Clinton Campaign Fires Penn

On Sunday, the Clinton campaign did something it should have done weeks ago. They fired chief strategist and pollster Mark Penn. Penn and his company (Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc.) have worked with the Clintons since 1996, when they were hired for Bill Clinton's re-election campaign.

Penn was one of the leading voices in the Clinton campaign. He is the one credited with coming up with her strategy of relying on her "experience" as the reason to make her the nominee. He positioned her as the experienced establishment candidate, which turned out to be a mistake.

That allowed Obama to position himself as the candidate of "change". It also gave the Obama campaign some traction at a time when few believed anyone could beat Clinton.

Penn had failed to see the desire for change was stronger than the desire for experience. But even after pulling such a huge blunder, Clinton stuck with Penn (no one has accused Clinton of not being loyal).

But about a week ago, Penn stepped over the line. He met with Columbian officials to help them plan how to lobby the U.S. government to approve a Columbian Free Trade Agreement. Clinton is opposed to that agreement, and when the Clintons found out about his trip, he was asked to leave the campaign.

Pennsylvania is having its primary this month, and it has lots of blue collar and union voters. Having previously supported NAFTA, Clinton cannot afford to be tied to another job-killing Free Trade Agreement. She had no choice but to cut her ties with Penn.

She should have done this weeks ago. It's probably too late to do her any good now.