April 8, 2008 7:21
The Mark Penn Factor
......... I happened to come across another story that Michael Duffy and I had written for dead-tree TIME the week before Penn was (actually) fired from Al Gore's presidential campaign in 1999. It included this tidbit, which I had forgotten:
While a bloated, imperial operation could hardly be expected to pick up on warning signs, Gore insiders particularly fault Mark Penn, the lead among Gore's half a dozen pollsters. Penn shares his energies with the President, Hillary Clinton and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Over and over, Penn told the Vice President that Bradley posed little or no threat, that Bush was not as far ahead as public polls suggested and that most voters were confusing the Texas Governor with his father. At one point, when Penn was insisting that Gore was no farther than 10 points behind Bush, a campaign official quietly asked another pollster to check Penn's work. The number came back: Gore down by 18. Penn declined to be interviewed but let it be known through an intermediary that his position is secure.
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/04/the_mark_penn_factor.html