Harvard Professor Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot
Everybody says things they regret. We’ve all asked that friend you haven’t seen for a while about her boyfriend, only to find out they broke up. Sometimes we say uncharitable things about someone, only to turn around and find the subject of conversation standing behind us.
But most of us don’t do these things with a tape recorder sitting in front of us. But then, most of us aren’t Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and adviser to Barack Obama.
In an interview with a Scottish newspaper, Power personally attacked Hillary Clinton.
“She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything,” Power was quoted as saying.
“You just look at her and think, ‘Ergh,’ ” Power also said.
That wasn’t the only stupid thing Power said.
Power also said the Obama campaign “f***** up in Ohio.”
It seems like the Obama campaign could stand to give its high-profile supporters a refresher course on how to talk to the media. The first lesson will feature a PowerPoint presentation of what the Senator has actually accomplished during his time in office, and the second will be on when is an appropriate time to call his opponent names.
Power apologized for her remarks.
“It is wrong for anyone to pursue this campaign in such negative and personal terms,” Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of government and an adviser to Obama said in a statement. “I apologize to Senator Clinton and to Senator Obama, who has made very clear that these kinds of expressions should have no place in American politics.”
By now, you would have thought the Obama campaign would have learned a thing or two about such brazen attacks.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Samantha Power is highly intelligent and well-informed. Though her comments were made in poor taste, she’s right.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Does ‘SEA HAG’ count as a monster? Because I see her as sort of a ‘SEA HAG’ but I really don’t put that into the ‘Monster’ category.
Hmmm… I could be wrong.
March 7th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
So why was this Obama aide not fired instead? OH YEAH! that’s right, Obama doesn’t fire anyone who fouls on his team, just like Bush!! Hillary has held every last one of her aides accountable for this kind of thing, Obama has shown every time on the other hand what he would do as President, protect his cronies and never fire them and hold them accountable!! just like Bush!! Voting for Barrack Obama is a HUGE mistake! Hillary Clinton has the integrity to lead honestly and fairly as this one of many examples like it once again proves.
March 7th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Except she did resign. Other than that, your logic and subtle use of caps is dead-on.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I never got why politicians, or in this case their aides, can’t use ”bad” words in public. You think Obama didn’t refer to Hillary as a bad word (sounds like itch) to himself after she first said ”Rezko” at a debate?
The monster line is different. But, her having to resign is a bit stiff of a penalty. Is that worse than comparing Obama to Ken Starr, really?
People should read up on public political discourse from the 1800’s because it was way worse than this.