Just How Dumb Is Mark Penn

The Wall Street Journal has a must-read article on how poorly managed the Hillary Clinton campaign was run. Hillary made longtime schedule-maker Patti Solis Doyle campaign manager. Doyle never ran a presidential campaign and was later fired.

Democratic party insiders pleaded with Hillary to control Bill Clinton's racially divisive remarks. Hillary failed to do so. Democrats wondered about Hillary's competence.

The most damning problem is Hillary relied heavily on Mark Penn. The latter was hated by campaign staff and didn't understand basic facts about the primary and caucas process. Skills needed to be chief strategist.

Mr. Ickes, a rules expert, had long argued against the strategy. Last June at a meeting at the Penn home, Mr. Penn suggested Sen. Clinton would get all 370 state delegates when she won California's primary, attendees say. Mr. Ickes, they say, mocked him: "The vaunted chief strategist" doesn't know that party rules aren't winner-take-all?

Many in the Clinton campaign wanted to run on change. Penn convinced Hillary to run on her years as a Washington insider. Anyone with an understanding of campaigning knows that you don't run as an insider. Hillary could have been the Democratic nominee, if she never hired Penn.