Rendell rebuts Penn: "Either one of them is going to carry the state in the fall"

Yesterday, I posted the latest outrageous comments from the losing campaign's chief strategist, Mark Penn. On a conference call, Penn basically said Obama can't win the general election. I swear, they just sit over at the Clinton HQ in Arlington and make things up. And, for some reason, despite Penn's failed strategy, the media thinks that if he says it, it must have merit. Whatever.

But bad news for Penn and Team Clinton is that Governor Rendell, who was on the very same conference call with Penn, disagrees. Rendell said Obama is going to win Pennsylvania in November (video via Ben Smith):

No one knows Pennsylvania voters like Rendell. So, the Clinton campaign's top surrogate just undermined the latest Clinton talking point.

The Obama campaign obviously disagreed with Penn, too. They emailed out this statement last night mocking Penn (who is so mock-worthy):

It can't inspire too much confidence in the Clinton campaign when their pollster ignores both polls and math by making comments as divorced from reality as this one. Senator Obama is leading in delegates, states won, the popular vote, and fares better than Senator Clinton against John McCain in poll after poll, including critical swing states like Iowa, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Wisconsin.

Yep. And, it can't inspire confidence when the Clinton campaign's top Pennsylvania supporter, Ed Rendell, affirms on national t.v. just how divorced from reality Penn is. At least some people associated with the Clinton campaign aren't willing to destroy the Democratic party.