What $3.8 Million Buys You

Really bad spin and messaging.

The firm that includes Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategist and pollster, and his team collected $3.8 million for fees and expenses in January; in total, including what the campaign still owes, the firm has billed more than $10 million for consulting, direct mail and other services, an amount other Democratic strategists who are not affiliated with either campaign called stunning.

I would never give Hillary Clinton a dime just knowing that Mark Penn would take a decent amount of it for himself. As The Editors say, "What an amazing gig this guy has. Never won anything, terrible at his job, gets paid truly exorbitant amounts of money for the privilege. He should be appointed head of FEMA."

I don't even know what he's doing for that money. Is he being paid for forgetting that there might still be an election going on beyond Super Tuesday? For getting smoked in GOTV? For relying on big donors so much that the campaign has to hastily assemble an illegal 527 just to keep financial parity? For the messaging of insulting Democrats in every state that won't vote for his candidate? I mean, Hillary's trying to downplay Texas now.

There’s been a lot of talk about what your campaign would do should it get to the convention. Would you commit today to honoring the agreement made earlier not to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations?

Let’s talk about the agreement. The only agreement I entered into was not to campaign in Michigan and Florida. It had nothing to do with not seating the delegates. I think that’s an important distinction. I did not campaign-- [...]

The press seems to have missed the distinction if that’s the case. The talk is that you agreed not to seat the delegation.

That’s not the case at all. I signed an agreement not to campaign in Michigan and Florida. Now, the DNC made the determination that they would not seat the delegates, but I was not party to that. I think it’s important for the DNC to ask itself, Is this really in the best interest of our eventual nominee? We do not want to be disenfranchising Michigan and Florida. We have to try to carry both of those states. I’d love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee. Florida and Michigan are.

You can't just trash Texas Democrats and run a 5-state strategy if you want a working majority. 50% plus one doesn't cut it. Mark Penn doesn't get this. He does, however, get $3,8 million dollars in a month, which means that I'm in the wrong line of work.