Political Punch

J Allen - Considering Mrs. Clinton's behavior over the past ten days, a course on diplomacy might be very useful for her as well, although her pandering to John McCain might be called diplomatic, (as well as appalling). I don't imagine that Senator McCain would make it through a diplomacy seminar, but I'm sure he could find some top-notch advisors.

Obama? I'm an old woman, and in my lifetime there have been only a handful of politicians with the background, experience, and innate presence to represent America in a global world in a way that Obama could - and my opinion is mirrored in the international press.

Is he perfect? No. Is he ready? Not sure. Will he be elected? Maybe. But as a diplomat or representative of this country - we could do a lot worse. And we have. For the past seven years.

Lauren: a) Give a citation, a source, and a date for your quote. b) Why did Clinton apologize (sort of) in Rwanda, to the people of Rwanda, if he felt that his adminstration had taken the right action (or inaction)? c) what do the words "never again" mean to you? Following this logic, we should not have gotten involved in WWII. Way too messy. Not our problem.

Hopesprings52: Powers was not "the chief foreign policy advisor" to Obama. The press does make it seem that way, but she was part of a team - of about 24 people, from many different backgrounds. Clinton and McCain have about the same number of foreign policy advisors.

Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province.

Hillary Clinton with the Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness after their meeting in Washington last year "I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around," he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely "the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets" during elections. "She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player."

Academics don't make good politicians, generally speaking. They just don't get it.

We cannot afford to hand the country over to these rank ametuers. They live in their academia cocoon. Hillary Clinton knows her way around. She has moved to the center unlike Obama and his leftist people.

"First find some information on what Ms Power has done in the 37 years of her life, and then consider what you yourself have done (and/or NOT done) in that same period." Mark, you can be competent but immature. She made an unprofessional and immature remark. Might does not make right. Maturity comes with experience and clearly, she lacks maturity in that one specific area. Your comments show your inability to discern between competency and maturity.

I know people are going to be angry about my comments, and I am really sorry for upsetting people but this situation we are heading into is bad...

...think about the fact that most people said Joe Biden couldn't win because of a plagiarism issue with a few speeches 20 years ago

Barack has a trial with an associate and it is being used left and right...

Hillary has lists...LISTS! and everyone thinks we are hurting the democratic party since we brought these lists up after her campaign started throwing around slum lord...and Rezko.

A whacked view.

I am not trying to attack Hillary but oy...

I just don't get why people who keep screaming about Obama's "unknowns" can't see that all of these issues that we already know with the Clintons are not just ALL made up. I am not trying to mudsling...they keep getting sued they reference all of this stuff they did while they were in office ...the lawsuuits against them have to do in most cases with something they did within the power of those offices they held... I am sure that is the reason the Obama gang was pushing for these records. It is because that is the bigger issue about to hit the fan...

...and for some reason I don't know if it's because she is a woman or because everyone felt bad for what happened to her with the stupid cheating thingh or what. If she was a man who had all these questions it would be an all out trashing.

People don't have THIS many questionable facts with soooo many scandals ... It is why i always thought Senator Clinton would be a bad nominee.

Think reasonably...and who has shown level reaction ... who has not gotten flustered in these attacks...isn't that who we want as a President "answering the phone."

Who has not run out of money with a mismanaged campaign. Who does not inflame the right. Who listens to and takes more ideas and brings them together (go ahead call it plagiarism again..."Have you seen the Mondale ad...or any of Bill Clinton's speeches)

Rezko is one thing...but look at the hand that has come from the Clintons, eys they fight for democrats...but at what cost... Is the Republican party just going to be able to come back in after another Clinton administration....

I obviously think it is overwhelming ly a case for Obama and the Clinton fight thing and the negativity are "throwing sand in the umpires eyes." Mainly us, the voters.

Lauren
Bill Clinton was able to reach across lines because he was the President (and we ended up having a republican congress that battled him)

Hillary is divisive. ...in some ways you are right she is more centrist. The war for instance. (I am not saying this to inflame...but that is the issue that stands out the most where she was centrist), She and Barack have almost respectively the same stance as far as republicans about the issues.

She kind of represents everything on one side of this battling back and forth for the past 20 years, that has built up to where we are now and congress gets nothing done because of this divisiveness...to which, c'mon ask the republicans ...a majority actually hate her.

As much as people backing the Clintons love Hillary... the republicans hate her just as much.

...and yes I use hate. God she even has democrats using the term "monster"... because of so many reports rumor or innuendo or fact no other candidate or woman in office has these reports...of how she behaves behind closed doors and the scandals...and it's not just republican attacks here oy)

Once again...sorry to sound like mudslinging but they release the white house documents and ...the Marc Rich pardon thing is one thing...but the two guys that Hillary's brother took cash for that were pardoned...Once again what the heck...how could two random criminals get pardoned , she doesn't know anything but her brother got money from them for it...oy)

...not to mention all of

IF OBAMA OR CLINTON HECOMES CHIEF EXECUTIVE THE REPUBLICANS WILL HAVE THE PERFECT "GOAT" TO BLAME ALL THEIR WRONG TURNS ON.CONSIDIRING WHATS ON THE HORIZON ONLY A FOOL WOULD WANT THE JOB!

Both Powers and Conway are setting great examples of their own hypocrisy.

Imagine what better shape our country will be in with everyone running around calling each other 'monster.'

Hillary is not a monster carmen, and millions of Americans don't think that, grow up.

Your comments are evidence of the real problem: immaturity and lack of depth of understanding.

There you have: the 'feminists'are all for Clinton, but as soon as 'one of the sisters'of the opposite campaign 'tells the truth'they jump all over her like rabid dogs. Ms. Power stated her opinion, which many millions of Americans share: HRC is a 'monster' because of her lack of dignity, her dirty politics, her lying and cheating. She had to resign only because of stupid conventionalisms.

It just goes to show that if someone says something does it apply to the person they are supporting. In this case her support is for McCain.

Point is the News is making the spin that Obama called Hillary a Monster.

When this idiot makes a statement like Hillary wants Obama in the back of the Bus.

This is this bimbo's Profile:

Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway is CEO and President of the polling company™, inc. a privately-held, woman-owned corporation founded in 1995. The firm is headquartered in Washington, DC and maintains an office in New York City. Mrs. Conway is one of the most quoted and noted pollsters on the national scene.

Among her accomplishments, she was recognized as the most accurate predictor of the 2004 elections and received The Washington Post’s “Crystal Ball” award and co-author of WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live (Free Press, 2005). The book has met with critical acclaim for its ability to distill complex data into memorable message points, acronyms, and phrases.

I saw Power on Charlie Rose recently and she was talking about how complex conflict situations are, and how it is often difficult to make the right call, how so many things are unforseeable, and can and often do, go wrong.

But these remarks were really unprofessional and inexcusable. It's ypocritical to peace-making, and all she believes in. Hillary is not a monster, and Power knows it. It was a immature outburst.

There are those in the intelligensia on the left who like to blame the Clintons for ways they think the Clintons should have been more liberal. Yet Power specializes in understanding conflicts and how difficult intervention is - especially when there is a need to back it up with any force, as there was in Rwanda. It is always easier to be in her position and be analyzing these situations after the fact.

The irony is that the Clintons are criticized by many on the left for being too centrist; yet they are praising Barack for his intentions to unify. Barack will be attempting to do what the Clintons have done, but because he is framing it in poetic terms, he is appreciated for it, while the Clintons were treated like it was some betrayal of the left.

It's all hypocrisy. I wish people could see past it, and appreciate that every administration makes mistakes, and overall as history has noted the Clinton administration was one of the most successful we've ever had.

I really think that all the liberal forces in Barack's administration would make it really hard to be centrist, and it will make it the decision making process quite the protracted, convoluted mess, between that and all the inexperience, it seems inevitable that it would be an overall very messy administration that would make a lot of mistakes.

That's why Hillary is our most qualified candidate at this time. She has been through many of those experiences and she has learned from them. Her administration would be much more efficient and effective.

Barack will have a promising future, but he has not had enough experience to be a qualified president.

This is why they hesitated about intervening in Rwanda:

"The U.S. intervention in Somalia is now widely considered to have been a fiasco. It is largely responsible for the subsequent U.S. hesitation about so-called humanitarian intervention outside of high-altitude bombing. It was the major factor in the tragic U.S. refusal to intervene either unilaterally or through the United Nations to prevent the genocide in Rwanda during the spring of 1994. The Somalia intervention was most likely an ill-advised assertion of well-meaning liberal internationalism, though there may have been other factors prompting the American decision to intervene as well: perhaps as a rationalization for increased military spending despite the end of the Cold War; an effort to mollify the Islamic world for American overkill in the war against Iraq and the inaction against the massacres of Muslims in Bosnia; and possibly as a preemptive operation against possible Islamic extremists rising out of the chaos. If the latter was the goal, it may have backfired. Islamic radicals were able to find some willing recruits among the Somalis, already upset by the U.S. support for Barre, now additionally angry at the destruction wrought by direct U.S. military intervention in their country.

And voters wonder why intelligent, responsible adults avoid getting involved with politics?

You must be very proud of yourselves. Remember your part in this when you get the government you deserve.

Well, from the comments Samantha Power made to BBC about Obama's Iraqi policy, you will have to decide either she or Obama is a liar. I would rather believe she is a liar, wouldn't you?

Hubris catches up with so many. She releases a new book in the middle of a presidential campaign and then speaks off the cuff as if she weren't the chief foreign policy advisor to a candidate in the midst of a tough campaign. People who are truly smart are not arrogant, they have respect for everyone and are humble, knowing that they will always have much to learn.

Compared to some folks in BOTH campaigns, this woman is far from mean-spirited and nasty. She had a moment of weakness/frustration and took a misstep. This stuff happens -- it's human nature. Stepping up and holding herself accountable for her mistake is admirable.

Even as a Hillary supporter, I think we have to recognize that sometimes the benefit of a person outweighs some mistakes. There are people on both sides who are very passionate about this election and sometimes people are going to say stuff they regret later. That's politics.

I bet she won't make that mistake again. And that my friends, is what the stuff of experience is made of.

Bridget, Clinton essentially turned his back on Rwanda, if not worse, as President. That's why he made a visit to Rwanda after his term to apologize to their people. And it took pressure from Gore for his adminstration to intervene in the Balkans. But you're completely correct about Bush and Africa, and I was unaware of that. It looks like humanitarian aid has quadrupled under the Bush adminstration - and he's asking for more. I am amazed.

Mara: I am not a Bush supporter lets be clear about that first. But the one only thing I can say Bush has been a humanatrian, his work in Africa has been great, the Malaria nets and med's for HIV/Aids is the one thing he can truly hang his hat on. President Clinton and President Bush Sr. has raised millons of dollars for the Suniname and Katrina victims has been beyond what anyone thought that could be raised. So please don't demish what they have done. Powers would be one of the first to praise all 3 of these men for their work and aide.

RIchard Holbrooke on Samantha Powers (6/07)

"I can name you only a handful of journalists with that commitment: Newsday's Roy Gutman, who won the Pulitzer. He was the guy who really uncovered the genocide in Bosnia. Christiane Amanpour, when she was in the Balkans for CNN. David Halberstam in Vietnam. There are very few voices like that."

"She will always face the risk that more bureaucratically minded players—I'm picking my way through this very carefully—will exploit her passions, which make her vulnerable to the charge that she's not 'careful enough.' But I admire these qualities in her. We need voices like Samantha Power. Whether she does this inside the government or as an outside writer is a story that's still unfolding."

I feel very sorry about what happened to Samantha Power, such a excellent woman and foreign policy adviser. Let's hope she'll be on board of the Obama team again after he'll have secured the nomination and Hillary will be out of sight.

What irritates me are the foulmouthed people here who heartlessly attack such an admirable woman as Power. She made a stupid mistake when trusting a journalist for not publishing something she said off the record. Apart from that, who would deny her the right to think of Clinton as a 'monster' after Clinton's amazing and dirty tricks in the past two weeks. Power has spoken well of Clinton on many occasions btw.

It's clear to me that a lot of people in these threads are simply here to bicker and enjoy the bickering. I wonder if they really care about America and the world.

If they would, they wouldn't dare to speak so low of such a courageous woman as Samantha Power. Those that do should be ashamed of themselves.

First find some information on what Ms Power has done in the 37 years of her life, and then consider what you yourself have done (and/or NOT done) in that same period. She has fought for justice in many countries.

Samantha Power, please join the Obama team soon again. America needs you, just as it needs Barack Obama.

I have seen Powers many times on Charlie Rose and other shows. I found her to be very bright and passionit. I heard her say many wonderful things about Hillary, so I was stunned that she labled Hillary a monster. Its a shame that she has hurt herself this way. She forgot if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. Hillary has said she will release her taxes, she has not said that she won't. So when she does and there's nothing to find, won't Obama look foolish. He is trying to imply that there is something to hide, why does he like the gentlemen he is, wait till they come out and if there is something to jump on I am sure he and staff will.

I have to say I am kind of glad kids in Darfur can't read the comments people are making about Samantha Power.

But if irma and the rest who are trashing this woman without knowing who she is...why don't you type in her name and Darfur and you can see she is one of those Americans that everyone likes to use as an example of what we do for other countries.

Correction: Samantha Power's book is noted in the press for covering Rwanda - but my post was not accurate. Her book covers genocide in the 20th century, inclduing Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Iraqi Kurds, Rwandan Tutsis, and Bosnians.

This seems like a remarkable woman to have on a foreign policy team, particularly given the humaitarian records of the past 2 American presidents.

But probably not somebody you want on your payroll in a campaign against the Clintons.

. . emotion runs rabid in the Obama camp. So intent on labeling Clinton, Obama, his advisers and supporters should really take a hard look in the mirror. Hard time for Obama to try to run his campaign on hope and change now, the damage is done, resignation or not.

Hillary IS A MONSTER. She actually deserves to be called worse. Now let's discuss Hillary's stand on the Ken Star comment? I thought so.

Enough said.

If Hillary gets elected she will be nothing short of a dictator. If you voters can't see that then I'll move to Canada and get one of those NAFTA jobs.

..and she stepped down because she is that type of person from the sounds of it.

She knew how the Clinton campaign would play it up and did not want her mistake to take down someone she knew well and believed in that much.

That is Barack Obama.

Do you see any one in the Clinton campaign who would do that for Hillary (besides Chelsea who has given everything for her parents to live out their lives...)

West Coast Messenger

You have to look at her bio and see how bad your post sounds.

Here is a woman that slipped, not a crime, not charges in a court of law, not playing dirty pool...she voiced her frustration...and if you want to see a woman who put herself and her life out there ...then maybe you'll see how small

the "power" comment is.

She may have actually saved lives with the work she did...how about you.

I think she made the decision to quit the campaign at this point. But as soon as Obama will be building his government, she will be in the picture again, and rightly so. She's incredibly bright. Let's hope she'll be prepared to call Putin a monster next year.

I'd love to see her in a more prestigious job than Hillary will have after her deep, deep, deep fall.

Hi, I'm a journalist from France who writes for Le Point, a French weekly.

I read all the bickering here with total amazement.

I just saw the quote by Samantha Power (who wrote a brilliant book about the Rwanda massacres) about Obama being the most exciting person in political life.

From a European standpoint I can assure he that he is just that, according to most Europeans (I did an article on it based on some 25 polls).

I'm amazed to see so many Democrats (who prefer Senator Clinton) attack such an outstanding candidate as Obama so aggressively. It's beyond comprehension. I'd think the Democratic Party should thank God (or Lincoln) for having such a man as a nominee. Even many high ranked European politicians from various parties stated that they DO think that only Obama could make a major positive contribution to world peace in the second decade of this century.

Well, just my two Euro cents. But why don't you stop the bickering and start discussing the ISSUES? I see not a lot that, though it would interest much more than smearing people. There so many important things in society and politics to talk about...

BTW I think Sen. Clinton is a very good candidate as well, but it no doubt it will me more business as usual with her; being a woman doesn't change politics, but motivating, uniting and lifting up a country (plus: fellow politicians) does.

Samatha Power was one of 23 advisors to Obama on foreign policy to the Obama campaign. She has resigned, after saying something inappropriate and frankly damaging to her boss. The Obama campaign apologized immediately.

Power's real work, which has not been mentioned in any of the Tapper posts, was to write a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the genocide in Rwanda - a massacre which the Clinton admistration simply pretended was not happening (maybe the polls weren't in favor of outrage against the slaughter of over a million people). There are many paths for those with ruthless ambition.. Writing an 800 page book about an African country seems like a very unlikely path.

In the same week as Power's comments, the top advisors in the Clinton campaign have compared Obama to Karl Rove and Kenneth Starr. Hillary has not asked for resignations, she has not expressed dismay, and she has not apologized. She has refused to comment on these indefensible comments (Chicago Tribune 3.08).

Clinton's chief advisor, Mark Penn, who was the architect of her Ohio plan, is also CEO of a PR firm which not only prepped the Blackwater private security firm for congressional hearings on its murder of civilians in Iraq last fall, it also worked for the Saudis to clean up their image after 9/11. Those are the nice guys. If the members of a campaign staff are reflective of the candidate, what does this say about Mrs. Clinton?

The fact is that the Obama campaign had the honor to respond and apologize while the Clinton campaign declined to even comment.

Start Reporting. On all of the candidates.

From what I can determine, a woman was placed on the Obama campaign sacrificial altar instead of a men who have stumbled much worse than Samantha Power did.

Perhaps women voters will notice the same discrepancy in treatment.

"Lanky...charcoal...zooms through the halls with (a) kind of...gait." Sounds like a monster! Oh, it's Powers, same difference....

LOL. Curly, Moe, Larry, and....Samantha?

Sounds like Power was drunk with the potential of Power. Her 15 minutes are now officially over.