Microsoft’s Mark Penn, A Former Clinton Adviser, Weighs In On 2016

Mark Penn, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Microsoft, weighed in on the 2016 U.S. presidential election during an interview with HuffPost Live at Davos on Wednesday.

Penn, who served as chief strategist and pollster to Hillary Clinton in her 2008 presidential campaign, said the economy will play a big factor in the 2016 race.

“I think the economy’s improving, I think the president’s getting more credit for the economy,” Penn said, noting a better economy could mean better 2016 results for Democrats.

“More important than any other element is that,” Penn said.

Along with economic issues, Penn said discussion around cyber warfare, tax reform, income inequality, international affairs and technology and privacy are going to make for an exciting 2016 election.

“I think that this is going to be perhaps the most online, most engaging debate. I think this is not going to be a campaign just of negative ads, although I’m not against negative ads, per say. But I think there will be a big discussion of these issues,” Penn said.

“I think whoever wins, it’s going to be a great election,” he added.

Below, more updates from the 2015 Davos Annual Meeting:

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“I think it’s really one of the key issues that companies are facing these days,” Hoffman said.

Mark Hoffman explained CNBC’s decision to not use Nielsen ratings for its daytime programming.

“The challenge is that when tools are owned by and built by government, they tend not to be optimized for citizen empowerment,” Rattray added.

When HuffPost Live asked Rattray about the wide variety of petitions on the White House’s website, he said it’s a positive thing.

“We want to see a world in which social movements and organizing is an every day experience,” Rattray said.

“When we see the culture currency of Change.org spread to pop culture, we think that is a very healthy thing,” Rattray said, noting that the trend shows people are recognizing they can influence big institutions, making them “more likely to take action.”

Rattray said there’s a “false divide” between what he called “clicktivists,” or people who engage in activist causes “from their couch,” and people who are out in the streets fighting for change.

Rattray said about 20,000 new petitions start on Change.org every single month. The petitions cover a wide array of topics.

Rattray said people’s desire to push for change is global and is “fundamentally human.”

Ben Rattray, the founder of Change.org, stopped by the HuffPost Live set at Davos to discuss a “huge trend in business where companies are dedicating themselves to a social purpose.”

“Dedicating oneself to a social mission is actually aligned with the economics of business,” he said.

“One of the main reasons people are feeling good right now is low gas prices,” Salmon said.

Salmon touched on the 1 percent, saying many who fall in that category consider themselves middle class. He referenced “a rather crazy tax policy in the U.S.” where the very rich pay lower taxes than the average American, “and that doesn’t make any sense at all.”

The Huffington Post