Al Gore Fans: Did You Know Gore FIRED Mark Penn?

[CorpGovActivist]

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Clinton's PowerPointer
With Data and Slides, a Pollster Guides Campaign Strategy

By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 30, 2007; Page A01

It was fairly simple, Mark J. Penn said calmly to Vice President Al Gore, reporting the findings of an exhaustive survey he had conducted in the early stages of the 2000 presidential campaign. Voters liked Gore's policies. They just didn't like Gore.

Gore laughed, according to people who attended the meeting. He had heard that before. But the vice president, worried about the effect President Bill Clinton's scandals might have on his campaign, had another question for his pollster: Was there any evidence of this "Clinton fatigue" that people kept talking about?

"I'm not tired of him," Penn replied. "Are you?"

It was a flippant response -- and the final straw for Gore, who had long been wary of Penn and concerned that his real loyalty was to Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. His senior advisers agreed, regarding Penn as arrogant and controlling, someone who pushed the boundaries of his job by dispensing strategic advice rather than simply interpreting data. Shortly after the meeting with Gore, Penn was fired. One of the party's most prominent pollsters sat out the presidential campaign, but he signed up that year with a familiar face making her inaugural run for office in Penn's native New York -- Hillary Clinton.

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On his online biography at Burson-Marsteller, we learn that: "Mark has helped to elect over 25 leaders in the United States, Asia, Latin America and Europe."

Besides Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, who are the national leaders he helped catapult into the corner office?

And where - oh, where - does he see 360 Electoral College votes right now?

Edited to add: In January 2001, with the Bible still warm from Bush's oath-taking, Mark Penn penned this explanation at the DLC website for how Gore "turned a win into a draw," with poll results shown at the bottom of the page.

- Dave