Both the Associated Press, as well as Al Kamen, are reporting that the woman who caused such a stir back during the primaries just might be working closely, even traveling with Secretary Clinton.
There’s buzz that Samantha Power, an early supporter of Obama who advised him on foreign policy, may be reunited with Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom Power famously called “a monster” during the Democratic primary campaign.
Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard University professor, worked on Obama’s transition team and has been rumored to have landed a top job in the administration. The Associated Press reported last night that Power will become senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, a White House post that may require close contact and travel with now-Secretary of State Clinton. [...]
Power’s new job as Obama’s senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council means the women would work very closely.
According to all the sources reporting on this so far, Clinton and Power met and had a brief discussion at State recently. No one heard what went on. Power already made an effort to ”gesture to bury the hatchet” that was well received according to reports. HRC being gracious is not surprising, given Clinton’s class, but especially looking down from her SoS position. But there is no reason that these two women cannot be professional and work with one another, especially since Hillary is SoS, with Power having deep intellectual prowess on matters of foreign policy, and the president’s ear.
You can also look at it another way. Having Power close to Clinton, even traveling with her, means that Obama will have an original Obama loyalist inside the SoS’s circle. If Power senses “daylight,” you can also suspect that President Obama would be the first to know. But that would be the cynic’s view.
This isn’t another episode of “Mean Girls.”
This deal with Hillary confuses me, anyway. I thought she had control over whom she worked with in State.
“According to all the sources reporting on this so far, Clinton and Power met and had a brief discussion at State recently. No one heard what went on”
Powers: “I meant that as a compliment”?
No, it had more to do with groveling, trust me.
I agree Taylor. They are both adults and I’m sure that the hatchet has been buried and there’s no more animosity. Politics is brutal and we all know that.
One thing Hillary knows, having been in the White House herself, is how things work in the Presidency. There won’t be daylight. Powers can be all knowing, but she doesn’t have the relationship capital around the world that the Clintons have. Obama got “2 for the price of 1″ when he chose Hillary to be SoS and he knows it – all to his advantage and success. These two women will work together just fine. The press is probably looking for a catfight. Hillary is used to all the roughness in politics and she always rises.
I am sure Ms.Power will be kept on a short leash and if not I am sure HIllary can handle her and if not well than there’s always those 18 million of us.
Ms. Power’s choice of words during the primaries was unfortunate but if anyone wants to make this out to be anything other than what it is they’re looking for a conflict that doesn’t exist. I’m sure the Hillary-haters will try to make it look like anything other than two women working together in a professional manner. Hillary may actually become a mentor.
This is way off topic, but, hey BETSY, if you are still here, is it true that companies are moving to Colorado and there are jobs in Colorado?
Hey Kris, sorry I just got back to computer. Well, I don’t know where they are if there are any. You can go to the newspaper here in Colorado Springs. http://www.gazette.com or the denver Post in Denver and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. Where did you hear that.
I know here in the Springs there is going to be a big influx of soldiers coming in to Ft. Carson. So many will be looking to buy or rent a house. There are many repos here. We are in the process of buying one for our son. And when we were looking at the house there were people right behind us looking at it too. So who knows.
Any bets on who wins RNC Chair?
So far Duncan and Steele are leading, but neither have the 85 votes required.
Maybe they will pick Steele. (for obvious reasons)
It’s nice that they are burying the hatchet and singing kumbayah, but why is Howard Dean still being treated like a case of the clap?
Betsy -
I live in California and I have heard companies are leaving and relocating in CO. I also read that CO is going to do a big push to get more CA companies to relocate because CA is such a crappy state to do business in.
Matthew Saroff | Homepage | 01.30.2009 – 1:28 pm | #
Boy, ain’t it the truth. Never a fan, I was completely converted to Dean’s prowess in running the DNC, and said so in a post a long time ago. He’s getting the shaft by the Obama administration, which can only mean he pissed off someone, likely Rahm Emanuel.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/05/dean-jokes-about-being-pa_n_148764.html
Asked if he felt vindicated, Dean joked that he would have felt more vindicated if Obama had given him the chief of staff gig instead of giving it to Rahm.
“Rahm ended up as chief of staff to Barack Obama,” Dean said, “so I don’t feel too vindicated.” When he was informed that he had been right, Dean cracked: “I might have been right but I’d rather be chief of staff.”
I wasn’t a believer in the 50 state strategy, either, although I like Howard Dean. I have to give him credit, though – he was right. And he shouldn’t be ignored like he has been lately.
I doubt Obama will campaign in 50 states the next time around.
That strategy worked well for him, obviously, but it’s time-consuming and very expensive.
Obama didn’t have a 50 state campaign. Dean did.
Well, Samantha has been in the doghouse long enough, in my opinion.
Nobody should have one mistake ruin their entire career.
That’s stupid.
It’s only fitting that Obama reward his attack dogs. He needed female attack dogs and Samantha Powers volunteered. Why should Obama NOT reward her?
Isn’t it nice that it’s Samantha Powers that’s “burying the hatchet”? Isn’t it nice that anytime Obamabots decide to reach out to the ones they attacked, they’re considered gracious – as if that’s going beyond the call of duty? As if they had no reason to apologize?
Powers will be on the NSC, not at DoS, AnninCA.
I think this will be a good thing. Powers is another voice against torture and genocide in Obama’s foreign policy team, which can’t be bad. Like most folks here, I assume that she and Hillary have dealt with their differences somehow.