Prof. Power Resigns as Obama Advisor
by Nik Steinberg on March 7, 2008 in HKS News, News
Samantha Power, the Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, has resigned from her post as informal advisor to the Obama campaign following critical remarks she made about Sen. Clinton in a recent interview.
Speaking to the Scotsman in London on Monday, Power said of Clinton, “She is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything,”
Power was speaking of the tactics Clinton used while campaigning in the March 4 primaries, where she stepped up attacks on Obama’s national security credentials and questioned his opposition to NAFTA. Clinton won three of the four contests, including Texas and Ohio.
“You just look at her and think, ‘Ergh’,” Power said of Clinton. “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.”
News wires nationwide instantly picked up the comments, and Power issued a swift apology.
“These comments do not reflect my feelings about Sen. Clinton, whose leadership and public service I have long admired,” she said in a statement released by the Obama campaign earlier in the week.
A spokesman for the Obama campaign criticized Power’s initial remarks, saying they have “no place in this campaign.”
But the story refused to die down, and drew growing calls from the Clinton camp for Power to resign.
Power announced her resignation this morning, which was accepted by the Obama campaign.
“Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign,” Power said in a statement to the press.
“I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months.”
Power was in London promoting her new book, Chasing the Flame, which traces the life of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Brazilian diplomat who was killed in the 2003 bombing of the UN Headquarters in Iraq.
The Scotsman justified including Power’s comment, despite her efforts to strike it, by arguing that it was made during a book interview, which she agreed in advance would be on the record.
“Sometimes, public figures say something and then attempt to retract it by insisting it was ‘off the record’ after the event,” the article said. “But by then it is too late, particularly if it is in the public interest that the story be published.”
Richard Parker, Senior Fellow at the Shorenstein Center, co-founder and former editor of Mother Jones Magazine, said that when it comes to defining what is off the record, “there are no legal rules - there are just informal understandings.”
Had he been the journalist interviewing Power, Parker said, he would not have included the quote.
“This is probably a reporter who stood to score a real coup when this quote shows up in the article - and knew it,” Parker said.
But Tom Fiedler, former editor-in-chief of the Miami Herald and Visiting Murrow Lecturer at HKS, disagreed.
“The rule is that every interview is conducted on the record unless some different arrangement is explicitly stated at the outset,” Fiedler said. “As a result, the interviewee is fully bound by what is said and the journalist has no obligation to accept a sudden desire to expunge the record because of an ill-chosen phrase.”
According to Fiedler, “Power should have known better.”
Power first met Obama in 2005, shortly after he was elected to the Senate, and spent a year working with him on foreign policy issues. Before her resignation, she campaigned for him around the country and served as one of his closest advisors.
Power’s resignation paralleled the earlier resignation of Clinton national co-chair Bill Shaheen - husband of former New Hampshire Gov. and former Institute of Politics Director Jeanne Shaheen - who stepped down in December after raising character questions around Obama’s past drug use.
After that attack, Clinton personally apologized to Obama, saying that such negative characterizations would not be tolerated in her campaign.
Written by Nik Steinberg · Filed Under HKS News, News
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