Letters to the Editor
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Where's Your Susan Rice Post?
Bigger story along similar lines. You have to wonder if maybe he's recruited too many academics who have never worked for a campaign or something. They just keep making trouble for him.
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Firing her is a bit extreme...
After all, maybe when she said "monster" she meant a pretty monster, like Lilly Munster --
http://www.themakeupgallery.info/central/horror/vamp/mun3a.jpg
-- or Morticia Adams (rowr!).
If Hillary is the Bride of Frankenstein, does that mean Bill Clinton is Frankenstein's Monster?
Anyway, I think the most interesting thing about this exchange is the use of the word "ergh." What is AP style on the spelling of that? I always thought it was "urgh," as in "Urgh! A Music War," or "I've got an uncontrollable 'urgh'....to spout off at the mouth and call somebody a 'monster' in front of a journalist."
Powers certainly shouldn't be punished. She should be reprimanded; she's new to this whole public-official thing. The Obama campaign has been swift in apologizing. Samantha Powers is too talented to let go after one gaffe. If she shows future lapses of common sense, then yes, get rid of her.
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What position?
Not being intimately familiar with the org chart of the Obama campaign, can someone provide some context here about who these people are and what their roles are?
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Its not THAT bad. she could have called her...
..."a bad panstuit-wearing, cheatin-husband's-coat-tail-ridin, psycho-personality-chagin, mud-slingin, campaign-mismanagin, George-Bush's-Iraq-war-enablin, John-McCain-promotin, healthcare-srewin-upin, national-polarizin, scandal-riddin, cacklin bee-yoch."
but she just called her a monster.
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brutal
man, that's a bone-headed thing to say...she should probably be suspended for a few weeks, that was really a terrible thing to say. Jeebus.
p.s. shame on the paper for publishing it - I wasn't aware that "off the record" follows the same rules as Mother May I...well I guess The New Scotsman will enjoy their 15 minutes of notoriety now...and so it goes.
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Hey Koppelman, you missed a chance to promote a good Salon article
This one here:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/18/samantha_power/index.html?source=search&aim=/news/feature
Check out Samantha Power's "monster" eyebrows.
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It's not nice
To curse the Jesus.
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Also, I think the more offensive line of the interview was this:
"You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."
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This illustrates the issue with a campaign that appeals to "latte liberals"
To use the derogatory term. There's a reason why the Republican bamboozling of the working class was effective--anti elitism is a sad but true fact of life. People do not like to be looked down upon, and there is a severe temptation by some on the Democratic side to give the impression that they are being patronizing. Ok, so a poor person wants their issues addressed--is that really bamboozling them? I know that academics think they know what's good for the poor, but maybe the poor want a say in it too.
I have to say that I dislike all the populist anti-NAFTA BS, but appealing to bread and butter concerns of the struggling isn't exactly dirty politics. We Democrats need to move away from "now, now we know what's best for you poor person (/Colombian peasant/Chinese worker/whatever) to at least trying to show some respect for their concerns (which, unfortunately can include "God, Guns and Gays").
Like it or not, the majority of American's don't have a college degree--it is probably better not to patronize people in those groups from the ivory tower.
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Another Day,
Another collection of meaningless banter to distract us from what's really at hand.
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Five steps to a 'successful' campaign
Step 1) Insert full clip into handle
Step 2) Rack the slide and chamber a round
Step 3) Flip off the thumb safety
Step 4) Shoot self in foot
This is the second moronic gaff by an Obama staffer. It's a damn shame too because Samantha Power is very bright and would make an excellent addition to any cabinet in a foreign policy capacity.
There's no question that this will be exploited heavily by the Clinton camp, and IMO not unjustly. The question is, will it be necessary to sack Power to make this a non-issue?
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But Samantha Power is right
Here we have a scholar who has studied some of the worst things which people have done to each other in recent history. She knows what she is talking about. I think if Samantha Power thinks Clinton is a monster we should listen.
Unlike the political hacks who fill most of Clinton's campaign Samantha Power actually knows something and is someone who matters.
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This is not "off the record"
With aides like Power, who needs Republicans?
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Offensive?
Considering that she completely misrepresented herself on NAFTA and coluded with the Conservative Prime Minister of Canadaa to make it look like it is Obama, not her, being duplicitous, I would say that her assessment of Clinton scaring poor people into voting for her is accurate.
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Step 5)
Step 5) Fire your brightest foreign policy advisor for shooting campaign in foot.
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This is bad, but...
When I watched Countdown last night (really this morning on my DVR) KO reported on the Clinton campaign's continued references to the Obama campaign in terms of their enemies on the other side of the aisle (Ken Starr, Karl Rove, GWB) which, in my humble opinion, are just as bad as the word "monster."
And how are the continued Hillary references to "Senator McCain's lifetime of experience, my lifetime of experience, and Senator Obama's speech that he gave in 2002" as she tries to make the case that she and Saint McCain have passed the "commander-in-chief threshold" not getting more attention here? Is she a monster? As compared to Grendel, I guess not. But she is going out of her way to trash a fellow Democrat and she must be stopped before she does it again.
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@ debaser
I think the point isn't that it is "mother may I" but more that you can't be in an interview, say something stupid and then claim it was "off the record" once it comes out of your mouth.
In other words, it is "no do overs."
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Deconstructing Monstrosity
Too bad Powers already apologized, because the Obama people could've Clintoned it in a big way ("At least I don't think so.")
monster (n.) 1a: an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure; b: one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character; 2: a threatening force; 3a: an animal of strange or terrifying shape; b: one unusually large for its kind; 4: something monstrous; 5: one that is highly successful.
Definitions 2 and 5 are surely what Powers was referring to, right? Unless people think Clinton's literally malformed. The Clinton crew, hands covered in mud, will be righteously indignant for several news cycles, now. The only difference is that Obama's people have already apologized, and the Clintons don't apologize for anything they do.