Last October Mark Penn made a visit to firedoglake, my blog, promoting his book Microtrends. At the time I was pretty stunned that as the political pollster and strategist for the Democratic frontrunner, his book's index listed only one entry for "Iraq," which was one less than the number of entries for Angelina Jolie.

The back cover of the book proudly boasts a quote from the New York Times saying that Penn's ideas...