We're patiently awaiting Mr. Wolfson's resignation....

I hope hillary uses that against obama:):)

Okay....I'll take this as being consistent to sticking to the high road even while your enemy is constantly trashing you. I still think Obama should have ignored this and pivoted back to issues that actually *matter.* I hope this doesn't mean the Obama campaign is planning to back down from pushing back against Hillary people on other fronts.

One candidate has class. The other doesn't.

Well, the deed is done. Obama should accept the resignation expeditiously and get on with attacking Clinton's record.

So, when is Howard Wolfson leaving? Or are only women not free to say dumb things?

Barack is Alice in Wonderland and Hilary is the Queen of Hearts, demanding everyone's heads.

Great. Glad that piece of silliness is over. The horserace aspect of this primary can really be distorting. Let's not forget the Decider is not going gently into that good night of his irrelevance:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon “one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today.” Fallon opposed the “surge” in Iraq and has consistently battled the Bush administration to avoid a confrontation with Iran, calling officials’ war-mongering “not helpful.” Privately, he has vowed that an attack on Iran “will not happen on my watch.”

Unfortunately, this level-headed thinking and willingness to stand up to President Bush may cost him his job. According to a new article by Thomas P.M. Barnett in the April issue of Esquire magazine (on newsstands March 12), Fallon may be prematurely “relieved of his command” as soon as this summer

Damn. Deprived the Clintons and the vapid media something talk about ad nausem for the next 7 news cycle. Meanwhile, not much of peep about NAFTA-gate part deux or Clinton acting as chief surrogate for McCain.

And folks wonder how we ended up with Dubya in the first place.

I'm not seeing how Shaheen + unknown precient captain in Iowa = one Samantha Powers. I think she owes him a head next time one of her people says or does something over the top. Like, say, comparing Obama to Ken Starr.

Seriously, its a smart resignation. Kills the story and keeps her from whining about it til Pennsylvania.

This is a very good move--Obama MUST maintain the moral high ground in this campaign and this was the only way for him to do so. This also gives him credibility and leverage if a Clinton higher-up says something idiotic akin to the "monster" comment (and that will happen, for sure).

Quick, clean and decisive. Nice. Seven weeks from now in PA this will be old news. Keep swatting the flies Obama and hold steady, Hillary's bigger pile of dirt will soon sully her ship.

Yep, clinton is looking after her own gender once again. You go girl!!!! Maybe some of the gender voters will now see her for what she is, a monster. Pathetic, I hope the scumbags are happy.

Is it an indication of how far from decency politics has come that I am stunned by the Powers' resignation? I am impressed time and again by the Obama camp's integrity. I am galled (and gutted) time and again by the Hillary camp's elastic relationship with truth, and the meaning of words.

I thought her description of Clinton as a 'monster' was actually an accurate descriptor -- far truer than the smears the Clinton campaign has been throwing around with abandon.

But I guess the somber point being made here is about language, and adult behavior. I can only applaud Samantha Powers for her bravery, contrition, and integrity. I have no words for Ms Clinton. She can hear from me at the polls.

Also, it's obvious that Powers will come back in to Obama's campaign if he wins the nomination. Nothing about this is permanent.

Now we wait to see and wait for Mr. Wolfson's resignation.... Obama should attack Billary immediately if this does not happen and hammer on the issue that a individual in your camp resigned.

Now we wait to see and wait for Mr. Wolfson's resignation.... Obama should attack Billary immediately if this does not happen and hammer on the issue that a individual in your camp resigned.

This is great news for monsters.

I've had up to hear with HRC.

Most of my fellow volunteers that have been working on Sen. Obama's behalf will not vote for HRC in the fall.

Not that it will come down to that anyhow.

YES WE CAN!!!
SI SE PUEDE!!!
KEEP HOPE ALIVE!!!

Does anyone think that this may all be orchestrated? Look, I am an Obama guy, but I think that all of this is a bit convenient. A universally well respected advisor says something to a non-MSM publication that many people want to hear Obama say: that Hillary is in this for Hillary - no matter what the cost to the party and GE. It gets some air play, many people (myself included) agree and talk about it, then Obama magnanimously accepts the resignation of someone who will be an advisor to his NSC. He looks good, the public gets a glimpse at how pissed off the Obama campaign is, and people talk about how selfish and dividing Hillary is.

Plausible?

Not ready for Prime-Time. Seems he has a big problem with who he associates himself with.

glecharles:

"Politics is an ugly game that would rather suffocate "hope" in its crib than aspire to something better. Shame."

Well said! Wow. And you are also exactly right about the Chelsea comment. That was MEAN. As in, only a truly mean-spirited person could ever say such a thing. As a mother, that's the one brand of personal comment I'd never forget...all political games aside. It crosses a line.

If you want to take a look at the person Hillary's vindictiveness and desperation just steamrolled, check out this post, by Samantha Power herself from just a few days ago:

http://www.thepersonalispolitical.com/post/27610653

This is great news for monsters.

That's exactly wrong. This is a terrible day for all Monster-Americans, who are tired of being demonized by stigmatizing attacks like this. Only the Demons should be demonized. They don't mind, anyway-- they're demons.

That aside, I don't think Samantha Power's resignation is sufficient. I think Howard Wolfson should spend the next three news cycles insisting that Obama denounce and reject her as well, in order to demonstrate that he's passed the commander-in-chief threshold that Hillary crossed in 1993.

Point for Obama:

1) Hillary looks weak for being so easily offended.

2) Obama keeps the high ground.

3) Obama doesn't appear to have caved in, because Powers "resigned."

the comments here are just vicious.

Too many ugly Americans here. Bleh!

I want to point out that I think the type of accusation here is really what brought on the necessity of resignation. If Power had simply said "Hillary has proven that she'll stoop to anything to win and cares more about her nomination than about the health of the Democratic party," the story would be very different. We would have Hillary taking umbrage, but also being put on the defensive. Unfortunately, calling Clinton a "monster" is a soundbyte that is both vitriolic and a far cry from substantive or legitimate criticism. It's also extremely unprofessional, and flies in the face of the positive, reprieve-from-politics-as-usual campaign that Obama has made the centerpiece of his candidacy.

I'm glad Power is out of the Obama camp, because that squelches this issue here and now. Obama, if he plays his cards right, can spin this as an example of how committed he is to running a positive campaign. And it's not going to be hard for Power to come if Obama wins the nomination.

This Just In!

Cookie Monster Disavows Clinton "Monster" Comment!

"I've known some monsters in my time. She's so not like us! Frankly, I'm insulted! I think Ms. Powers needs to get out and meet some real monsters."

I'm devastated. From a narrow political point of view, this was the best thing for the campaign and it keeps the story from dragging on for days and days.

From a longer term perspective, though, Samantha Power is one of the most brilliant foreign policy minds operating today, and her connection with the Obama campaign was one of the strongest signals that this would be a president of extraordinary judgement and leadership on the world stage. The resignation is probably the right thing, but we are all a little worse off today than we were yesterday. This was a woman who could have been a phenomenal asset to our country. I hope she will still have the opportunity to do so.

Bad news for Obama campaign. What a screw up.

Lesson for other campaigns: never talk to the Scotsman

I guess it's hard to prove whether or not Clinton is actually a "monster." Powers should have just called her a b*tch instead. No refuting that one.

Well, I don't know if this is smart. Now she is gonna ask for the resignation every time somebody says "Hillary has wrinkles".
Seriously, he does not have to get nastier,but tougher. Read the article by Jonathan Chait in the New Republic. Forget about the math the delegates and so on. The math says that she can't even get close. So what she will do? Destroy him with negative attacks so by Convention time he is inelectable. So I think the only thung left is show her hypocrisy at this time, with Nafta, with Retzco, with everything. When she and her campaign attacks Barack, instead of getting defensive, remind of the people who is talking. They lied to you before, they are gonna do it again.

Okay, nice move to cut her loose.

But in the frickin Sargent post, he describes her as Obama's Svengali.

Dude, what up with that?

Here's the definition of Svengali (answers. com - okay i'm internetting but i'm sure websters is similar)

Svengali. n. A person who, with evil intent, tries to persuade another to do what is desired.

I see this as a two-edged sword. It is a loss for the Obama campaign but it may also free Samatha to be able to speak out much more forcefully against Hillary without the need to protect the Obama positive campaign strategy. It is certainly very much needed. She may be the strong female voice we've been looking for to speak out assertively and aggressively against Hillary.

Per the progressiver-than-thou wing of the Democratic Party posting here:

Calling a reference to Whitewater by the Obama campaign "a page from Ken Starr" = out of bounds.

Calling Hillary a monster = lighten up, after all, she really is one (laugh laugh wink wink).

Got it.

OPM members ('Obama Points Memo' - for those of you not part of the cabal):

Would you like some cheese with your whine?

Can't you see the writing on the wall yet?

It ended in Texas.

Sucks when someone gets fired for speaking the truth. Happens all to often these days.

Everytime something like this happens, I think, what would Ronald Reagan do? You see the difference? So yes, she's that petty, and this is a preview of coming attractions for the GE campaign, and how she would govern. It's all high dudgeon and righteous indignation, with virtually no energy to spare for motivating a positive vision. In short, she's a classic reactionary and it was a significant contributing factor to why health care reform died under her watch. Read the New Yorker profile of her.

This isn't exactly how I would have reacted if I were BHO, but Power is probably better off gone if she is that combustible.

I have no problem with academics shaping and informing foreign policy. It is imperative. But was Power really the lynch pin of Obama's foreign policy positions? If so, Obama is in trouble. Does she have any national security and foreign policy experience outside of her research? Is she a Middle East expert? What experience does she have with US - China relations?

This is good news, but not as good as if Obama had actually removed her from his counsel (at least for now). Why? As I said in a previous thread, this as an opportunity for him to show himself as a "take charge" kind of guy. By waiting for Clinton to attack, and for Power to resign, he has shown a certain degree of passivity that does not help his cause.

You know, the Chinese say, "In every crisis there is opportunity." By letting Power resolve the issue Obama lost the opportunity to show himself as meeting his own standards of the "new politics."

Having said that I am willing to believe that Obama gave Power the opportunity to step aside rather than have him publicly rebuke her, but of course we cannot know that.

Now all the cries for Wolfson's resignation is fair enough, but tit-for-tat politics is not what Obama is supposed to be about, and we should not let tit-for-tat be the standard here.

Obama has promised us the new way to do politics and this is a good sign. The ball is now in Hillary's court to show that she can also play fair. Don't hold your breath though.

Calling Hillary a monster was a little off the mark.

Hillary is more of a lying, conniving, hypocritical, Lieberdem pile of soulless reptile sh*t.

Thankfully, for those of us at wit's end over TPM's continued Clinton fluffage, Olbermann is dropping the clown hammer on these rats. And Olbermann wields a much bigger megaphone than Greg.

Per the progressiver-than-thou wing of the Democratic Party posting here:

Calling out the Obama campaign for using a page out of Ken Starr's playbook for using references to Whitewater = out of bounds.

Calling Hillary a monster = Lighten up (after all, she really IS one laugh laugh wink wink).

Got it.

Meanwhile, Senator Hillary Clinton has been going around French Kissing John McCain on a daily basis.

McCain is getting more tongue from Hillary than Bill ever did.

She is kissing and hugging John McCain more than Bush ever did with Lieberman. Speaking of which; he is also in the McCain hugger ranks right along side Hillary.

Hillary Rodham keeps on endorsing John McCain over Senator Obama. That makes her an absolute traitor to our party. She is no longer a Democrat, if The Goldwater Girl really ever was. She loves those Republican Senators from Arizona.

County Mayo gave the world the word Boycott, and in 2004 Connecticut gave us a new word.

Hillary is not a Democrat. She is a traitor to the party. She is openly endorsing a Republican over a fellow Democrat, and therefore she does not belong in the party, so I urge you all to Lieberman Her out of our party.

Never leave a back stabbing traitor in your midst.

Lieberman her out of the party that she is betraying.

Schmedley, it is not about how she looks. If she goes about how she looks she knows she lost already. It is about destroying Obama, pure and simple, and as nasty as it sounds. That is why I said Obama has to refuse to be destroyed. And he has to show strength

What courage! What fearlessness in the face of adversity! Could anyone doubt Hillary’s readiness to serve as commander-in-chief? World leaders, beware! Once Hillary is president, don’t even think about calling her a sanctimonious poopy-head or she will demand your resignation!

I'm sorry but this is total BS. As an observer from afar over the years I've seen Ms. Powers take stands, confront, and actually try to work on some of the hardest issues out there (like Genocide).

She uses one emotional laced adjective in the heat of battle and immediately tries to correct it while it happened and with an apology after the fact. Of course that's not enough and she is set to the fire by the Clinton campaign. They did call for her resignation right? It's how they roll folks!

Way to score points by sticking to policy Hillary! Anybody or anything is fair game if it advances your numbers? You could have won over more Democrats by taking the high road.

Like,

"I'm sure Samantha Powers was over excited when she made that comment. She has years of fighting for the big issues...."

or when Cross asked you that question on 60 Minutes:

"I find premise of the question offensive."

But she didn't and she doesn't.

Now Obama (and The Democrats) lose a highly qualified and committed person. Bravo. Score one for??

This is exactly the type of distraction based political discourse we can expect in a Hillary based administration and exactly what separates Barack from her.

Keep your head high Samantha Powers!

forget the name calling. who is advising Obama on foreign policy? and what exactly was Power's alleged expertise? She is an expert on genocide and since she has shown that the US has never sufficiently engaged in efforts to halt genocide, it seems that she is a rookie on the major issues that guide US policy. I am not saying that US policy should not be guided by more idealism.

It really is too sad that Power was forced to resign for her careless remark.
I wish that Obama could and would refuse to accept it and simply tell HRC to suck it up. Or better, that he simply ask HRC's pardon for the slight and suggest that they move on.
As it is I think it petty and short term point scoring on HRC's part and that having made her complaint HRC should have accepted gracefully Ms. Powers apology, heat of battle, all that.
Plus I believe that HRC's campaign would have been better served by a show of tactical, if not actual, generosity.
Whatever else can be said about HRC her gracelessness is one of her less endearing points and she needs to ameliorate that.
Despite the Clinton camaign's spin the fault really does lie in herself and not the stars. Nor Obama.

Any word on how this is playing with her monster base?

Just getting this straight: it's acceptable to insinuate that Obama is a literal "drug-dealing Muslim" but it's unacceptable to insinuate that Clinton is behaving monstrously in a figurative sense.

Got it. No double standard here, no siree.

The whole Samanatha Power thing is very very sad. She is one brilliant and righteous lady, something Hillary Clinton will never be. What's worse, the HRC campaign demanded her resignation – and got it. Really a bad start to the necessity of Obama showing some balls.

And let's face it: Hillary Clinton is a monster. You know, I’ve always detested HRC and BJC, because of how they sold out on everything the Democratic Party ever stood for, back in the 90s. But I began to truly hate her last night. I watched Chris Matthews(always a mistake) and Keith Olbermann, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Not so much the Ken Starr remark, because everyone knows that Howard Wolfson is a pimp. What did it for me was that fascist news conference she held, backed by all these generals and admirals, and 100 flags. And the look on her face whenever she spoke about Obama, just this hateful, disdainful snarl. She obviously has decided – because of the “politically backward” nature of the upcoming states(PA, WV, Kentucky and Indiana) to try and move the Democratic campaign strongly to the right. When she ranked McCain above her fellow party member Obama last week, it seemed to be just one of those off-the-cuff mistakes candidates make. How naïve can you get? During her militarist conference yesterday, she repeated that charge over and over. It really felt like an very ugly version of Scarlett O’Hara ordering Big Sam back to the plantation fields. The mask was taken off yesterday, and she really is a monster.

Power's words have cost her, with regards to her own stellar reputation. However, they have given Obama an opportunity to prove to the super delegates that he is immediately decisive, and willing to give up a brilliant, important figure in his campaign to further the message that negativity will not be tolerated, and that he is indeed in full control and above the fray. The resignation is for the super delegates, not for the Clinton campaign, not for the undecided voters, and not for media fodder.

I hope Obama releases a statement demanding Wolfson's firing in response.

C'mon now fellow...
You don't want him to look like a sissy do you?

If y'all that the 'monster'-comment by Ms Power was bad, wait 'till you get a load of this (and the REAL reason she resigned):
http://thepage.time.com/2008/03/07/power-shocker-ii-adviser-pulls-back-on-obama-iraq-pledge/

That's right, a prominent Obama adviser who just blurts out that maybe Obama's promise of pulling out of Iraq should be taken with a grain of salt.

Hmmmm.

NAFTA? We got advisers speaking soothing words to worried Canadians.
Iraq? Well, we're making promises to the primary voters but hey, once Obama is president, who knows what he'll do?

This campaign is going to implode due to naivete and pure, unadulterated amateurism. Had this been the general, with Obama being up against the GOP, he would have been torn apart.

Looking forward to December 2008 when Obama announces Ms Powers appointment to Secretary of State. I hope Sen Clinton will be on the committee that votes to approve the nominee.

This echo chamber is like an alternate universe.

There is no way to get around the basic facts. A senior adviser to Sen. Obama, using exceptionally bad judgment, called HRC a "monster" and, when her apology did not defuse the sitaution, she resigned. Its significant because (i) Power was Obama's Condi Rice; (ii) Obama has been accused of being weak on foreign policy and THIS overwrought profane academic is the one person he turns to for advice; (iii) it comes on the heels of yet another foreign policy blunder by yet another inexperienced academic advising Obama (Canada/NAFTA); and (iv) Sen. Obama touts his superior judgment and THIS is the kind of key adviser we might expect in an Obama cabinet.

My tribute to Samantha Power:

http://www.thepersonalispolitical.com/post/28229790

So - a Dem - a brillian woman, has to resign because her highness can't take a punch?

What a waste. What bile. I hope this comes back and hits her so hard it makes her cry again.

Interesting how the lesson of this campaign recently has been "Don't talk to foreigners. Ever. They'll screw you any way they can".

So you resigned, okay. Who was responsible for the sickening and rascist ad darkening the color of Obama's skin and broadening his nose? Find out, get an apology and get that person drawn, quartered and fired.

Man/Woman, I hate this part of the campaign.

I'm really getting sick and tired of Obama's passivity in the face of the Clinton pile o' crap. Anybody for a brokered convention leading to an Edwards or Gore nomination? I'm on that bandwagon if it ever gets started.

Obama = Karl Rove/Ken Starr/etc. KR/KS/etc. = monsters. Therefore, according to Clinton, Obama = a monster. Is Clinton going to resign her position within her campaign?

Hillary has endorsed John McCain over a fellow Democrat.

Here is a current example of the kind of leadership John McCain exhibits; Hillary endorses him every day now.

McCain Loses Cool With NY Times Reporter

March 07, 2008 12:44 PM

ABC News' Bret Hovell Reports: Senator John McCain grew agitated Friday with a New York Times reporter who asked about his 2004 conversation with then-Democratic nominee John Kerry about McCain possibly running as Kerry’s vice presidential nominee.

McCain was addressing reporters on his campaign plane flying between Atlanta and New Orleans. He had just come from a town hall style meeting in Atlanta, where he was asked by a member of the audience whether he might consider Kerry as his vice president, the way Kerry had considered McCain.

"No. No," McCain said in the town hall meeting. “We have very vastly different philosophical fundamental political views. I respect those views. I respect them, I just totally disagree with them.”

McCain continued: “When I was approached, when we had that conversation back in 2004, I mean that’s why I never even considered such a thing.”

On the plane, the Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller, asked McCain about that meeting, quoting a 2004 story in which McCain said the meeting hadn’t taken place. McCain responded forcefully, his displeasure on display, but never raising his voice, telling Bumiller: “there is no living American in Washington” who doesn’t know about that meeting.

Bumiller pressed on, and McCain insisted that she knew of the meeting as well.

“You know it too. You know it. So I don’t even know why you ask.”

The back and forth went on for nearly two minutes before Bumiller asked a question on another topic. At that point, McCain resumed his more typical demeanor.

The following is an ABC News transcript of the conversation:

New York Times correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller: Senator can I ask you about Senator Kerry. I just went back and looked at our story, the Times story, and you told Sheryl Stolberg that you had never had a conversation with Kerry about being, about Vice President –

John McCain: Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that. That I had a conversation. There’s no living American in Washington -

EB: Okay.

McCain: - that knows that, there’s no one.

EB: Okay

McCain: And you know it too. You know it. You know it. So I don’t even know why you ask.

EB: Well I ask because I just read –-

McCain: You do know it. You do know it.

EB: Because I just read in the Times in May of ’04 you said.

McCain: I don’t know what you may have read or heard of, I don’t know the circumstances. Maybe in May of 04 I hadn’t had the conversation --

EB: But do you recall the conversation?

McCain: I don’t know, but it’s well known that I had the conversation. It is absolutely well known by everyone. So do you have a question on another issue?

EB: Well can I ask you when the conversation was?

McCain: No. Nope, because the issue is closed as far as I’m concerned. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows it in America.

EB: Can you describe the conversation?

McCain: Pardon me.

EB: Can you describe the conversation?

McCain: No, of course not. I don’t describe private conversations.

EB: Okay. Can I ask you –

McCain: Why should I? Then there’s no such thing as a private conversation. Is there (inaudible) if you have a private conversation with someone, and then they come and tell you. I don’t know that that’s a private conversation. I think that’s a public conversation.

EB. Okay. Can I ask you about your (pause) Why you’re so angry?

McCain: Pardon me?

EB: Nevermind, nevermind.

McCain: I mean it’s well known. Everybody knows. It’s been well chronicled a thousand times. John Kerry asked if I would consider being his running mate.

EB: Right.

McCain: And I said categorically no, under no circumstances. That’s all very well known.

EB: Okay, let me ask you… (moves on to another question.)"

There you have it folks. Hillary keeps endorsing this old jerk.

Dear John Marshall,

You are a fool.

-Hoost

If she really is Barack's Condi Rice, as David Kurtz says, good riddance indeed.

You guys are making way too much of this. Clinton doesn't have anybody rattled, as Josh says. People in both camps are making comments like this every hour. Power just made it to the wrong person at the wrong time.

I've seen this woman interviewed and was not impressed with anything but her sense of her own importance. She may be a fine writer and scholar, but if she made a comment like that -- and not overheard, mind you -- directly to a reporter, she's obviously too politically stupid to have around. Foreign policy advisers are a dime a dozen. They can be found in spades at any of 20 top-tier universities.

I've already forgotten this woman, and I imagine Obama has too.

I don't get why obama wants to compromise with republicans so much. Democrats stand to gain big this election. Democrats have been moving more to the center. They should start moving in the other direction. Obama seems ready to compromise (concede) very quickly - as in the present case of the resignation.

"I'm really getting sick and tired of Obama's passivity in the face of the Clinton pile o' crap."

I'm not so sure it's passivity. He just refuses to engage in this kind of ridiculous crap. If he'd stood up for Power, this would have wasted an entire weekend...or who knows what. I don't think that's his vision for the campaign. I think the resignation is, as others have said, a temporary technicality. The fastest way to end this story and move on.

Obama is trying to keep his sights on fighting McCain...which is exactly what a GE candidate should be doing. He needed to end this before it started so that real things can happen.

Although many seem to see her as running the show, I see Hillary more as standing in the middle of the road, jumping and screaming at everyone to pay attention to her as the bus to the general election drives away without her.

On the upside, the resignation pushed this story to the top of the page on MSNBC.com with the following headline and subhead:

Obama aide who called Clinton 'monster' quits
Samantha Power told newspaper the rival candidate was stooping to low tactics.

So, an adviser was sacrificed, but the truth managed to shine through in the end -- i.e. Clinton et al "stooping to low tactics." That's the drumbeat that needs to be heard until Camp Clinton either carries on a more dignified campaign or drops out.

i hate it when people have to resign for telling the truth.

Maybe I'm totally naive about campaigns, but is the resignation of a policy advisor during the nomination process really such a big deal? Isn't it really more symbolic than anything else? If Power is genuinely so close to Obama as I've read, no resignation is going to keep them from talking to each other or her working behind the scenes. And once this is all over, no one will think twice when she's brought on board again for his administration.

I score this thing so:

Shows Obama as "weak" -1
Shows resolve to run a clean campaign +1
Still gets the "Hillary is a monster" meme out +1
Shows Hillary as a crybaby +1

Total that +2 for Obama.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Power_on_Obamas_Iraq_plan_best_case_scenario.html

from the above

"For all the chatter about Obama adviser Samantha Power's calling Clinton a "monster," another set of remarks made on her book tour in the United Kingdom may be equally threatening to the Obama campaign: Comments in a BBC interview that express a lack of confidence that Obama will be able to carry through his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months.

"He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator," she said at one point in the interview.

Power downplayed Obama's commitment to quick withdrawal from Iraq on Hard Talk, a program that often exceeds any of the U.S. talk shows in the rigor of its grillings. She was challenged on Obama's Iraq plan, as it appears on his website, which says that Obama "will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months."

"What he’s actually said, after meting with the generals and meeting with intelligence professionals, is that you – at best case scenario – will be able to withdraw one to two combat brigades each month. That’s what they’re telling him. He will revisit it when he becomes president," Power says.
The host, Stephen Sackur, challenged her: "So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out in 16 months isn't a commitment isn't it?"
"You can’t make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January of 2009," she said. "He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. He will rely upon a plan – an operational plan – that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn’t have daily access now, as a result of not being the president. So to think – it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, 'Well, I said it, therefore I’m going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.'"

"It’s a best-case scenario," she said again."

I'm not so sure it's passivity. He just refuses to engage in this kind of ridiculous crap.

As an Obama supporter, I think he did the right thing here. There are really two upsides to the way Obama handled this. The first is that the story ends right here. If Obama had kept her on the campaign, we would never hear the end of it from the Clinton campaign. He has effectively blunted Clinton's ability to drag this story out any longer. What's more, he retains credibility with his argument that he's trying to elevate the discourse in politics.

The second upside to all this is that they effectively put the idea that Hillary is a monster out there and now there's nothing Hillary can do to get that idea out of the discourse. He fired the staffer who said it. Now everyone is talking about the fact that Hillary Clinton is a monster. We're hearing terms like "monster-gate" and "monster madness" thrown around. And whenever anyone hears the word "monster," they're going to think of Hillary Clinton and vice versa and there isn't a damn thing she can do about it.

Obviously, the tactical downside for Obama is that he loses a foreign policy advisor at a key moment in the campaign. But there's nothing to stop him from bringing her back once he's in the White House. Republicans resurrect their damaged advisers and candidates all the time.

Josh's comments about the "bitch-slap" theory of politics are well taken, but what was the strategic alternative here? Until someone can make a case for how Obama could have effectively kept Powers on board and turned the story against Clinton, I don't think that the bitch slap theory is the best lens for understanding what happened here.

Obama's campaign is built on lies after lies and Power has been fired for exposing it!!! You think she should stay? Me too!

Power Shocker II: Adviser Pulls Back on Obama Iraq Pledge

PAUL J.RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images
Foreign policy confidant and TIME contributor tells yet another overseas interviewer that troop withdrawals might not come as fast as promised: “He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator.”
“You can’t make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January of 2009. . . . So to think – it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, ‘Well, I said it, therefore I’m going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.’”
Watch BBC interview here.

So, it is OK for her supporters at SNL to call her "bitch" and to say that "bitch is the new black", but if someone calls her a monster that person has to go????

Personally, I think that it is true that she is a bitch and a monster and few more things none of them laughable, but it is kind of funny.

In any case, I thing that Power should have stayed. She was not insulting and you cannot allow the monster to tell you what to do.

I score this thing so:

Shows Obama as "weak" -1
Shows resolve to run a clean campaign +1
Still gets the "Hillary is a monster" meme out +1
Shows Hillary as a crybaby +1

Total that +2 for Obama.

Let me re-score for you:

1. Shows Obama as "weak" -1
2. Shows resolve to run a clean campaign +1
3. Still gets the "Hillary is a monster" meme out: -2 for contradicting your Item 2, a central theme. Also preaching to the choir.
4. Shows Hillary as a crybaby 0 - we already know her campaign whines about every slight.

Total = Obama -2

Colonpowwow, you have it wrong. Hillary's camp said that Obama's persistent calls for her to release her tax returns was a Ken Starr move. Obama's people said nothing at all about Whitewater.

"What worries me is if he thinks that will work in the general. Ask John Kerry about that. He's fine gentleman- and a losing presidential candidate."

Yep, Steve, I agree with the Kerry analogy. It worries me, too.
But you raised the critical point: this is NOT the general election yet. Obama really shouldn't be trying to crush and bully a fellow democrat...nor she him. But in the general election, he needs to be tougher, I agree, and no doubt he will be. Choose your battles.

I'll refer again back to the nasty vs. tough comparison someone made earlier...if Obama can perfect this distinction before facing McCain, he will be unbeatable.

i particularly admire the insightful comments of the brave low-level pundit-in-chief josh marshall telling obama supporters to "get over it." this brilliant peon of the illiterati continues on to explain to people how politicking works. josh knows this because he watches a lot of political television in his office that's near some politicians. this guy is such an idiot that he even decides to share the insight that hillary has gotten into obama's head. really? how was that? did she get in his head when, over the course of two weeks of campaigning, he cut her enormous lead in both texas and ohio to virtually nothing? was she in his head when, in her two "firewall" states, she picked up an amazing five-ten delegates? is the fact that she cannot win the pledged delegate count a subtle and sneaky way of getting in his head, by making him think that he's going to win? ooohhh - those tricky clintons. you and the rest of the chattering nabobs that somehow make a living by spilling your ill-formed thoughts onto a computer screen have become such a joke these days. if you don't have anything serious to contribute to the conversation, then please go take some more pictures of your son and post them so we can pretend to care.

The Dems come closer to losing November with every day that goes by. I can't believe that after 8 years of Bush, and a corrupt GOP congress that the dems have found a way to lose, but I think they just may have.

The Democratic party is the party for highly accomplished losers. No one else can blow it quite like a democrat. Way to go guys! Way to miss the gigantic honking redwood forest for your little petty trees.

Kamikazi Clinton is taking us all down with her. The pathetic thing is when it's all over, she'll be looking around during her concession speech, with tears in her eyes, and genuinely not know what happened.

I am quite surprised at the number of posters who keep repeating the Powers kerfuffle is "actually a good thing for the Obama campaign"

Well, actually no it is not.

This very well may be a tempest in a teapot in even the intermediate term, but it not at all a net plus.

It is never a good thing when one of your high profile advisors says something outrageous that overshadows your candidate and his or her message.

[and to face facts what Ms. Powers said _was_ outrageous for someone of her stature and closeness to the candidate to utter in mixed company. If someone in a high advisory role in the Rick Lazio camp had said the very same thing in 2000, would not every one here have demanded that Lazio dissociate himself from that advisor]

It is never a good thing to have to require a high profile advisor to resign in the midst of a media frenzy.

This is very much a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario.

Of course it is a long way until Pennsylvania and this will surely not be an issue by then.

However, I cannot imagine that the question whether to again disavow Ms Power's statement will not come up in the next Democratic debate. [surely there _has_ to be at least one more]

After reading a post by someone on another blog, I actually think the whole Power matter has been a masterstroke by the Obama campaign