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In June, 1998 I was in Goleta, California at the U.C. Santa Barbara campus attending a workshop on American economic history when I first encountered Portishead.
It was the start of my interest in interesting music and free market economics.
A rich tapestry, I know.
I'm in airy, spacey, lovely Berkeley, California.
I'm going on vacation.
Well, technically Mark Penn stepped down.
I found Mark Penn fascinating because of my brief** experience of working at Wirthlin Worldwide, a market research firm founded by Richard B. Wirthlin, who served Ronald Reagan as chief strategist and pollster for decades.
Dr. Wirthlin is a ferocious intellect and Mark Penn is no dullard, but he has said and done some really stupid things that have hurt his bosses.
It is impossible to imagine Wirthlin being so reckless with his client's reputation. It is also difficult to imagine Wirthlin working for the Clintons, but all things being equal, in a presidential campaign the only person who should be parsing a message is the politician-client - not the pollster-strategist.
Mark Penn is no Richard Wirthlin - to the great detriment of Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Here goes any chance I ever had at working at Penn, Schoen & Berland.
** I worked at Wirthlin Worldwide for the last two months of it's existence, thereafter it was acquired by Harris Interactive. The acquisition changed in very fundamental ways the lean, mean, premium strategic research firm that Wirthlin built. I cannot say if it was for the better or worse, just that it was different after the acquisition. Wall Street may have a more definite point of view but I most certainly do not.
