Power Outage

Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard professor Samantha Power resigned from her post as political advisor to presidential candidate Barack Obama today after making less than kindly remarks about his fellow presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with a Scottish magazine, Power described Clinton as "a monster" who would do anything to reach the presidency.

On first examination, this snafu might seem to bode poorly for the popularity of the Obama campaign, but I have a feeling it might not actually be so bad for Barack's popularity rating.
Labelling an already emotionally vacant candidate a monster won't do much to alter Obama's squeaky clean play-by-the-rules image, unless the attack is publicly perceived to be affiliated with his campaign. They seem to have made sure that won't be a problem.

The campaign had already distanced itself from her in the past, according to an LA Times article, and her speedy resignation makes it clear they want nothing to do with her badmouthing ways.

Still, while the severity of negative side effects on her own self-image as a political advisor makes me hesitate before crying conspiracy, I have some reservations about the innocence of the Obama campaign in this media debacle.

On the heels of Hillary's wins in Texas and Ohio, Obama seems to have lost some of the momentum of hope that propelled him into last Tuesday's primaries. It would be conceivable for an advisor of Obama's, with a secure spot at Harvard (Power was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy) and no serious political aspirations (I have no basis knowing whether or not this is true), to purposefully level such allegations against Hillary's personal character in a public forum.

The woman obviously isn't a dummy. Power's words, though publicly unacceptable in association with Obama's campaign, hold weight and legitimacy due to her prestigious educational background. Furthermore, as a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Ms. Power knows exactly how the media works. I'm sure she is well aware that anything she says that can be taken out of context, misquoted, or otherwise seized upon by media hounds like herself. Particularly as a representative of an important political candidate, Power would have spoken deliberately and chosen her words carefully in interviews.