Matt isn't wrong to note that most big-time pollsters seem to have a remarkable capacity to look at the numbers and discern an aching desire among the American people for more forthright advocacy of whatever ideology the pollster holds, but Penn has a special cachet, if only because he's been associated with the Clintons for the past decade and change. Moreover, it's relatively rare for a pollster to ascend to such a high position in a campaign. Other high-profile Democratic pollsters (think Harrison Hickman, Stan Greenberg, Celinda Lake, etc) just don't have the power Penn holds in the Clinton campaign. As Anne Kornblut reported:
Eight years later, it is Clinton who is running for president, and Penn, 53, is her chief strategist. While not her campaign manager in name, Penn controls the main elements of her campaign, most important her attempt to define herself to an electorate seemingly ready for a Democratic president but possibly still suffering from Clinton fatigue.
In the four months since Clinton officially became a candidate, Penn has consolidated his power, according to advisers close to the campaign, taking increasing control of the operation. Armed with voluminous data that he collects through his private polling firm, Penn has become involved in virtually every move Clinton makes, with the result that the campaign reflects the chief strategist as much as the candidate.
So Penn is not only the most powerful campaign pollster in memory, but he's entrenched in the frontrunner's campaign, and was a dominant force in the last Democratic president's administration. There's simply no analogue, which makes his clear and precise ideology more of an issue than it is for pollsters whose similarly strong beliefs don't fall on such receptive, and powerful, ears.
Penn's enthusiastic corporate work also creates some worrying conflicts of interest. If Penn has Clinton's ear, and his longtime partner Doug Schoen is doing polling, advocacy, and, well, flacking, for Pharma, it's hard to imagine that Clinton will forthrightly oppose the industry's interests once in office.
