Don't expect Hillary Clinton to change her ways or her message just because Mark "Karl Rove" Penn has been asked to step down as the Clinton Campaign's chief strategist. 

Penn, author of "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes" and President of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland and Associates has been a lightning rod throughout this campaign.

Yesterday, an odd final straw landed on top of Penn's camel's back.

Odd because the offense that triggered his firing was fairly benign compared to some of the nonsense he has already pulled throughout this campaign.

It wasn't his borderline racist and homophobic comments in the past.  It had nothing to do with the fact that it was his "insight" which led the Clinton Campaign to ignore the smaller caucus states.  It didn't have anything to do with his comments about Barack Obama's admitted drug use.  Never did it have to do with his arrogance or public feuds with other high profile staff members.  And surprisingly, it had nothing to do with the string of 11 straight primary and caucus losses which he helped orchestrate. 

No, instead it was his meeting with a U.S. Ally in which Penn attended in order to hear one side of an argument.  Penn had not acted on any information from the meeting.  He simply heard Columbian President Alvaro Uribe's side of the story.

That being said, Uribe is a very questionable, right-wing, ally and Penn was hearing his side of a proposal for a free-trade agreement with Columbia, something Clinton herself is opposed to and an issue that has become important to voters in Pennsylvania.   

Still, for all of Penn's poor decisions, this is not the worst of them.

Penn, like Karl Rove is to George W. Bush, has been Hillary Clinton's brain during this campaign.  Despite his incompetence, people close to the campaign have said that Sen. Clinton had refrained from letting him go solely due to her loyalty towards him.

This is just one more example of Hillary Clinton carrying Bush's torch.

George W. Bush has consistently stood by failing and incompetent members of his administration because he felt he owed them something.  This was epitomized by his relationship with Mike "Heck of a Job Brownie" Brown.

Those close to Clinton have called her "fiercely loyal" and based on the way she has run her campaign so far, it looks as if Clinton, like Bush, is loyal to the point of stupidity.  We can not afford another four or eight years of this type governing. 

Mark Penn should have been fired months ago, from any logical standpoint.  In fact, many within the campaign have made the same suggestion, but Clinton has been too hard-headed to listen.

Even Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, a strong Clinton supporter, was on record as suggesting Penn should resign or be fired.  Maybe it was his comments and not Penn's actions that finally triggered a move on Clinton's part.

With the arrogant and incompetent Penn no longer in his position as chief strategist, it may appear that Clinton has an opportunity to straighten up her campaign and head in a new, more positive direction.  Unfortunately it is too little too late.

Furthermore, Mark Penn isn't really leaving his post.  According to campaign manager Maggie Williams, Penn will still continue providing polling and advice to the campaign.  Nothing is really changing except the title. 

The shell game being played to disguise one person's job is not going to be enough to hide his influence.  And with people like Terry McAuliffe, Maggie Williams and Howard Wolfson left to pick up any slack of Penn's, this campaign will move forward with the same cynicism, arrogance and incompetence that have become the trademarks of Hillary Clinton's Campaign.

A new direction in politics is long overdue in this country.  It is time to elect a leader who will not put personal loyalty to a bunch of cronies above what is good for the United States of America. 

It is time for Barack Obama.