With deep regret, I am resigning from my role as an advisor [to] the Obama campaign effective today. 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. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months.
You can listen to the Clinton campaign conference call which called for Samantha Power's resignation here.
So now the Obama campaign is dancing to the Clinton tune? If so, the rest of the way just got more difficult for them as they can count on the same sort of demands to continue since it appears this one worked.
"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.
Seems almost NAFTAesque, doesn't it? His rhetoric now shouldn't be indicative of what he'd actually do then.
"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.
Ya think? It's also a completely different scenario than he promises almost daily on the stump.
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
This is virtually the same message from Obama when he recently appeared on Meet the Press. Tim Russert asked him if that was in variance with his campaign pledge and his reponse was to say that conditions on the ground at the time of his inauguration will determine the proper course of action. And he said it with a straight face!
Does this mean that in the case of an Obama victory in November, heavenforfend, that she is out of the frame as top diplomat ie Secretary of State?
The woman is all FAST MOUTH and SLOW BRAIN. She constantly says things that she herself doesn’t understand or regrets saying the following morning. She is at least honest enough to admit that!
If she can call Hillary a monster what will she call Olmert in her incontinent moments? How will she characterize Ahmadinejad or Chavez?
Still, the prospect of her facing Hillary at Senate hearings for SOS is enough to get any red-blooded male’s pulse racing!
