Fresh blow

Washington, April 7: Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist Mark Penn resigned last night after embarrassing the former First Lady by flying to Colombia on private business to lobby for a free trade deal that the Democratic candidate opposes.

The departure of her top official is a major blow to Clinton and could help fuel a sense of crisis in her candidacy. But several other senior advisers had long argued that Penn should be fired because his strategy of making her the “inevitable candidate” had plainly failed.

Some blamed him for Clinton current dire situation, in which her chances of defeating Obama diminish almost by the day. There had been open dissent in recent weeks with other advisers publicly mocking Penn, who ran then president Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign in 1996.

In a terse statement issued late yesterday, Maggie Williams, Clinton’s campaign manager, who recently replaced the ousted Patty Solis Doyle, said: “After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton Campaign.”

She added that Penn would continue to give polling advice to Clinton. Penn was an advocate of Clinton appearing tough and “ready on day one” to be President whereas other aides argued that she should show her human side much more. One of those aides, Howard Wolfson, was named as a replacement for Penn.

Penn met Colombian ambassador Carolina Barco Isakson and later apologised, saying he met Isakson in his role as chief executive officer of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, a lobbying firm.