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Journalism of Courage
Since opening his presidential bid 14 months ago, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has answered many questions about his candidacy.
Can he turn inspiration into votes? Yes. Can he raise money? Yes. Can his organisation compete with the political muscle of one of the best-known families in Democratic politics? Yes.
But after his defeats this week at the hands of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, there is frustration and anger among his supporters, advisers and contributors about the Clinton campaign’s attacks on him — and still-unresolved tension about how far he can go in striking back without sacrificing his claim to be practicing a new brand of politics.
The conflict was given new life on Friday when Samantha Power, a close friend and a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama, resigned after referring to Clinton as “a monster.”
While Power, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her book on policy called A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, apologised for remarks she called “inexcusable,” the incident underscored the hard feelings.
Obama, who did not publicly acknowledge Power’s comment when he arrived here Friday on the eve of the Democratic caucuses in Wyoming, privately admonished members of his staff to avoid being drawn into an unnecessary negative back-and-forth with rivals.
Asked about the incident by a reporter at a campaign stop here, he said he had not “been drawn into a knife fight.”
Yet after losing in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas — following days of being pummeled — advisers to Obama conceded they had to take a sharper tack as the Democratic nominating fight slogs forward in a delegate-by-delegate battle.
The Clinton campaign has, since Bill Clinton ran for president, mastered the art of the “war room.”Even as they counterpunched, Obama’s aides cast themselves as reluctant participants in the brawl.
“There are people that will always do politics as usual better than we will,” said Robert Gibbs, the communications director for Obama. “That’s why people want something different.”
The comments from Power came in an interview with a Scottish newspaper in which she characterized Clinton as a desperate candidate. “She is a monster, too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything,” Power was quoted as saying.
While the comments were unauthorized and immediately condemned, they also drew attention to other remarks on Iraq Power made in an interview with the BBC.
