That's what happens when you hire a multi-millionaire corporate union-buster as your "campaign strategist." Why the Clintons were ever enamored of a charlatan like Penn (whose refusal to release his data reveals his incompetence as a pollster, much less as a message-maven) is beyond me. Why they allowed Penn to remain as chairman of Burson-Marsteller (when Bush, by contrast, insisted that Karl Rove sell out his interest in his firm in 2000) is equally beyond me.

I would call Penn the Bob Shrum of the 2008 campaign, except that does an injustice to Shrum, who could at least write a good speech and at least was a real progressive. But in terms of their competence as strategists, their won-loss record, and their toxic impact on campaign morale, Penn and Shrum are two peas in the same pod.

Still, it all comes down to Hillary. She decides whom to hire and whom to fire.