Gawker: samantha power

Is Michael Ignatieff Canada's Barack Obama?

Joshua David Stein — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:00:13 EST

Meet Michael Ignatieff, likely the next Prime Minister of Canada. He enjoys Twittering, reading, writing and leading a nation of 33 million. His nickname is Iggy. All Hail Iggy!

In today's Times Eric Konigsberg pretzels himself praising the Canadian politician Michael Ignatieff in an article entitled Running on Book Sense and Charm. It's in the Fashion & Style section, strangely, which perhaps explains why Konigsberg is so unabashedly fawning. Or perhaps the explanation is Ignatieff is actually the cat's pajamas.

As Konigsberg writes,

[Iggy] had spent most of the preceding four decades making a name for himself in both countries — writing essays on the world’s war zones for The New Yorker, The New Republic and The New York Review of Books; writing novels and screenplays; enjoying popularity as a television-show host in Britain and a regular at the Groucho Club; and teaching at Harvard and Cambridge universities.

His novel Scar Tissue was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Both Martin Amis and Michael Palin were at his wedding (to the well-named Hungarian book publicist Zsuzsanna Zsohar). Now he's the leader of the minority Liberal Party but he's thisclose of leading that party to majority victory in the upcoming months and becoming the country's PM.

Also, Ignatieff's pedigree is awesome:

His father, George Ignatieff, was a Canadian diplomat, and his grandfather and great-grandfather were both Russian counts who served as cabinet ministers in the czarist government. His mother’s brother, George Grant, was a famous political philosopher.

But Ignatieff isn't all just fiction and fluff. His non-fiction oeuvre includes my personal favorite, The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience, which has a great section about neutrality and the Red Cross, and Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond, as good a text of that NATO intervention as any.

But the Barack comparisons are overblown. Both men have lived abroad for part of their lives. Both men are hip and "with it." Both men have had a vertiginous ascent in the political world, sometimes criticized as unwarranted. But Ignatieff has a better cognate in America than POTUS: Samantha Power. Like Professor Power, who has recently accepted a position in the Department of State (senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, according to Hurriyet), Ignatieff served the director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. (Power was the founding executive director of the Center from 1998-2002; Ignatieff was the director from 2001-2005.) Both Power and Ignatieff have published countless articles on genocide and human rights violation in magazines like The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. But have a somewhat self-deprecating sense of humor and openness that, sometimes, gets them in trouble with a quote-hungry subtlety-stripping media. But most importantly, both started as public intellectuals first and only entered the political world second.

So is Ignatieff Canada's Obama? No, he's not. But is that a bad thing? No, because he's Canada's Power.

CORRECTION: A Canadian journalist tells us we made a big Canadian civics class error when we said Ignatieff is "the leader of the minority Liberal Party but he's thisclose of leading that party to majority victory in the upcoming months and becoming the country's PM." In fact, our Northern neighbor friend says "Iggy is the leader of the Liberal Party, yes, but the party is the Official Opposition. The Conservatives currently form a minority government." We regret the error, which we do not understand.

Professor Who Called Clinton 'Monster' To Work With Her

Ryan Tate — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:01:36 EST

Samantha Power better have serious diplomatic skills: She's taking a foreign police job requiring "close contract and potential travel" with the woman she called a "monster," Hillary Clinton.

Citing anonymous sources, the Associated Press reports Samantha will be hired as senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council. Power is a Harvard professor and former journalist who served as an Obama adviser until told the Scotsman how she felt about her candidate's rival in the Democratic primary:

"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.

Power soon apologized, but also lashed out at Clinton for using her remarks in political attack ads.

The secret to getting back into the administration's good graces appears to be some sort of unspecified "gesture to bury the hatched" she made to Clinton just after the election, said to be well received. She then got included in the State Department transition team.

The lesson: An eloquent and sincere apology can undo nearly any regrettable insult. (Alternately: If someone really wants to hire you, he'll make your future boss promise to be nice to you, in exchange for her job.)

Pick Your Favorite Obama Hottie

Owen Thomas — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:15:24 EST

Tina Brown writes that the incoming Obama administration promises a restoration of intellectualism to the center of American life. In honor of her thesis, we present the official Obama Hotties poll.

Your contestants:

Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, is not only attractive but was also Ted Kennedy's lawyer, so you know she's good. (OK, technically, she was his chief counsel at the Senate Judiciary Committee for eight years.)
Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary-designate, who is far too handsome to worry about his tax problems.

Deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen has an exotic foreign-service background. Diplomat = sexy!

Reggie Love, Obama's personal assistant of hotness.

Susan Rice, future ambassador to the United Nations, will restore America's image — and our faith in the power of metallic colors.
Jon Favreau, the speechwriter who makes every college coed say "Yes, we can".

Desirée Rogers, a social secretary on everyone's calendar.

Peter Orszag, the budget master who's going to have to protect more than just his pockets.

Ellen Moran, the communications director who's a dead ringer for Dana Scully from the X Files.

Rahm "Rahmbo" Emanuel, and really, do we need to say more than "chief of staff" here?

Eugene Kang, 24, is special assistant to the president. Sure, he looks like kinda dorky, but he mounted a near-successful campaign for Ann Arbor city council.

Pulitzer-winning Harvard professor Samantha Power is an advisor to Obama — and married fellow staffer Cass Sunstein, 16 years her senior, in July.

Eric Holder, Obama's attorney-general designate, looks like he can deliver more than justice. Okay, he's a lawyer, but don't hold that against him.

Patrick Gaspard, the new White House political director, favors fall colors — election season!

Now vote! The polls are open through the end of Barack Obama's first day in office. Write-ins are allowed in the poll or in the comments.

(Photos by Nadav Kander/New York Times)

There's a Monster at the End of This Show

rebecca — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:44:55 EDT

Ousted Obama aide Samantha Power will appear on the Colbert Report tonight. Just one piece of advice: there's no such thing as off the record, on tv. [FishbowlNY]

Obama Advisor Wants You To Forget About That Time She Called Hillary a "Monster"

hwalker — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:00:39 EDT

Samantha Power, the woman who was kicked off the Obama campaign for calling Hillary Clinton "a monster" is profiled in today's Times. Power is extremely sorry about her "inexcusable" and "hateful" comments and hopes that the world will allow her to move on. She says she's "resisting the urge to retreat from the public eye." She wants to be left alone to continue her national book tour. It doesn't really seem fair that she'd have her life ruined for a comment that's far tamer than what we hear every day from talk radio and the prime time pundits, but is anyone really going to persecute Samantha Power? Does anybody even care?

Power may have lost her job with Obama, but it doesn't seem like she'll have any troubles moving copies of her book. The article describes her as an academic rock star who's even got her own semi-notable love triangle scandal involving a Harvard Law professor. Does she really think anyone in the larger public will remember her in, say, two months' time. She writes about genocide. Genocide doesn't make headlines. She'd have to murder that lover of hers or call somebody names again for anyone to pay attention to her.

New York Times: A Monster of a Slip

The Other Casualties Of The "Monster" Slip

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:37:05 EST

Inevitably, Barack Obama's campaign has been forced to drop the foreign-policy adviser who said that Hillary Clinton is a monster, which is fine, but to a British journalist with no discretion, which isn't. Samantha Power, the frighteningly accomplished author and academic who blabbed, resigned today. But watch out for the collateral damage. First of all, Barack should not wait for the invitation to George Clooney's villa by Lake Como; Samantha Power, who got sweaty with the Hollywood star on the basketball court, was the campaign's Clooney connection. And, second, expect the prospects of Cass Sunstein, tipped for the Supreme Court under an Obama presidency, fade a little: the distinguished law professor recently left his long-time partner and Chicago University to be with Power, according to Above The Law.
Photo: Men's Vogue]