This is the kind of PR fiasco nobody wants.
Samantha Powers, Barack Obama's foreign policy advisor, was on a book tour in London. This is what happened in the middle of a press conference [1] :
Earlier, clearly rattled by the Ohio defeat, Ms Power told The Scotsman Mrs Clinton was stopping at nothing to try to seize the lead from her candidate.
"We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.
"She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.
Ms Power said of the Clinton campaign: "Here, it looks like desperation. I hope it looks like desperation there, too.
"You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Of course, Clinton's shills in the campaign and the blogosphere are screaming for the woman's head in a silver platter.
If I were Ms. Powers, I'd resign from the campaign. This is a terrible gaffe --she tried to throw the comment as "off the record" in the middle of a press conference. It's just not the thing you do, especially after your candidate has lost an important election and the media is smelling blood.
I wouldn't have Obama fire. Ms. Powers though, needs to resign because she's now turned into a harmful distraction.
A resignation is the right thing to do at this point.
[2] |
[3] |
[4] |
[5] |
[6] |
[7]