Hillary Clinton's Guru Speaks

Clinton Chief Strategist Mark Penn Discusses His New Book and Campaign '08

(CBS) 
CBSNews.com: Do you think the Oprah Winfrey endorsement of Senator Obama will actually have an effect, unlike most endorsements, which tend not to matter?

Mark Penn: I’m sure the endorsement will help him raise funds. And we all love to get great endorsements. But I don't think it will be a substantial help either way in his vote-getting campaign.

CBSNews.com: Turning a bit to some of the news from this week, does the public like a message from General Petraeus that they don't like from President Bush? Is it different coming from him?

Mark Penn: Well, General Petraeus is a distinguished general. But so far, the public feels very strongly that it's time to start bringing home troops from Iraq. And the various polls that I've seen from the news media are showing that they're not changing their minds on that.

CBSNews.com: Did your campaign learn anything from the Hsu donation controversy?

Mark Penn: Well, the campaign has returned not only his money, but the money he raised. And it's putting in another level of vetting to try to ensure that things like this never happen again.

CBSNews.com: When you hear Republicans say that Hillary is the only candidate who will really energize their base, what's your response to that?

Mark Penn: Well, first of all, I think they're looking for a Republican candidate to energize their base, and they haven't found one. And perhaps they're admitting that. I think that the experience with Senator Clinton is that she won two landslide elections. And I think the likely experience is that she will reach out and bring over a tremendous number of Democratic, independent, and some Republican voters, especially Republican women, over to her side.

And I think she has the potential to really expand the voting base in the country. Because I think the first woman president as a possibility will generate a tremendous number of new voters who haven't been much interested in politics before, coming in to vote for Hillary Clinton for the first time.

CBSNews.com: President Clinton won in 1992 and 1996 with well over 300 electoral votes. Obviously, Al Gore and John Kerry were less successful. Can you think of particular states where Senator Clinton would expand the appeal of Democrats?

Mark Penn: The polls right now are showing her running very strong nationally, and the state by state polls show her even or ahead in places like Ohio and Florida, which would be some of the biggest prizes. I think she has a very strong base in Arkansas. I believe that both Southwestern states, and also Iowa, are very good states for her.

And just today [Wednesday], there's a poll out from Rasmussen showing her ahead of the Republicans in Virginia. So the polls are coming back now from all sorts of states that people previously thought she could not win and show that because people are focusing on her strength and experience to be president, and on her message of change, that's reaching right across states, whether they're South, North, East or West.

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Mark Penn serves as Worldwide President and CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a global PR firm, and president of the polling shop Penn, Schoen, and Berland, which he began in 1975 as an undergraduate at Harvard. Penn has worked on more than two dozen political campaigns in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe--including for President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Penn won the Pollster of the Year Award from the American Association of Political Consultants in 1996 and 2000--and has served as Senator Clinton's chief strategist since 1999.

[cfin5]

If Hillary wins the election, should we change the "STARS" in our flag to "HAMMER AND SICKLES"???......Nah, she''ll do it by executive order.

[lylepink]

I notice the "Hillary Haters" are out in force as expected.

[mrqdc]

If we Democrats elect Hillary as the nominee this is what the General election is goona be about.Since shes running on his experience and accomplishments she has to take the good with the bad.
1.Bills Infedelities (you know the names.)
2.Bills failure to capture Osama bin Laden, after having several chances.
3.Her invovlement with Whitewater +all the other so called scandals
4.Her decision to vote for the Iraq War
5.Her lack of judgement And her speach made before her vote saying Iraq and Alqaeda had connections, though that very report she didnt stated clearly no connection.
6.Norman Hsu
7.Lincoln bed room and all the other money fueled scandals.
8.Allegations she hired She has so much Private Investigators to harass bills girlfriends
Hillary has so much baggage by Nov independants and moderate repubs are gonna be so turned off theyll vote for the independant candidate or the republican.
I hope im wrong but i know im right. And you Know it as well.

[agnim]

This so-called ''guru'' reminds one of Tiger Wood''s old coach -- selfishly trying to use a visible person to promote himself, instead of focusing serving his boss very well.

[campaignman]

All the polls I''ve seen show that Barack Obama does far better against all the potential Republican opponents than Hillary does. Moreover, Hillary is neck and neck with them while Obama is well ahead of them.

Obviously, this pollster has a clear bias in favor of his long-time friend and client so I hope CBS interviews either an independent pollster or Barack''s pollster to balance this out and talk about what it really going on.

P.S. If Hillary''s numbers were really that good in Ohio and Florida I think he would have cited them.

[seven-pesos]

not one southern state will vote for hillary.

the south prefers upstanding, christian , faith professing republicans

and top notch leadership like george bush, jr.

the south would like to find another prez like george bush. jr.

the southern states are considering drafting rush limbaugh to be the republican candidate.

he has all the qualifications...

fat, bigoted, republican, christian, drug user, demogogue.

oh well, that''s the south for you, folks!

[socrates392]

Hitlery Clinton is just another rabid gun-banning extremist who is tatally incapable of obeying the presidential oath of office.

Posted by GunOwnerDan at 11:40 AM : Sep 14, 2007

That''s funny because I think of her as a corrupt, war monger. It is funny how some people like you think of her as a left-wing "extremist" and others like me think she is a moderate Republican posing as a democrat. Interesting . . .