Say Anything Blog

Samantha Power, who was kicked off of Obama’s campaign for calling Hillary a “monster” during the primaries, will now be working as a liaison between the White House and the State Department run by Hillary Clinton.

Talk about awkward.

Samantha Power, the Harvard professor who was forced to resign from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign last spring after calling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton “a monster,” is now advising the president-elect on transition matters relating to the State Department — which Clinton is slated to head.

Power is listed on Obama’s transition Web site as part of the team reviewing national security agencies. Her duties, according to the site, will be to “ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in.”

In short, she is part of a team that is likely to work directly with Clinton, a potentially awkward situation for the two women. Obama is expected to officially announce Clinton as his choice for secretary of state after the Thanksgiving holiday.

What’s more troubling than what will undoubtedly be a difficult working relationship between Power and Clinton is Power’s foreign policy views.  Such as her views on Israel.

She suggests that we are allied with Israel because of some conspiratorial pressure from American Jews, and she thinks the solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is...the occupation of Israel.  As though it were the middle east’s only elected democracy (soon to be joined by the fledgling Iraqi government) were the problem and not the terrorist insurgents who want to destroy the Jewish state.

The moderate Hillary Clinton may be the face of Obama’s foreign policy, but I think Samantha Power and her extremist views represent the reality.