosi is damaged goods because she played a flush hand down to nothing and while the Democrat leadership might, people do not re-up losers. Playing up to the Clinton/Blair shenanigans means erasing what happened in the UK with Milliband and Corbyn which is probably the intention.
Well said. No question, Pelosi has had a poisonous impact on the Dem Party for years.
Personally, I’m a huuuuge fan of Pelosi! ? But I’m Republican. Not quite the same as supporting Trump, he was just the lesser of two evils. I thought Nixon v. McGovern was scary…this one was worse by far.
“I thought Nixon v. McGovern was scary…”
I assume you mean that because psycho/thief Nixon was elected. McGovern might have had a chance if the Democratic Party hadn’t abandoned him once he was nominated, but this party’s leadership has always opposed true progressives (see the Henry Wallace debacle that forced that asshole Truman on us, for example).
If we had a media that gave fair time to all candidates, and if Pelosi was actually willing to debate opponents (which she has refused to since the 1970’s) , she might have been replaced long ago. (Just think- we could have had Cindy Sheehan in Congress in 2008.)
I might also point out another SF example of how badly off course the Democratic Party is. Mayor Ed Lee in that Democratic stronghold and “success” story that is SF is getting booed so often he has limited his public appearances.
Is it too hopeful to think that their awful opinion piece will end up swaying more minds in the opposite direction? I love seeing this swift, thorough destruction of its premises and its authors from all corners, with Lee providing another important piece. Could all of this attention to how truly despicable its authors cause a sort of Streisand Effect?
These “moving right is pragmatic and adult,” and “you must abandon your selfish ‘purity’ stance and vote for whomever they give you” memes are everywhere in articles, and especially progressive comments sections. There are far too many who are already convinced that what he says is true, that the Democrats must move to the “center” or risk losing more elections. As if we really need two Republican parties…
The rank and file does not decide the direction of the Democratic Party, and the leadership will have none of this talk of “change from within.” Like this Penn guy, they are quite content to profit from the sellout of the working class.
One can hope that this, combined with the Corbyn success, would mean a more democratic Democratic party.
Perhaps this is the strategy behind the NY Times Opinion piece…checking into seeing what the other ‘democrats’ want from their party.