Samantha Power

Email Print posted by musicinmouth 03/07/2008 08:08:29 AM EST

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One of the reasons why I support Obama is that he is usually right on foreign policy issues. His senior foreign policy advisor is Samantha Power, an incredibly smart Pulitzer Prize Winner and Harvard professor. I like her even more because, like me, she is Irish! She is being tipped to be a possible national security advisor in an Obama administration. She was also recently a guest on the Young Turks.


However, yesterday a Scottish newspaper published an interview with Samantha Power, in which she called Hillary Clinton a "monster":

“She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything."

She may have thought that she was off the record, but either way, she clearly regrets what she said. She was on Irish radio this morning and explained that she doesn't even believe what she said and that Hillary Clinton has been a role model for her and other women in public service.

Of her comment, she said it was "an off the record stupid remark that I made in the aftermath of the sernior economics advisor to Obama, who I mentioned earlier, being dragged through the mud for comments he didn't make. And I basically lost my temper and said how could she being doing this." She also said that she expects she may be fired later today.

I think it would be terrible if Obama lost such a smart advisor over one unguarded and off the record remark. She had come off a long flight to Ireland and a bad night for Obama in Ohio and Texas. She was angry at how her friend was treated. Should she be fired for an off the record remark like that? I hope not.

If she is fired, or made to resign, then I think this is an example of how a drawn out battle between Clinton and Obama can hurt the Democratic Party in the long run. It would be terrible for the Democratic Party to lose such a respected and intelligent advisor as Samantha Power.

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Samantha Power | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)
Samantha Powers is right (none / 0)
Senator Clinton is a monster.  Her campaigns new plan is to make Obama unelectable by the Convention since she can not catch him on pledge delegates.  Thus the Party will have to pick her. Same thing Rove did to McCain in 2000.    I think Obama should keep Samantha Powers or bring her back after the Election.  Personally if I was Obama I would call Hillary a Monster too. 

Yeh, Yeh I can hear it coming "But it is nothing like what the Republicans would do."  

Hillary is acting exactly like George Bush.  His staffers slime and leak gossip, then claim I cant be responsible for everything someone on my staff does. 

So if you want another 4 years of division in this country keep supporting Hillary, or lets try to make a change where we talk on the merits of a policy.  Debate the issues like everyone does here everyday.   

Maybe Hillary should apoligize for being a Monster.

by jdenham on 03/07/2008 10:06:14 AM EST

She may be right... (none / 0)
but shes already toast...resigned a bit ago.

"Loose lips sink ships" I suppose, but it was a rookie mistake and a costly one for Obama. This is not what he needs right now - scrutiny from the press!!!

I vaguely remember Ms. Powers interview on TYT, but I guess she'll have more time now to do radio again...

Oh well, it was an unpaid position, anyway!!!

Im sure this isnt the last one to go down in this race!

Thanks...

by bobo1 on 03/07/2008 01:00:06 PM EST

Damn that Scotsman! (none / 0)
I know Obama has tried his best to rise above the filth, but come on. 

The Clinton campaign held a conference call with several of the former first lady's congressional supporters calling for Power to be fired.

And it's all good for Clinton's spokesman Howard Wolfson to compare Obama to Kenneth Starr.   I just don't get it...

by rev24 on 03/07/2008 01:05:31 PM EST

power is smart? (none / 0)

i suppose i should have stopped reading immediately after i encountered the "like me, she is irish" remark, because, obviously, the rest of the post is satire, right? i mean, i never knew power to be a drunk wastrel with a penchant for potatoes.

power's problem with clinton is not any policy disagreement, but the fact that clinton is on the "other" side in the most recent set of circumstances---nothing more. what a petty moron. 

by neo on 03/07/2008 04:05:11 PM EST

Then (none / 0)
Almost any of the people in either campaign in this primary are all petty morons, correct?

Cynicism is poison to reform and pumps life into the status quo.

by prezalex on 03/07/2008 05:18:42 PM EST

[ Parent ]
ad hominem is key (none / 0)

to being a "petty moron".

consider 3 scenarios: 

scenario-1: samantha power criticizes clinton for her (clinton's) opposition to nafta.

in this scenario, power is opposing a policy position that clinton holds, and her opposition should be evaluated on its own merit. as long as power herself is on record supporting nafta, her criticism is on sound footing (although it still needs to be evaluated for validity on other, factual grounds).

 

scenario-2: samantha power criticizes clinton on the mismatch between her (clinton's) public stance of nafta and her private assurances to corporations that might benefit from unrestrained free trade.

in this scenario, it does not even matter what power thinks of nafta (she may be for it, or against it); all that matters is the inconsistency between public and private pronouncements of a candidate, and this mismatch is worthy of criticism by anyone.

 

scenario-3: samantha power crticizes clinton for being a monster.

the appropriate response here is a 'meowrrrrrrrrrrrrr' cueing a cat-fight, paradoxically initialized by a petty moronic bitch.

 

just as carl sagan said that "having an open mind" is not the same as "having a hole in the head", one cannot automatically assume that all criticism is cynicism.

a cynic, in these times at least, is a realist who is prepared for disappointment, and not a deluded optimist who is in for a whole lot of dream shattering in the near future.

by neo on 03/07/2008 06:03:25 PM EST

[ Parent ]
neo (none / 0)

Wow, you're a racist and a simpleton... you must be very popular.

And if you think that Samantha Power has no policy disagreement with Hillary Clinton then you have obviously never even heard her speak. 

by musicinmouth on 03/07/2008 07:41:58 PM EST

[ Parent ]
simpleton, i can understand (none / 0)

but "racist"? huh?

do you know what my race is? can you point to any statements i have made in this topic that uses the race of one or more participants as being a critical factor in my judgement of them?

or are you one of those morons who assumes that anyone who disagrees with someone who is associated with obama is automatically a racist---if so, i am proud to be such a "racist".

or perhaps you are pointing to my satirical point about the "irish" comment. firstly, i can understand your inability to perceive satire (it is a lost art on the intertubes). secondly, a statement of the form "i like ... because ... is irish" is about as racist (or not) as the statement "i hate ... because ... is irish". identity politics is always ---ist (race, sex, blah)---grow up and deal with it.

 

as to power's policy positions, why don't you enlighten those of us who have not had the "privilege" of listening to her speak what any _one_ of these positions is where power differs in any substantive way from hillary.

please make sure to point us to writings or speeches made before 2004---that is sufficiently recent so that any sensible person should have already formed an opinion about iraq and other u.s. foreign policy ventures, and sufficiently early that this person is not making statements in the midst of a campaign (where there is an obvious motive to side with your preferred candidate and make much of supposed differences with your candidate's opponents). 

by neo on 03/07/2008 08:58:05 PM EST

[ Parent ]
neo (none / 0)

"i never knew power to be a drunk wastrel with a penchant for potatoes."

Yes, I find that to be racist. You can dress it up as satirical if you want, but to call up offensive and inaccurate stereotypes just shows how lazy you are in argument.

No, it's obviously not a "privilege" to have heard Samantha Power speak or to have read an article of hers. It only takes a minute to google her and find one you know! But instead you decided to call her a moron because she made one off-the-record (and yes stupid) remark.

Clearly, you have already decided that whatever differences I point to between Hillary and Barack are "insubstantive" or biased towards her candidate. I'm not going to go digging up references for you but if you want to learn more about her, you can find links to much of her work at samanthapower.com or read some of her articles at Time.com.



by musicinmouth on 03/08/2008 10:27:20 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Glad she's gone (none / 0)
If I were an American citizen I would have thought twice before voting for Obama, because of Samantha Power's influence. Now that she is gone, there is a reason to be optimistic...Obama otherwise is a real hope not only for America but for the rest of the world. 

I'm a Turkish Canadian and Samantha Power's extreme pro-Armenian stance was a huge dissappointment for many Turks around the world including in U.S. 

by Rufat on 03/07/2008 09:07:50 PM EST

armenia (none / 0)

By "extreme pro-Armenian stance" are you referring to her belief that Turkey committed genocide? Surely it's considered historical fact now, no? Hillary Clinton agrees completely with Obama on this issue. Your country, Canada, does too. And I think most historians would. I don't think it's a pro-Armenian stance, so maybe you're referring to something else?

 

 

by musicinmouth on 03/08/2008 10:33:15 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Rufat (none / 0)
Rufat is a genocide denier and has posted comments to that effect in the forum before. Ignore him.

by ashbul on 03/08/2008 09:22:00 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Power's Resignation Comments (none / 0)
Power really had no choice but to resign. Otherwise the oppostiion would have beat this dead horse until it was glue. I thought her comments on her resignation were very appropriate and she seemed sincere, contrite, genuinely sorry for her mistake. How refreshing, considering how long it usually takes politicians to admit error. She made a rookie mistake, just like she said. It doesn't mean she cannot unofficially still offer insight and advice - she just won't get paid for it now.

by Verified1 on 03/09/2008 05:13:25 PM EST

Samantha Power | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)
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