Bonus hilarity: Penn himself has vehemently denied being the campaign's chief strategist. So he basically just resigned from a position that he claims to have never had.

So does this mean the Columbians will take him back?

Also, what happens to the money Clinton owes him? Water under the bridge?

This is the first step of an ambitious two part strategy for securing the nomination. The second step involves assembling a time machine and winning more primaries.

In all seriousness, it does not speak well of her readiness to lead the country that her chief strategist was actively working on policies she opposes in the middle of her presidential campaign. As Ezra and others have pointed out, that is not Mark Penn's responsibility, that is Hillary Clinton's responsibility.

From the looks of that release, it appears that Clinton merely changed his title but that he'll still be on the same meetings, doing much the same thing ...

Is it largely a cosmetic change?

Oh please, this is a title change only. He is still very much involved and he'll still be making obscene amounts of money. He's not walking away from his personal cash cow - the Clintons.

Penn's not gone, they just changed his title slightly. They're trying to wash their hands of the Colombia-Free trade mess without having to make any real sacrifices.

Your headline is misleading.

Help! Should I be outraged that he was fired so late or fired so early or that he was not fired at all?

And does Austan Goolsbee know you can make $300K a year chatting up the Colombians?

I'm in favor of any event that provides an excuse to link to your review of Microtrends, which was truly awesome. You clearly had too much fun writing that one.

However it went down, YAY!!!

I was glad that Maggie Williams replaced Patti Solis Doyle, and I am more than glad that Howard Wolfson, whoever he is, will take over for Penn. As to Penn continuing as a pollster, etc. - remembering Dick Morris, it would probably be smart for Senator Clinton to keep him close (and your enemies closer), so he does not defect and write a memoir before the election. I certainly have no inside dope on the Clinton campaign, but it did seem that the first crew mainly knew how to spend money, as befitted an overfinanced front runner. I couldn't see that they adjusted to the scrappy challenger role as well as their candidate did.

Whatever, it's GREAT NEWS! Nothing like sacrificing a virgin pollster to propitiate the campaign gods that have snakebitten Sen. Clinton these past months. Will the cloud lift now? Please?

Or does somebody have to fire Chris Matthews and Donna
Brazile as well?

Thank you for the reminder of my all time favority book review. Just fell out of my chair...again, just like the first time.

I like that review, but Taibbi on Friedman is still the best review of hte internet age.

Obama never said he was going to 'end NAFTA'. He said he wanted to renegotiate it. thats a big part of the reason the so-called 'gaffe' was always bullshit to start with. You're certainly right that this isn't remotely the same thing, though.

Given that it was HRC who brought Dick Morris into the Clinton White House, and that Penn is, apparently, the one who tells her what she wants to hear, I doubt this will mean much in the long run.

(PS and btw:
Given Penn's traditional closeness to the Clinton's, he'll still have Hillary's cell number,

One of these thing's is not like the other's. You'll have to trust me that I'm not an insufferable pedant, but this is the equivalent of nails on a blackboard to me.)

Ezra! These apostrophes! Make them go away! You're an educated man! Not like Yglesias!

I don't think this is a cosmetic change, and heres why: I don't think the Clinton campaign forced it. My bet would be that Burson Marsteller forced him to step down, because it was hurting their business. The fact that Penn will provide some adviser work, and his company will do polling, doesn't change that in all likelihood the most meaningful - and most necessary - change will be that Penn will no longer speak for the campaign. That change is the one that was most overdue (though Wolfson assuming the role doesn't inspire a lot of confidence). I'd be curious, too, how long he stays with B-M; that press release from the Colombian government was spot-on, and terrible PR. For a PR company, I'd assume it's something near unforgivable. Dropping out of the campaign may well be his bid - a "hail mary play" if you will - to save his job. I'm thinking... probably not.

"It is bitter, though. Penn concludes the chapter by complaining, “Ask anyone in politics and they will agree—they face ‘snipers’ every day who are trying to find one flinch, one out-of-place word to put on Drudge or YouTube."

From Ezra's review of Microtrends. Apparently we're dealing with a psychic.

One wonders how any serious Democrats think either of these candidates is ready to be President of the United States.

Hillarys' campaign has been run just as bad as her healthcare plan and pretty much everything else she's ever been put in charge of through her sordid herstory.

Her total lack of executive and leadership experience is is masked by the fact her opponent has absolutely no experience.

It appears that Obamas blackness will trump Hillarys feminimity; even though he's more white and she's more masculine.

-------------------------

By the way, since we are about to have the party bigwigs anoit our first affirmative action candidate, perhaps Ezra could actually read Obamas book and give us the details on what Obama really thinks about his white foes...

Hey did everyone read Ezra's brilliant book review of Mark Penn in the link in this article? Its awesome - a fantastic takedown.

Ah, but a senile, abysmally ignorant, flipflopping, insane warmonger with an addiction to lobbyists and a severe anger-management problem- THAT"S the Anonymous definition of readiness to be President!

Lmao, you grammar nazis really need to leave Ezra and Yglesias alone. It's pathetic, and it makes it look like you're trying to come off as 'better' than other people.

My guess is nobody liked you guys in school either. Not because you were smart, but because you felt the need to make everyone else feel dumb.

I think this is mostly cosmetic as well. Sure, Penn is no longer officially the one guiding the message. However, his services as a pollster and advisor are still being retained, as it says in the release.

I really wouldn't put it past Penn to just make sure that all the numbers given to Hillary are the ones that push her towards the positions he'd guide her to in the first place. This move is just a placebo, meant to mollify Penn's critics (inside and outside her staff) while not actually doing anything substantively different.

Weboy, you might be right. Penn's giving his firm a lot of publicity right now, and it ain't the good kind.

Boy, that Anonymous feller sure doesn't like the Democrats, does he? Sounds to me like some Democrat pants him back in junior high, and he's been holding a grudge ever since.

When Austen Goolsbee potentially told some Canadian friend that no one was going to end NAFTA, that was a gaffe (it was also true).

Goolsbee got a bum rap, as explained in this post by Mark Kleiman, which details what Goolsbee did and did not say, and how the Canadian Ambassador put words in his mouth, presumably to advantage (fellow conservative) John McCain.