Be Still, My Heart

In an article written by Jim Kuhnhenn of the Associated Press, Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe enthused "many of our contributors are volunteering for the campaign, making our campaign the largest grass-roots army in recent political history."

True enough. And now, thanks to a review of "Chasing the Flame" by Philadelphia Inquirer Book Critic Carlin Romano, we know who one of those volunteers is. She is a Harvard law school graduate, a former journalist, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize as an author. Name of Samantha Power, whom Romano quotes as saying "right now, I just miss the team- I really miss the work" of, Romano says, "her 14 months as unpaid adviser" (emphasis mine).

The point isn't that Obama got what he paid for in an individual who had to leave the campaign for calling Hillary Clinton "a monster" in an interview with The Scotsman. That would be both snide and inaccurate. This is an accomplished individual, a foreign policy expert, if inconveniently intemperate. One could argue that, amidst the nine-figure campaign war chest amassed by the Illinois Senator, he could have found a few bucks to throw the way of his 37-year-old senior foreign policy adviser.

There is, however, little doubt as to how Obama was able to get by so cheaply. Power was asked if she would campaign for Clinton, whom she had said "is stooping to anything," if the latter were nominated and requested her assistance. The unambiguous reply: "I would campaign for her to the heavens. I would campaign for her absolutely." And if she adores the "monster," she swoons over Obama: "If he won and he ever wanted me back in some fashion, if I could just do a teeney-weeney bit of good for somebody of his vision and gifts, If I could move the dial of American foreign policy one one-hundredth of a millimeter..."

I'm glad I didn't learn of this as early as 4/1/08. It would have been an April Fool's posting no one would have believed.