A couple of interesting items have come over the email to me yesterday and last night — that are just tidbits worth sharing.
One triple-confirmed rumor was that Obama chief strategist David Axelrod was shredding Mark Penn to bits in comments in from of political correspondents Roger Simon and Mara Liaison. But it wasn’t just Obama’s people going after Mark Penn. . .Hillary may have also!
And then, according to a source at Bloomberg, the Clinton campaign kept all of her key people — strategists, advisers, and the like — away from the media. Then some saw Mark Penn summoned to Clinton’s press plane. Don’t know what happened in there — but one could guess that. . .well, it was “tense.”
I spoke to a handful of top strategists last night who said that Iowa is the place for “nice” and New Hampshire is the place for “nasty.” So, expect campaign ads to go big-time negative. TIME‘s Karen Tumulty concurs with a great article folks should read on how the Clinton team may go to the dark side.
I’m of the view that negative campaigning can really backfire — but we’ll see.
And then, there was this slightly odd but perhaps revealing vignette from Tumulty on the Swampland blog that Bill Clinton stopped by Mike Huckabee’s headquarters yesterday — on election day — just to say hi to folks. . .
More later.
— Steve Clemons
7 comments on “Mark Penn Gets Targeted; NH Nastiness Ahead”