It's hard to make the decision to support Obama when I have always been a huge fan of Bill Clinton and Hillary. Okay, I have to admit I am in the age group that she is depending on to win the PA primary. But the more I read about Mark Penn, the more queasy I feel about her and my guilt of supporting Obama is not called for. The money she has taken from the big lobbying firms, most particularly the defense industry, turns me off big time.
"Mark Penn's firm defended Procter and Gamble's Olestra from charges that it caused anal leakage, blamed Texaco's bankruptcy on greedy jurors and market-tested genetically modified foods for Monsanto... The firm has represented everyone from the Argentine military junta to Union Carbide after the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India, in which thousands were killed when toxic fumes were released by one of its plants, to Royal Dutch Shell, which has been accused of massive human rights violations in Nigeria... It set up the National Smokers Alliance on behalf of Philip Morris to fight tobacco regulation in the early 1990s. Its current clients include major players in the finance, pharmaceutical and energy industries.
In fact, many of the agendas represented by Penn's firm have put him deeply at odds with Clinton, who has championed pro-union policies like the Employee Free Choice Act, and built her re-emerging presidential candidacy on the backs of the working class vote. Explaining this divergence in the past, the Clinton campaign has insisted that nothing Penn does with his private company would rub off on the Senator's ideological tilt.
"I don't think it reflects on her at all," Howard Wolfson, Clinton's spokesman, told Berman. "Mark's work away from the campaign is Mark's work, and his campaign work is separate from that."
But with Penn's unique access to Clinton -- up until very recently he was her only pollster and aides suggest the adviser closest to her ear -- his role with Burson has taken on an increasingly scrutinized role."
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