Penn: Negative ads work

Mark Penn, the former chief strategist for Hillary Clinton, is not exactly the most popular person in the political world these days.

Clinton still owes him money, but many donors have been angrily saying that they don't want any of their money to go to Penn. And a new Atlantic magazine story paints him as wanting to go very negative against Barack Obama -- counsel that Clinton rejected.

So, it's rather rich that he wrote an opinion piece for the Politico website that declares: "Clever negative advertising works. That is reality.The tactic meets with media and pundit disapproval and spawns accusations of negativity, but the reality is that a clever negative ad can be devastatingly effective."

Penn praises Republican John McCain's much-dissected spot that compares Obama with celebutantes Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, even comparing it favorably to his "it's 3 a.m. and your children are sleeping" spot for Clinton that questioned Obama's readiness to be commander-in-chief.

"Some negative ads crystallize voters’ opinions without presenting any new information," Penn writes. "That’s what was behind John McCain’s recent ad equating Barack Obama’s celebrity status with that of Paris Hilton — that viewers would associate the Democrat’s leadership with mere celebrity, not substance. Fair or not, as advertising it did its job: It used humor, stuck viewers with memorable images and created a debate, just as Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 “Daisy” ad, Walter Mondale’s “Red Phone” spot 20 years later and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “3 a.m.” commercial in 2008 did.

"The Paris Hilton ad also bore a Republican political trademark — attacking a candidate’s strengths rather than the candidate’s weaknesses. The spot attempted to portray Obama’s leadership for change as something fluffy and useless."