SAMANTHA Power is an intelligent, educated and committed woman. Her achievements in the United States since leaving Dublin as a child have been remarkable. She is a graduate of Yale University and of Harvard Law School. She is the founder of the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy and she is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for her book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Unsurprisingly, she entered the world of politics and became Barack Obama's key foreign policy aide.
The battle for the Democratic presidential nomination between Obama and Hillary Clinton has become increasingly bitter and personal. Obama, and other independent commentators, have blamed Clinton's attacks as a major factor in his disappointing showi
ng in Texas and Ohio. Make no mistake, this is turning out to be a brawl for the White House challenge.
So when Samantha Power comes out in an interview with The Scotsman and says Hillary "is a monster", and then says "you look at her and you think erggh…", it is not just knock-about stuff, it is a serious political story that will have a major impact on the race for the White House. The story became the political event of the day yesterday in the US.
A major plank of Hillary's campaign has been the inexperience of Obama and his team at high levels of politics. Obama's top economic policy adviser, Austan Goolsbee, seemed to fall into the inexperience trap when he told Canadian officials that a public pledge to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement was only about political positioning.
And now Ms Power, perhaps feeling a little more relaxed by speaking in London and underestimating the truly global nature of 21st-century news, again appears to have let inexperience be her undoing.
But it is hugely regrettable that she felt compelled to resign. She is a talented woman and will be a loss to politics, although probably not forever.
Before there are any thoughts about a whiff of hypocrisy, this is not about newspapers building 'em up and knocking 'em down. The media report what politicians say, like what Ms Power said. And yes, what she had to say was controversial.
She admits it was a moment of weakness, she says she lost her temper and acknowledges she should not have said it. But she did. In a very dignified manner she accepted that the inevitable should happen, that she would lose her job. But that should not have been inevitable. While intemperate language is regrettable, it speaks of passion and commitment, and those are qualities people in public life should have.
In this case particularly, Ms Power will be a grave loss. When committed people do not say the right thing, when they make genuine mistakes of this nature, we should allow them to apologise, learn and grow from these rather than resign, otherwise the fear is no-one will say anything other than "on-message" platitudes.
The full article contains 501 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
