The Barack Obama advisor who publicly called Hillary Clinton a "monster" has resigned.
In an interview with The Scotsman top Barack Obama advisor Samantha Powers called Hillary Clinton a "monster."
To Obama's credit, he recently spoke with Powers by phone and asked her to resign.
What I would like to argue, however, is that this is the unfortunate state of politics. It is something Hillary Clinton AND Barack Obama engage in. Aids/advisors, [read: surrogates] put the inflammatory comments out there and get them circulated in the media. The candidate then denounces them. But they are out there and part of the discourse.
Think of it this way: a lawyer might say an inflammatory or leading comment in trial only to have it "stricken" from the record; the jury, however, has still heard the comment. It is impossible to "strike" ideas from our memories.
There is much vitriol leveled at Clinton around these quarters when her advisors say certain things about Obama. In the same way, she comes out and publicly denounces the comments and said advisor steps down.
Barack Obama has just done the same thing.
It's time to critically analyze Obama and stop internalizing his "image" rhetoric at face value. Yes, I am a supporter of HRC but I will vote for Obama if he wins the nomination. I think they are both extremely qualified candidates. (Let me also use this space to express my extreme frustration at the unjust attacks on HRC on this site. I think it's extremely counterproductive and quite honestly, juvenile and straight out of the GOP/Faux News playbook. Criticizing her policy is one thing. But the stuff on here is quite another...)
To end, I think it is important that we recognize politics for the game it is and acknowledge that no one, not even the "pure" Barack Obama is above it.
UPDATE: Ok, I know this happened yesterday but I couldn't write about it until today. I didn't see anything on this so I thought I'd write. Comments on the actual substance of this diary would be appreciated however!