"The issue related to cocaine use is not something the campaign is in any way raising."

Said Hillary Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, on TV last night after Clinton apologized to Barack Obama and after Bill Shaheen resigned as her campaign's New Hampshire co-chair. [ADDED: Do I really need to add that I'm scoffing at Mark Penn for saying he's not talking about what he's talking about?] 

Does anyone really think Shaheen was off on his own, reminding people that Obama wrote about his use of marijuana and cocaine when he was a teenager?

Clinton officials said she was personally distressed by the incident and had sought out Obama on the tarmac at Washington's Reagan National Airport before they flew to Iowa for the debate. Though the senators' interactions have been frosty since the start of the campaign nearly a year ago, Clinton wanted, her aides said, to make it clear that she had not approved Shaheen's approach.

Here's a focus-group of Democratic primary voters reacting to the story about Shaheen:

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's desperation. It's like you can't find anything wrong with him now, so you have to go back to when he was -- something he did when he was a teenager.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not fully convinced that Hillary was aware that that was going to happen. I'm not fully convinced. I think it might have been a loose cannon in her campaign, because I think that was just stupid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see how she could not know. I think anything regarding her campaign, I think that's something should she know, which will affect her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sort of surprised that she would use those tactics, given what happened to her husband.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If she didn't know, she should have known.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If indeed he used drugs or didn't -- whatever -- I think it shouldn't be held against him, because he was just flexing his muscles on his way to adulthood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't believe that Hillary Clinton was aware of this, because I don't think she's that stupid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was trying to derail the express train that Barack Obama is on right now. He's fast tracked himself to a possible lead that can over-take Hillary right now in the Iowa caucuses. That's why they had no alternative but to resort to these tactics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just didn't accidentally happen the day before the caucus. You think about, I mean, you've got the debate, and then this distracts the voters from voting.

No one lets her off the hook.

Speaking of sincerity, let's judge the sincerity of Hillary Clinton's mother. (No, it's not wrong to judge a mother talking about her offspring, when the offspring is running for President and is pushing video of her mother vouching for her.)



"She never was envious of anybody." Even written as text, that's unbelievable. But listen to it. If this were a parody commercial, I'd praise the actor for the hilarious inflection on the word "never."