Obama: Microtrend or Macrotrend?

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Hillary Clinton’s Chief Strategist, and Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn recently published his latest book, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today’s Big Changes. As the Clinton campaign faces an uphill battle after 10 straight primary losses, some are claiming that Penn ironically is facing a “macrotrend” in Barack Obama.

MWW Group’s Michael Kempner writes:

First, this election wasn’t about the “microtrends” pushed by Clinton Senior Strategist Mark Penn, it was about the “macrotrends” understood by Obama Strategist David Axelrod. It was also about good old fashion political organizing…so far, the Clinton campaign has run a top down campaign, relying on name recognition and a belief in an entitlement to the nomination, while Obama has run a bottom up campaign, capturing the grass roots and motivating them like no other in my lifetime.

Is Barack Obama a macrotrend?

Ross Douthat of the Atlantic seems to think so: “I know that Mark Penn is a rich target these days, and deservedly so – but still, you have to feel at least somewhat bad for a guy who writes an entire book arguing that “the era of big trends is over,” only to run smack into, well, something of a macro-trend in the most important campaign of his life.”

The momentum is certainly in Obama’s court, but PRNewser is wary of counting our chickens before they hatch. If Clinton somehow makes up the 100 or so delegate gap, will Penn be saying, “I told you so,” to those now calling him out?

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