Bye, Bye Samantha Power

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Damn, and I kind of liked her:

Obama Adviser Critical of Clinton Resigns

By Peter Slevin and Perry Bacon Jr.
Updated: 1:39 p.m.
CHICAGO - Samantha Power, an outspoken foreign policy advisor to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), stepped down this morning after calling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) a "monster" in an interview with a Scottish newspaper. She said Clinton was "stooping to anything" to win the Democratic nomination.

In a statement released by the campaign as Obama prepared for a day of campaigning in Wyoming, Power called her remarks "inexcusable" and said she was resigning from her unpaid position "with deep regret."

"She made a decision to resign and we accepted it," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said aboard the senator's charter.

"Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Sen. Clinton and from the spirit, tenor and purpose of the Obama campaign," Power wrote. "And I extend my deepest apologies to Sen. Clinton, Sen. Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."

In a conference call earlier today several Clinton supporters suggested that Power should step down.

Later in the day, the Clinton campaign called attention to another interview Power gave while on book tour in the U.K. Power downplayed her candidate's campaign pledge to withdraw all troops from Iraq in 16 months, telling the BBC yesterday that his proposal was "a best-case scenario."

"You can't make a commitment in March of 2008 about what circumstances are going to be like in January of 2009," she said. "He will, of course, not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. He will rely upon a plan - an operational plan - that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn't have daily access now, as a result of not being the president. So to think - it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, 'Well, I said it, therefore I'm going to impose it on whatever reality greets me."

Obama's Iraq plan calls for removing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq in 16 months if he is elected president, by withdrawing one to two brigades (around 3,000 soldiers) at a time. Clinton has also said she would also withdraw one or two brigades month, but has not set a firm timetable for all combat troops to be out of Iraq.

Power's remarks were the latest controversy involving one of Obama's policy advisers. The candidate spent the days before the primaries in Ohio and Texas explaining a meeting between Austan Goolsbee, his top economic policy adviser, and Canadian officials, who said Goolsbee suggested Obama's rhetoric against some free trade agreements was simply political rhetoric. Goolsbee denied making the remark. Susan Rice, who served in the State Department in the Clinton administration but now advises Obama on foreign policy, spoke yesterday of an ad in which Clinton touts her ability to handle a crisis at 3 a.m. by saying "they're both not ready to have that 3 a.m. phone call."

[Paul B]

No reason she should have been fired; her comment, impolitic as it might seem, is really no worse than most of the back-and-forth from this campaign. I like Marc Cooper's take at Huffington Post, which I've pasted below.

****

Clinton, Genocide and a Campaign Gaffe

Posted March 7, 2008 | 01:46 PM (EST)

The Barack Obama campaign is about to pay a very high price for the inopportune words of one of its most distinguished foreign policy advisors. The dazzlingly brilliant journalist, Pulitzer-prize winning author, and Harvard professor, Samantha Power, has been forced to resign from the campaign after she recklessly told a reporter that Hillary Clinton is a "monster."

In the pungently hypocritical game of American politics, this is just something outside the rules. Whether it's true, or not, matters little. Nor does it matter that the object of Power's derision has just finished spending millions on TV ads implying that Obama would be responsible for the countless deaths of millions of American children sleeping at 3 a.m. Tut, tut. Nothing monstrous about that.

Power was rightfully awarded the Pulitzer for her finely written and downright horrifying book "A Problem From Hell" which, in macabre detail, describes the calculated indifference of the Clinton administration when 800,000 Rwandans were being systematically butchered. The red phone rang and rang and rang again. I don't know where Hillary was then. But her husband and his entire experienced foreign policy team - from the brass in the Pentagon to the congenitally feckless Secretary of State Warren Christopher - just let it ring.

And as more than one researcher has amply documented the case, the bloody paralysis of the Clinton administration in the face of the Rwandan genocide owed not at all to a lack of information, but rather to a lack of will. A reviewer of Power's book for The New York Times, perhaps summed it up best, saying that the picture of Clinton that emerges from this reading is that of an "amoral narcissist."

Former Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who commanded the UN forces in Rwanda at the time of the genocide, tells us a similar story in his own memoir. General Dallaire recounts how, at the height of the Rwandan holocaust, he got a phone call from a Clinton administration staffer who wanted to know how many Rwandans had already died, how many were refugees and how many were internally displaced. Writes Dallaire: "He told me that his estimates indicated that it would take the deaths of 85,000 Rwandans to justify the risking of the life of one American soldier." Eventually, ten times that many would die. And our response? A handful of years later, at a photo-op stopover in Kigali airport, Bill Clinton bit his lip and said he was sorry.

Therein resides the richest and saddest irony of all. Samantha Power has actually lived the sort of life that Hillary Clinton's campaign staff has, for public consumption, invented for its candidate. Though not quite 40 years old, Power has spent no time on any Wal-Mart boards but has rather dedicated her entire adult life rather tirelessly to championing humanitarian causes. She has spoken up when others were silent. She took great personal risks during the Balkan wars to witness and record and denounce the carnage (She reported that Bill Clinton intervened against the Serbs only when he felt he was losing personal credibility as a result of his inaction. "I'm getting creamed," Power quoted the then-President saying as he fretted over global consternation over his own hesitation to act).

We gave Power the Pulitzer for exposing the, well, monstrous indifference of the Clinton administration as it stared unblinkingly and immobile into the face of massive horror. But we give her a kick in the backside and throw her out the door when she has the temerity to publicly restate all that in one impolite word. Monstrous, indeed.

[Gentle Giant]

A) How can a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard professor be so fucking stupid?

B) She was unpaid and worked in the background, so what's to prevent her from continuing to give advice?

[Darryl G. Thomas]

G.G.,

She's not a political campaign pro. Amateurs screw up.

Paul B., thanks.

It's funny, Clinton blasts the press for being to hard on her (and easy on Barack therefore they're hypocrites) and she puts out TV ads where little white kids will be in danger if Barack's in charge (which are cool but Power calling her a monster is overboard). Kind of hypocritical. Oh, yeah, and Barack's being morphed into Kenneth Starr.

[Robert de St. Loup]

She should have explained that she was using the word "monster" in the Dick Vitale sense: someone who's really awesome. (Cf. monster truck, monster rock.)

[Pete C]

[Monte Smith]

I can understand being appalled at the results of Mrs Clinton's 35 years of experience, but that doesn't make her a monster. That makes her the Bride of the Monster.


"We need healthcare."
"Rargh! Healthcare good. Thongs better!"

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by Robert de St. Loup

the word "monster" in the Dick Vitale sense

Does that mean Barack is a diaper dandy?

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Paul B

No reason she should have been fired; her comment, impolitic as it might seem, is really no worse than most of the back-and-forth from this campaign. I like Marc Cooper's take at Huffington Post, which I've pasted below.

****

Clinton, Genocide and a Campaign Gaffe

Posted March 7, 2008 | 01:46 PM (EST)



We gave Power the Pulitzer for exposing the, well, monstrous indifference of the Clinton administration as it stared unblinkingly and immobile into the face of massive horror. But we give her a kick in the backside and throw her out the door when she has the temerity to publicly restate all that in one impolite word. Monstrous, indeed.[/B]

Her sin was allowing herself to be quoted by not saying that "this is off the record" soon enough when being interviewed for The Scotsman newspaper. It was juicy stuff and the reporter couldn't resist.
But, to be fair, I doubt that the Clinton campaign has anything complimentary to say about her opponent, Barack Obama.
The difference is that Clinton's campaign workers are not being interviewed and quoted when they make derogatory remarks about Obama.
Nobody believes that no slurs are being made by Clinton's workers.
They're just not being quoted officially, in print.

To Ms Power's credit, realizing that a remark that she hoped would be honoured as a personal comment, off the record, wasn't going to be, she resigned immediately, for the good of her candidate.
Let's see if Clinton can run her campaign cleanly as that from now on.
I'm not holding my breath.

Speaking of Clinton's inaction with regard to the Rwandan genocide, read Dallaire's book, "Shake Hands With The Devil."
If Clinton is going to claim her husband's Presidency as a line on her resume', I'm sure she doesn't want to take ownership of his part in that atrocity.

[Gary Sisco]

I don't know. She didn't say anything a shitload of people haven't said and are still saying. The Clintons have been called worse in Their time.

[Paul B]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

I don't know. She didn't say anything a shitload of people haven't said and are still saying. The Clintons have been called worse in Their time.

Exactly, that's why I'm surprised over the hullabaloo. The Clinton reaction shows a hint of desperation, I think...

[Gary Sisco]

The Clintons will use any and all gambits including blatant dishonesty, intellectual dishonesty, and, as in this instance, go hysterical over things like this while ignoring things like Her campaign workers in Nevada calling Obama supporters "the dark side of the party." Thing is, with Them, it's not about the party, it's not about the country, it's about Them. It always has been about Them.

Clinton's lies about Her foreign policy experience are entirely out of hand now and with little challenge from the media. What exactly is the experience She has? They won't answer except with absurdities, because They can't. There isn't any. But if They repeate it again and again without challenge it goes into memory banks anyway, like all lies repeated often enough. The latest I've read is that She helped much to bring peace to the north of Ireland. Yeah, right. The political settlement is the doing of thousands of people whose names most will never know. It has nothing to do with Herself. It never did.

Like all chronic liars, the Clintons seem to start believing Their lies are true after awhile.

Why this secrecy re Their finances and tax returns? Why not just provide them to the press like anyone else? Why must it be necessary to wait until *after* She gets the nod, if there's nothing there to hide? Nothing to embarass? If there's nothing to hide, there's nothing to hide.

But it will take some very serious explanations that don't involve magic or luck to explain going from single digit millions to 34 millions in three years. Never mind going from negative seven million dollars when He left office to 34 millions today. Talk about beating the market. And, for some reason, They always seem to beat the market. I'd like to know how. Again, They've received a free ride from the press about Their finances.

Not that I think She'll be the nominee unless the party is simply insane. If there are any brains in the party leadership, they know that running Her will be political suicide, when otherwise the presidency is virtually there for the asking.

I'll continue to support Obama until he gets the nod or doesn't. If he doesn't, I'll stop caring. Clinton can't beat McCain and frankly, though I distrust McCain, too, the prospect of a McCain presidency doesn't trouble me anymore than a Clinton presidency, and in some ways, less. The prospect isn't enough to make me think it necessary to vote for Clinton. I can't think of anything that would be enough to make me vote for Clinton. I'd not vote for McCain, but I'd not vote for Herself either.

[Tom Storer]

It's so ridiculous. "Negative campaigning" has been so demonized that no distinction is made between Swiftboat tactics, or Clinton's race-card playing, and an adviser saying a mean thing to a reporter. Similarly, whenever Obama makes an honest criticism of Clinton, Clinton acts like it's Karl Rove dirty tricks or Ken Starr persecution. Sheesh!

[Paul B]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

...I can't think of anything that would be enough to make me vote for Clinton. I'd not vote for McCain, but I'd not vote for Herself either.

Gary, I'm with you on this. If Obama doesn't get the nod, I'll not be casting a ballot this year.

[LennyH]

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

It's so ridiculous. "Negative campaigning" has been so demonized that no distinction is made between Swiftboat tactics, or Clinton's race-card playing, and an adviser saying a mean thing to a reporter. Similarly, whenever Obama makes an honest criticism of Clinton, Clinton acts like it's Karl Rove dirty tricks or Ken Starr persecution. Sheesh!

Right on, Tom.

It seems to have more to do with whether a comment gets run up the media flagpole to the point where it takes on a life of it's own.

Like David Schuster (sp?) from MSNBC getting suspended for 2 weeks for saying that the Clinton campaign was "pimping out" Chelsea to try to win Super Delegates. It didn't matter that he was using it as a figure of speech and that there was no real malice intended.

People are just insane.

[Gary Sisco]

Pimping her out here in Vermont didn't do anything to help. Obama walked all over Clinton in the primary, by a huge margin, and Clinton had the public support of significant rock-solid VT dem women hacks.

Not good enough. Nowhere close.

[Gary Sisco]

The amazing arrogance of Clinton. Obama's ahead in votes and delegates, but she starts talking about him as a running mate. That's some logic, for you, if you're a megalomaniac.

Why in the world would he want to play second fiddle to Her?

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

The amazing arrogance of Clinton. Obama's ahead in votes and delegates, but she starts talking about him as a running mate. That's some logic, for you, if you're a megalomaniac.

Why in the world would he want to play second fiddle to Her?

It's as insulting, in a backhanded sort of way as it would be if a friend bought themselves a new coat and offered you the old one, because it's "still good."

Crumbs from her table?? Arrogant does not begin to describe how that empty gesture makes Hillary Clinton look.
Good for Obama to turn away her snooty charity, gracefully and with tact.

[hornplayer]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Gary, I'm with you on this. If Obama doesn't get the nod, I'll not be casting a ballot this year.

Paul.... If Obama doesn't get the nod. I think we should launch a write in campaign for Gary Sisco! and if you think I'm kidding...

[Pete C]

I'd drink with Sisco, but I wouldn't vote for him.

[Gary Sisco]

I wouldn't either. Eugene Debs has the best take ever. He said he wouldn't lead anyone into socialism because if someone can lead you into it, someone else could lead you back out of it.

Plus, I'm a trench fighter. I have about zero patience for "meetings."

I did once run for sheriff, in the 70s, of the county I live in again today. The campaign slogan was "We're gonna have fun and get shit done when Sisco's the law around here."

I got some votes. I also got warned by guys in the bars, where I made my living at the time, that the sheriff wasn't liking my routine and should watch my back.

Late 80s, the Burlington Greens (pre-party Greens, of the Bookchin camp) ran a slate of left opposition candidates for mayor and city council. I ran in my ward for the council against a longtime independent who almost always voted with the Progs who were running things. I got 17%, which means about nothing in a winner take all system, of course, but had the German Greens of the time received 17% of the vote anywhere, we'd still be hearing the fireworks and racket of beer mugs.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Pete C

I'd drink with Sisco, but I wouldn't vote for him.

I'd vote for Gary if he were buying the drinks.

[Sandi22]

Would like to have seen Obama refusing to accept her resignation, which in my mind would have put him out front for a week or more in the news, without having to spend a nickle. It would show his strengths, not his needs. This run for the presidency can sure paint an ugly picture.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Pete C

I'd drink with Sisco, but I wouldn't vote for him.

I'd definitely drink with Sisco and also contemplate a vote, depending ...

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Gary, I'm with you on this. If Obama doesn't get the nod, I'll not be casting a ballot this year.

You can say this now, but when the actual election comes, not voting for the Democratic candidate is pretty damned close to voting for the Republican candidate. Whatever her sins, Senator Clinton will be a much better president than ol' Straight Talk Distress.

Not that I think this is a real issue--I support Obama and I think for once in my life I'm backing a winner--but refusing Clinton, should she make the convention, is just foolish.

(I'm only talking to you, Paul. Gary is irredeemably ornery, as a matter of personal philosopy, and if you tell him "black" he's gonna say "white," and etc. )

[Root Doctor]

It was pretty cowardly for the Obama camp to succumb to the petty threats of the Clintons, but I have to say that I find Power's appearance to be fairly unsettling. Female? Male? Hybrid?

[Gary Sisco]

No, Doc, that's not the way it is. Show me bullshit and I won't contend it isn't bullshit.

How have Clinton's foreign policy *decisions* differed from Bush's this past seven years?

Those decisions are the only "experience" and "judgment" we have to rationally decide the question. Words during a campaign are words during a campaign. Nothing more.

And there simply isn't a place in a democratic republic for political "dynasties."

No place.