Key Barack Obama advisor calls Hillary Clinton a 'monster'

Samantha Power, a Barack Obama foreign policy advisor and Harvard professor who helped focus the world's attention on genocide, apparently has a little trouble with personal diplomacy. In an interview with the Scotsman published today, Power described Hillary Clinton as a "monster" and used an expletive to describe the Obama campaign's losing effort in Ohio -- comments for which she is already apologizing.

The money quote: "You just look at her and think, 'Ergh.' But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."

And: "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win. She is a monster, too -– that is off the record -– she is stooping to anything."

Imagine the meeting this morning among the Obama communications advisors. Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, already has drawn lightning over her views on the Mideast, though she has picked up some defenders too.

And there will probably be some chatter this morning about Power's saying that the "monster" comment was off the record. But Power should know better. Off-the-record status is something agreed to between interviewer and interviewee, not something decreed by the person being interviewed because he or she uttered something problematic.

And in this case, Power's "frankness" might not rise to the level of Obama's "problem from hell," but it's not exactly the kind of distraction the campaign needs at this point.

-- Scott Martelle

Comments

[Shannon Lynn]

I just learned a new word for praising Obama, "Boo Yao Lian". It's a cool word, and should be used as "Barak Obama is so Boo Yao Lian." Let's say it together,
"Barak Obama is so Boo Yao Lian." -Cheers

[Jenna]

Hmm...change we can believe in right? I may like Obama, but it sure seems like he can't even inspire his own followers to decry politics as usual. Also, just because Hillary is pointing out things the Republicans surely will, doesn't mean she is a monster. She is doing him a favor. If he can't beat Hillary, he doesn't deserve to be the nominee and will get crushed by McCain. Doesn't it scare any Democrats that he gets a little bit of bad press and he loses 3 out of 4 elections? He can’t count on getting great press forever. What is going to happen when the Republicans hammer him in ways that will make Hillary’s tactics look like powder puff? How he moves forward will hopefully answer that question.

[Ron]

What is worse for a Democrat ?
Being called a Monster or Ken Starr...... I think the latter.

Hillary may or may not be a monster,but what we do know is that she is a fighter

She fought the Republicans and the Democrats to pass a failed health bill... failed and got knocked out.

She threw the fight against George Bush and sent our men and women over to Iraq
( now they are doing the fighting for her ) 4000 dead and counting....but that was then, this is NOW

She joined her husband in pardoning quite a few criminals..... That would technically be considered a tag team fight.

She may not be a monster, but as a fighter, I wouldn't want her on my side.

[Naomi]

Hillary Clinton is a REAL fighter. She has proven herself in crises situation such as 9/11 where she is the Senator from New York, Bosnia, Kosovo negotiations, the Ireland peace proposals, and in China where she proclaimed loudly that Womens right were human rights. All the women in the world applauded. She is the toughest I have ever seen.

Obummer is just like a con salesman and a weak candidate with Rezko, NAFTA-gate, his racist Pastor Wright, and his unpatriotic wife. I cannot conceive how any patriotic American would vote for him.

Go Hillary!!!!!!!

[April]

Are you serious? That is terrible. This is something I would expect from the Republicans against Senator Clinton but from a democrat?
Awful. Honestly I am so disgusted right now. Is this how his inner circle talks about her behind closed doors?
Clearly Obama knows this woman - she is one of his top advisors and she ovbiously feels comfortable talking like this (she said it to the press) - on the outside the Obama campaign is all positive and hopeful but behind the scenes they are attacking other democrats as "monsters."
This is dirty politics at its best. I'm a tried and true democrat but I will not support Obama after this - I'd rather vote for McCain.

[Bucky]

I used to believe in and support Obama but as this race progresses, I am seeing more and more that Obama is really like all the other mainstream politicians he denounces, and this recent example is no exception. I do not remember a single incident where even the dirty politics of Bush, Reagan, Gingrich, you-name-it, ever approached calling a rival candidate a "monster". This is beyond low and very disgraceful, especially in light of Obama's pledge of clean politics and "politics of hope". This seems like the mud-slinging, dirty politics of old.

[MissClarity]

Why hasn't the times published the October 08 court date for the Paul vs Clinton situation. And isn't she the Marxist Monsta situation ethics killed all those innocent people in Wado leadership 'queen' of mean. Don't let that smile that she admits training her daqughter to do, just keep smiling honey thats what they'll remember. Come on LA when did you stop thinking. Stop being a Baba and start being a John Wayne.

[Laurel]

Hillary plays dirty--she has to expect to get hit with a pie now and then.

[PulSamsara]

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.

[Hillary All the Way!!!!]

So when is this Obama aide going to be fired?" 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 accounatble!! just like Bush does!! 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.

[Hillary All the Way!!!!]

So when is this Obama aide going to be fired?" 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 accounatble!! just like Bush does!! 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.

[char]

Completely accurate. Hillary Clinton is a monster, and a bitter hag.

[ellen]

And what about Clinton's remark that MCain would be more qualified than Obama? She is evil and cares nothing for the party. She only cares about her own power.

Obama, on the other hand, has been making commercials for young Democrats running for office. HRC is too self-absorbed to do this and I agree with Power's statement. She is a monster. What else but a monster would harass a 12 year old rape victim on the stand?

[Vivian]

Whatever.... Can we get back to the real issues of jobs, justice, and peace in the middle east?

[Chithra KarunaKaran]

U.S. Civil Society and Presidential Election 2008

Hillary a "monster." ?

Is Samantha Power Lawrence Summers' twin from hell? She should resign just as Summers was finally forced to.

I voted for Obama. I think he delivers an authentic message. So does Hillary. Voters have the legal right to choose through the electoral process.
But Samantha Power discredits Obama's campaign and devalues the democratic process which the world's nation-states are desperately trying to develop,
by abusing her First Amendment rights of free speech with her incendiary ad hominem attack against Hillary Clinton.

Power does not work for the Jerry Springer show does she? She is employed by Harvard and she owes responsibility and can be held accountable for her public statements.

She is a self-appointed, Harvard-anointed arbiter of the "Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy" at the Kennedy School of Government. She failed to be responsible to this prestigious and well-regarded institution and she is NOT a global leader by any stretch o0f the imagination.

As a post-colonial sociologist and a civil society activist I would characterize Power's gratuitous verbal violence against Hillary Clinton, as part of of the practice of Systemic Whiteness.
White folks in particular exercise unearned skin privilege to damage democratic process for the Greater Collective Good (GCG) because
they have a long history of a profound misplaced sense of entitlement under a pervasive structure, system and ideology of Whiteness.
Because Whiteness is a 3-part structure of Power, any one of us can be impacted and constrained, albeit unequally, by its overarching
as well as embedded and entrenched characteristic of power.

People cannot just abandon theory when it suits them. Power fumbled badly. She exposed her lack of ethical authority in the matter of political debate as part of an election.
Power should be held accountable and she should pay the price. Resign.

But I guess being white, like her colleague on the right, Coulter, with entrenched white skin privilege, she will not.
Jesse Jackson was made to pay the price when he made his comment about
Hymietown. But Samantha Power will probably go "scot" free. (see her interview with The Scotsman)

http://www.ethicaldemocracy.blogspot.com
Dr. Chithra KarunaKaran
City University of New York

[Joseph Hayden]

Well, of course, if the shoe fits, then Hillary needs to take it on the chin. Her behavior is simply reprehensible, her campaign and its staff is an embarrassing mess and she herself - the presumptive nominee as of January 1, 2008 - can't close the deal.

Whether Obama becomes the nominee or not, she will never be able to scour the mud from under her fingernails that has turned off myself and others like me: The White Male Swing Voter.

She can't even organize or effectively manage a piddly $150 million campaign - what makes anyone think she can handle the Presidency?

Excuse me now while I go play golf and ponder my next donation.

[bj]

This is proof that Obama says one thing in his rhetorics, yet means something else. His thoughts obviously come from his handlers... such as in the NAFTA double-speak.

[linda b]

well, the truth hurts hill, you have lost all creds. and what about those delegates?

[robert]

i really do not trust hillary. whether she is a monster i dont know but she will not have my vote

[JKhan]

This shows Samantha Power class in other words Obama's dirty campaign.

If they think that we are all fools out here just to take them "verbally" they are going to prove themselves wrong again! I am sure that this news is a "dirty Creation" and well planned act from Obama campaign to just to be in news and pretend that Obama "holier than thau" thing !
Well we all know what they are trying to do here..makeup some ground that they lost among americans.

Rediculous! as it sounds to me and shame on press who go follow these kind of "hoax".

Again Americans now know their true nature and will prove them wrong and understand the motives behind this verbal action and reaction that followed with apologies... its an utterly laughable act!

[Dave Rosenberg]

I appreciate the Obama campaign desiring to stay above the fray so to speak....however if a politician and or their platform is monstrous and based on deceit and inuendo (sp) then what is so wrong with stating the truth! My biggest concern is the ongoing announcements by both campaigns of the huge amounts of money they keep claiming....regardless of its source it represents initself a huge amount ($) of hypocracy. The candidates pandering to the poor and unfortunate...Hillary loaning her campaign 5 mil and then saying its time to get rid of a the President (Bush) who represents the wealthy and connected....she being wealthy and connected!.( see tax return not being disclosed)..both Dem candidates amasing enough money for endless TV and newspaper adds..in poverty striken States where perhaps they should just give the money to the needy in exchange for votes....The current admin is giving everybody a rebate check to spend at Walmart why not just give lets say 20 million divided by each democratic voter in each State that holds a primary. Instead of the closed door promising of more kick backs and pork to their respective representatives and Govenors & Super delegates for their support! Whatever!

[bill parkhurst]

Hillary is quite obviously obsessed with becoming president and quite willing to do things she will later regret just like her vote to go to war which she now has to explain.

Obama is clearly showing he is interested in changing the status quo. Hillary is part of the status quo.

[hhkeller]

Obama sees the math. He lost.

He doesnt have the popular support and cant get enough electoral votes. With no experience in the Senate to speak of he's looking like the weakest of the two candidates.

All his nasty supporters and groupies cant change this fact and the louder they yell TAXES or Bitcch or Whatever they look like Repugs even more.

[James Bonn]

Yeah but Hillary IS a monster.

[Ross Anderson]

I am still concerned with Ms. Clinton's vote on the Iraq war. I am surprised the Times hasn't investigated why she failed to read critical reports on the status of WMD. I am concerned that the motivation behind her vote was a purely political calculation. I don't think she cared one iota about the right or wrong of her decision. I think her vote to give Bush war making powers was a cop out and unconstitutional. For her, it was a no lose vote. If things worked out, she takes credit. If things don't work out, she blames Bush. (Her husband made a simmilar decision when he chose to execute an acutely mentally disabled man in Arkansas when he was Governor. I believe he cared nothing for right or wrong) She may not be a monster, but I think she is indeed a cynic. The depth of her cynicism is such that I believe she is amoral, which is to me a greater problem than being immoral. At least when one is imoral, they acknowledge that the moral exists. I do not want another cynic in the White House.

[Jason]

If the shoe fits, wear it.

[disgusted]

Positively brilliant, Power. You've managed to damage Obama in the moment where he needed more than ever to appear gracious and to rise above this kind of mudslinging.

[Apolitical Joe]

Mommy! Mommy! Samantha said a bad! Samantha said a bad! Are you going to spank her mommy?

What a dumb story, and who cares? Only newspapers thinking only about sales figures.

To all: Lowest common denominator crud journalism is on the march, ready to inform you!

[Kirk Davids]

So Samantha Power committed the cardinal sin of speaking the truth to the press (whose mandate, I believe, is to "speak truth to power").

Hillary Clinton, in her increasing desperation to "win" the Democratic nomination, has resorted to calling for the rules to which she agreed to be changed half-way thru the process by "counting" delegates from Florida and (unbelievably) from Michgian, where Obama and Edwards were not even on the ballot. She's compared Senator Obama to Kenn Starr, she's implied that she doesn't really know if he's a Muslim or not, that his wins in some states were due to "racial pride", her campaign has threatened to sue the Texas Democratic Party, and she's compained endlessly about the caucus system is unfair.

In short - she's become a monster in just three short months. Kudos to Ms. Power - a woman used to dealing with the results of egomania from the former Yugoslavia to Darfur - for calling it like she sees it. It's a shame she needs to apologize at all, to be honest. I am one voter who will stay home rather than vote for any Democratic nominee who wins neither the pledged delegate count nor the popular vote.

[Jackie]

Hillary is a monster only those asleep don't know that.

[Bob P]

I agree...she is a ruthless monster...good call a spade is a spade.

[Stacey Alpert]

This person is an academic, and the only life experience she has is picking up her dry-cleaning. She may have a mean jump shot, but basketball is won in the fourth quarter as everyone knows, and she didn't even make it to half-time. Back to your laptop at Starbucks, dear.

[Bianka]

And she is a Harvard professor... she should know better.

[Valerie Harris]

Powers just got fired!

[sunjay]

Since you're covering reports from the Foreign Press w/regard to the campagin, how about covering the report that it was *Hillary's campaign* not Barack's that reached out to Canadian officials re: a NAFTA wink-wink ..?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080305.wharpleak0305/BNStory/National/home

"Quite a few people heard it," said one source in the room.

"He said someone from (Hillary) Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. . . That someone called us and told us not to worry."

Clinton playbook == DENY, DENY, DENY

[Bob P]

I agree...she is a ruthless monster...good call a spade is a spade.

[Paula]

I am surprised that Obama's campaign didn't say that they were MISQUOTED! lol!

[FreedomRider]

Hillary is divisive. She is polarizing the democratic party in the same manner in which she has polarized the nation. She is a divider, not a uniter. Professor Power would have been better served to state that Hillary's behavior is monstrous when it comes to her placing her own quest for power above uniting the country.

[jimmy]

SHE has problems with personal diplomacy!?!?!?!

LOL! No, baby, she's just telling it like it is. You want to know the truth, you need to stop focusing on little bits like this and write an article about how horrible home prices are across the country and we need a drop in the housing market badly or how wages are falling while prices are skyrocketing or how working class people are working full time, earning under the federal poverty line, and NOT GETTING THEIR NEEDS MET.

This is the important stuff. This crap about name calling is not important and a waste of ALL of our time. Especially after all the bullshit attacks Hillary Clinton has brought against Obama. Shit like - if she wants to take credit for the work of her husband, she also needs to take responibility for NAFTA, but I guess that would take some critical thinking and writing instead of this, "poor little Hillary" mindset you people are displaying.

[FLRepublican]

Monster is a bit exaggerating. Ruthless hag would be closer.

[Ramon]

Well, so much for the Obama fairytale that they are all "good guys" that just want to talk about hope and none of the ugliness of real issues.

[Ron, Redlands.]

Many in this country are getting upset like Samantha Power with the gutter politics Clinton has sunk to. Obama's campaign has been uplifting to date, but in the end to set the country on a new path, he may have to wade in the cesspoll of Clintonland.

[Ramon]

Well, so much for the Obama fairytale that they are all "good guys" that just want to talk about hope and none of the ugliness of real issues.

[Kye]

Funny how people are made to eat their words after speaking the truth. Perhaps everyone wants to continue to live in La-La Land and don't want to acept the truth.

[Campaign Monster]

By the time Obama and Clinton are done with each other, the majority of the party will be too disillusioned and disheartened to go out and vote in November. Throw on top of that 80% of the democrats in Michigan and Florida who will be revolting in November.

[Art Hale]

I am involved in grassroots CaDem politics and am surprised at the number of people I run into who are deeply troubled by Hillary's actions and Obama's apparent need to respond in kind. They feel that the Dems may snatch defeat from the jaws of what should be an easy victory. I think Rosa Brooks' op-ed piece in today's Times is right on.

[Doug]

Truth is a defense

[Dj Delmonico]

Hillary IS A MONSTER
she is stooping to bush tactics to try and get elected.
Sue Lie Cheat and Steal.

If she gets the nom, I vote Nader, otherwise, its Obama.

Hillary, you neocon dawg in hiding.

[The Steadmanns]

She is a monster -- just ask Vince Foster.

The Steadmanns

[char]

Hillary Clinton is in a time warp, and living in 1992. People cared and were excited about politics again, especially young people...Bill not Hillary was responsible for this. This is why she is a bitter hag. On topic: Completely agree with her characterization as a MONSTER, yes she is a monster; willing to tear apart the party for her selfish ego. It is too bad that stupid people fall for her negative politics.