Let's don't dwell on these red herrings, regardless of how photogenic the foreign reporters may be.

Instead, show me what Barack and Hillary are doing in WY tonight.

Here's a rally Barack is holding tonight:

Stand for Change Rally with Barack Obama

Arena Auditorium
University of Wyoming
1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071

Friday, March 7th, 2008
Doors Open: 5:00 p.m. [7 PM ET]
Program Begins: 7:15 p.m. [9:15 PM ET]

What's Hillary up to, besides having another back-to-back-to-back phone conference to smear Barack?

After listening to Chris Matthews gush over John McCain's appeal as military man just now, I finally realized that Matthews, and most other reporters covering McCain, have turned into Dennis Hopper's character from Apocalypse Now.

"Hey, man, you don't talk to McCain - you listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he'll... uh... well, you'll say 'hello' to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you. He won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say, "do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you"... I mean I'm no, I can't... I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's... he's a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas..."

Well i hope the few more hits on their website was worth someones job.

Simply the chance for her 15 minutes of fame, at the expense of Ms. Powers. Congrats Ms. Peev, with "journalistic morals" like this, you have a promising future in American journalism. I can attach the address for the Enquirer, but I suppose you can stay on that side of the pond and write features for the Sun.

The interesting thing here is that the quote clearly states that the "off the record" comment came not prior to, but after the comment was made in an attempt to not let it slip.

To Hillary and Barack and any other politician, campaign worker, or the public itself I issue these words of wisdom: NOTHING YOU SAY IS EVER OFF THE RECORD IN FRONT OF A JOURNALIST!

Dana Perino... watch yer back! Here comes your replacement.

The media is just so unfair to Hillary Clinton.

What's the problem with the campaign sticking up for this statement? Is Clinton a monster for the type of campaign she is running? I'd love to see Obama speak truth to power and expose the diabolic nature of her politics.

Sigh. And so it continues...

Oh well, it could be worse. This shit could be hitting the fan right before PA.

Maybe the pendulum will swing back, and Obama will get some decent press in when it counts.

It's interesting, apparently reporters let McCain say all sorts of ugly stuff and they give him a pass since he gives them lots of access.

So there are no real rules, just rules of convenience.

And yeah, never trust a reporter.

The bad point of the reporting wasn't this comment. It was the overall flow of the article. The reporter made it out that the new foreign policy that Power is advising Obama on amounts to an attempt to appease tyrants by being nicer to them, that this was the difference between the proposed Obama administration and current US policy. It's clear, reading the article, that the reporter intended to do a hack job for Clinton - or at the least totally misunderstands and/or disrespects the Power-Obama prospectus.

Greg, did Wolfson send you this?

The media, along with TPM staff (sadly, I might add), have given in to the slime that's spewing from Clinton and her campaign staff. No wonder Dems are called pussies.

P.S. Look at my photo. Look at it. LOOK!

P.S.S. I'm not going to clean up that puke.

You all need to lighten up on this reporter. The whole "Off the record" thing is bullshit. It's an enormously corrupting influence in our culture, because it allows reporters to cozy up to journalists and vise versa. And totally erodes trust in the media. In all honestly, we should get rid of it.

Of course, that will never happen, because people enjoy it it too much.

Nothing is ever 'OFF THE RECORD"? Really? Gee - then Bob Woodward and Ben Bradlee were really 'breaking the rule' when they kept 'Deep Throat"'s identity 'off the record' for over 20 years.

Here is how a reporter with professional integrity would have reported the story:

"an individual with close ties to the Obama campaign, today, referred to HIllary Clinton as a 'monster'....."

Story told. Identity concealed and kept 'off the record' as requested. End of story.

Except, of course, that more and more these days, 'reporter' and 'integrity' are two words one should never use in the same sentence - unless to indicate the appalling lack of the latter in the professional lives of the former.

What's wong with you people, HRC is no monster, I saw her
in the "Billary McBush" movie and she looked just fine at 3 am with Make-up and a pants suit. To me, she looked more lake "Hillary Dearest" minis the wire hangers.

The Clintons are starting to remind me of those people we all know in life of thriving on controversy. If there isn't something bad in their lives, they make up something so they can have that victim stuff to dwell on that they so love.

It's really pretty sad that a couple of the supposed stature of the Clintons have reduced themselves to campaigning, not on their own merits, but on the tear down the other guy stuff.

They dwelled on the vast right wing conspiracy when in office...now they've successfully sucked the media into the *woe is me you are so hard on me* mess.

Maybe the right wing wasn't so wrong all those years about this power couple. The Clintons sure seem to love dwelling in this muck.

Come on, Carol, Samantha Powers gave an on-the-record interview with a British reporter; a scheduled interview. Sam even waited for the reporter to turn on her micro-recorder! How can anyone as savvy as Samantha Powers expect any reporter to censor the contents of a scheduled and recorded interview?

And to make matters worse, Powers gave the interview in Britain where "off-the-record" has established guidelines, one of them being you can't say "off-the-record" during an on-the-record taped and scheduled interview! I mean, Powers, of all people, should know how the British media works. It's not the reporter's fault at all.

Powers gave Clinton a gift wrapped with a bow. She made things worse by unclearly stating Obama's Iraq policy, another Sam brush fire the candidate had to extinguish today.

She deserved to lose her job. I hope she gets it back after some months in purgatory, but this was an inexcusable blunder by someone who knew better. Obama doesn't need this crap from within his campaign's senior policy staff right now.

The Clintons are starting to remind me of those people we all know in life of thriving on controversy. If there isn't something bad in their lives, they make up something so they can have that victim stuff to dwell on that they so love.

It's really pretty sad that a young man of the supposed stature of Obama has reduced himself to campaigning, not on his own merits, but on the tear down the other guy stuff.

He dwelled on the getting housing deals from Chicago's political/crime boss when in office...now he has successfully sucked the media into the *woe is me you are so hard on me* mess.

Maybe the right wing wasn't so wrong all those years about this muslim mole. The cult of Obama's sure seem to love dwelling in this muck.

hat tip to G Davis

The media, along with TPM staff (sadly, I might add), have given in to the slime that's spewing from Obama and his Cult. No wonder Dems are called pussies.

Hat tip Hoost

Excuse me... Journalist myself, have been editor in chief of various publications, sub-editor too, chief of the political desk, etc etc. And the journalist is completely right.

What kind of world would we be living in if a person of important standing, someone who has power (in whatever way) over other people - or influences a powerful person's decisions - lets rip his or her deepest, truthful, most insightful thoughts and opinions about a subject...but then quickly withdraws them cuz ohmygosh, it's bad for business/politics/my objectives/the person I'm working for?

Puhleez. That's the game EVERYBODY plays nowadays.

Go talk to the journos on the campaign beat. It drives-them-nuts. They get played all the time, only get told that "this is on background" or "this is strictly off the record - but listen..."

There's a word for it: manipulation.

Here's the deal, and here's a LOT of years of journalistic experience talking: if you, as a journalist, invite someone for an *interview*, and the person targeted agrees to it, then that's that - it's an interview.

Especially if the interviewer makes it clear that it is going to be on the record.

There's no middle ground on this. There's no gray area. And that's clear from the moment you agree to an interview.

If you, the interviewee, want to say something off the record, then the formula is: "Hey, can we stop the recording device for a minute, so I can talk off the record about this-or-that...?"

The device is stopped.

Done? The device is started again, and it's back on the record.

That is how it's done.

This Samantha Powers did an interview with The Scotsman cos she had a book to sell. So it was arranged by her publishing company. Fine, the deal is that other topics can be talked about as well.

But Powers obviously hadn't had any media training, cos she blatantly shot her mouth off. She informed the Scotsman journalist of her true opinion about Clinton, and then she realised her mistake and tried to take it back.

Sorry, no go. That's simply not how it works.

And all you anonymous Obamanazis who are now suddenly coming out of the woodwork to beat up on a journalist had better realise:

1. Obama is a politician. Like every other politician, he's had to beat up on people, blunt noses, rub some elbow. Smell the coffee.
2. If what you Obamanazis are crowing here about the Scotsman journalist had been fashionable in the early 1970s, GOP operatives could have burgled the Watergate hotel 3000 times without anybody being caught.

acnnc, go ahead and keep bringing up those land deals and campaign finance problems...wonder who'll lose that battle between the Clintons and Obama?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-yglesias4oct04,0,6253673.story?coll=la-opinion-center

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022202189.html

http://www.margieburns.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/2/3501879.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-clinton-financesmar04,0,5935166.story

http://thememlingindex.com/hillary_clinton_net_worth-wealth.html

Just a few of the latest trips down the Clinton's financial trail.

That's not even touching Hsu or any of the slightly older problems.

Maybe they could release those pesky tax returns to start us off....what do ya think?

And land deals? You really think the Clintons want to run down that road again?

Side by side comparisons...go ahead...I'd love to know more about the Rezko thing as I want to know who I'm voting for. But while we're looking into that mess, let's look at ALL the messes that ALL the candidates bring us.

You think the Clintons are vetted? HA! I'll put my money on ANYONE side by side against them in the sleeze department.

Even though I hate Tucker carlson he skewered her and she fell flat on her limey butt. She deserved it! She did this on purpose, I know the British press, look what they did to Diana, this reporter is an abomination!

OK-

So what do you think about this...

-Hillary wants to win, but to me it looks like she is getting way too negative and way too nasty towards a fellow democrat.

So I asked myself why?

Why would she be, what it seems like, willing to rip the party apart to win? There is basically no way she will get a lead in popular vote or delegates. So what is she doing???

I think her strategy is either she wins or no democrat wins. I think she is willing to let McBush win over Barack... Keep tearing Barack apart, keep the party from pulling together before the convention, and draw this thing out.

What? this is crazy you say? Really..? is it that
crazy...? If McBush wins it will likely only be for 1 term (he'll be too old to run again). If Barack wins he will likely be in there for 2 terms, not allowing her to run again for 8 years, or when she is 69 years old. But if McBush wins she can run again in only 4 years and likely win.

God I hope I'm wrong.

I can't figure out another reason for the character assassination on Barack...

Geez, Hilary should be used to name-calling by now. What was that term Barbara Bush used a few years ago?

"Maybe the pendulum will swing back, and Obama will get some decent press in when it counts."

Do you think this will happen?

The media has gone nuts lately.

He needs some good newscycles, yet people like Greg spend their entire week in conference calls with Wolfson and copy-paste scurilous attacks one after another.

Next week, stay tuned for Wolfson's next parry over Obama's overdue library books!!

So I'm guessing that since Sinbad and Sheryl Crow also accompanied Hillary on her one-day trip that single-handedly restored peace in Kosovo . . . that both Sheryl and Sinbad have ALSO passed the Commander-in-Chief threshold?

There has been a methodical effort by the Obama campaign -- don't listen to the golden-throated one -- to damage Hillary, since she was the front-runner. Go read the Huffington Post -- or here, for that matter -- the names that are being called, and have been called, the number of times I have seen the "b" word, and "Bush Lite," and "warmonger," and "corrupt Clinton administration -- it's a funny thing, but when the Internet provides your money, isn't it the people that are the campaign? And what they say is revealing? And I haven't heard such vitriol about a Clinton since the wackos in Arkansas were making one crap charge after another. Let's see, her voters in New Hampshire are racists, they rigged it in diebold machines, Bill is a racist, Hillary's a Nazi -- if it was just one comment there, pssht -- nothing. But the overarching tone is hysterical, non-historical, unreasonable and petulant. Tell you what, you spend way to much time tearing Hillary down, and next to no time talking about Obama and what he wants to do.

I like that she used the notion of "opportunity" in her interview. Since Rice, I have found that to be such an ugly word. There's always someone at the other end who pays a price, isn't there?

She said that she set out to do an interview with Ms. Power on her book but then she adds that she wanted to show a bit of the tension that exist between the campaigns. Not that it's important any more, but at what point did she embarked on that presumably new project for her article?

On another point, while I am understand the whole on/off the record thing, clearly from what she recounts, Ms. Power was in some distress following that phone call, which I understood from another source, concerned her friend Mr. Goolsbee. It seems to me that there is clearly some element of human compassion here that should have impacted her judgment on whether or not to publish that remark.

All that said, I think that it has all turned out quite well for Senator Obama. I noticed that almost all day he has had the "opportunity" (the good kind) to return to the issues, namely his stance on the Iraq war, something he has been trying to do since the begining of the week. As well, a larger number of people have come to know about Samantha Power and her criticisms of the Clinton administration. All in all, not too bad for the Obama campaign.

I am sorry though for Ms. Power but I'm sure she'll move on to better things. If anything, she is now able to criticize Clinton foreign policy more freely. I'm sure Tucker would be very happy to have her on his show. He really went ballistic towards Ms. Peev today.

why is she mentioning the phonecall back from obama camps and says "but i'm not gonna get into it because that call WAS off the record". Now if it's off the record, why does she mention it!??? That journalist is definitely looking for fame. Off the record=don't mention contents, don't mention existance, don't mention it AT ALL!

Explainer: I didn't write anywhere that I'm not an AMERICAN journalist, did I?

And I'm using the word "Obamanazi" not just as a joke.

I'm using the nazi-word to highlight the extremism of faith, not ideology (doh). But to me, more and more Obama-supporters come across as kids who shout "Vote Obama! Vote Obama!" and who, at the first hint of an opposition tale, shove their index fingers into their ears and go "OOOH I CAN'T HEAR YOU NANANANANA LALALALA VOTE OBAMAAAAA NANANANA...!"

It's like talking to people from the Bush Base. Blinded and deaf.

I'm sure you guys would find the rhetoric to excuse Obama were he filmed eating babies, just like the Bush Base forgave Bush for betraying just about every Republican fiscal rule in the GOP book cos he was a Reborn Christian. Pfah.

I will leave the question about whether in the context reported whether the comment should have been on or off the record to the professionals.

I don't think its crawling out on a limb to say that, right or wrong, this reporter has essentially killed a career. I don't doubt for a minute that she will always have a job but if she thinks she's ever going to have a real interview with any public official or candidate she has completely lost her mind. By real I mean an actual conversational interview, not asking questions at a press conference or the corner of a convention floor. Who would trust her now? and if you can't trust the reporter you are talking to why would you agree to an interview?

Hillary has been running around endorsing John McCain. He has said that he is going to have the same foreign and domestic policies as George W. Bush. Yet Hillary has endorsed him, over Senator Obama. That makes Hillary just another traitor to the party. She is just the same as Joe Lieberman, and should be given the same treatment. She should be driven out of the party. She is not a loyal Democrat, any more than Joe Lieberman was.

Hmmf.
People who want to crucify the reporter for doing her job: shame on you. If only the American press didn't self-censor, then perhaps we wouldn't be in Iraq. Had they not protected the president, or, even more, not stoked the insane rage-against-the-brown-people furor that went on after you-know-what, then the world would be a different place.
The reporter didn't make Power say what she said. And like the commenter upthread (who knows what they're talking about) reporters are under no moral, legal or ethical obligation to rescue interviewees who regret what they've willingly offered in an interview that's clearly been established as on-the-record. In fact, it would be a breach of professional ethics to protect an interviewee from themselves. That's not a reporter's job.
If you want to condemn the reporter, perhaps you should join the Republican party. That's how they do business. Last time I checked it was the Dems who support more transparency in public campaigns as well as government.
Samantha Power either made a rookie mistake (odd, but not unprecedented, even in national politics) or she threw that out there purposely to further a meme ("Hillary will do anything to win" -- as if there's anyone--including Obama-- running for president who wouldn't??), figuring that the worst case would be that she'd have to disappear for a while. But you're foolish if you believe she's been permanently cut off from the campaign.
In the end, it doesn't hurt Obama one bit. His response just polishes his image as the guy above all that unpleasant political fray.

Hillary's making a mess of the Democratic Party. She really is a monster. I am sorry, for the first time I am thinking of voting for McCain which would be the first Republican President I've ever voted for. I've been active in Democratic caucuses for many years. Justice of the peace, etc. But the Clinton's selling out to the health insurance companies and big pharmacueticals is too much. Bill's selling of the Lincoln bedroom and philandering and lying when he should have been fighting the Republicans and now Hillary acting just like a Republican.

I could see maybe McCain backing off from Reaganomics when and if the economy gets worse. I have my doubts about Hillary doing anything as she's in hock to the Rich people funding her campaign. Look where her daughter's working: Hedge funds..(and Bill of all presidents gave Hedge fund managers a huge tax break..)

And sadly I am hearing that Hillary's lesbianism isn't some right wing myth.. Democrat Law students are spreading some facts about those issues too. People have seen the evidence. Not that she doesn't have a right to do what she wants in private life.....but the constant hiding and dissembling about it would be a curse of her administration while Bill would be off with some floozy again too.

It's all about the Clinton and none for the rest of us.