You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Britain
Barack Obama 'will repair image of US in UK'
2008-03-07
America needs to work hard to regain the trust of the British public following the Iraq war and the Bush years, a senior adviser to Barack Obama says today.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Samantha Power, who is a key member of the Presidential hopeful's foreign policy team, ...
... not anymore she's not ...
says anti-Americanism is now "vehement" in the United Kingdom. "A restoration of trust will have to occur between the US Government and the British public," she says. "There is a sense of disappointment but people still want to believe in the USA."

The "special relationship" between Britain and America would, she believes become stronger if Mr Obama won the White House because he would make voters in this country warm to the United States. "Any British leader is harmed domestically in terms of public standing by association with President Bush, the reverse will happen with President Obama. Obama reminds people of Jesus Oprah the better angels of America."

Mr Obama would also try to heal the divisions between Europe and America, caused by the war in Iraq. "Obama can go door-to-door in Europe and say, 'Look like you I opposed the war in Iraq but what are we going to do together about Al Qaeda?'"
*Ding-dong*
"Who is it?"
"O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!..."
"Bloody 'ell!"
The United States must show more respect for international institutions, she adds. "We have to show that we know we can't do it alone. It matters not just intrinsically that we close Guantanamo, it matters because we need to be credible at the UN. You can't be against genocide on a Monday and for water boarding on Tuesday, then on Wednesday show up at the UN."
"To show up at the UN you must support Oil for Genocide on a Monday and condemn Israel for building a wall against those who celebrate the holocaust on Tuesday. Make sure to bring plenty of cash when you show up on Wednesday."
Miss Power is the self proclaimed "genocide chick", who won the Pullitzer Prize for her reporting from Bosnia. She plays basketball with George Clooney and is the inspiration for the latest David Hare play.
Punched her ticket all the right ways, did she ...
This auburn haired Irish journalist is a professor at Harvard, the founder of a human rights think tank and was cited by Men's Vogue as one of the most beautiful women in the world. She is also one of Mr Obama's most trusted advisers on foreign policy. The would-be President of the United States texts her with, "O-BA-MA!" "It's Obama, call me" in the middle of the night. Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British Ambassador to Washington has already called on her three times.

Neither she nor Obama have met Gordon Brown or David Cameron. Their main point of contact is Mark Malloch Brown, the Prime Minister's agent provocateur eminence grise in the Foreign Office. "David Miliband seems impressive to me. I am confused by what's happened to Gordon Brown. I thought he was impressive."

In America, Miss Power has been compared to Condoleeza Rice. "I'm nothing like her," she says. "I don't have any conventional political ambition."
"I'm simply pro-human . . . like the UN."
Nope, no political ambition at all, that's why she hangs around Senators and works on a political campaign ...
But if Mr Obama wins the Presidential race she is likely to remain a powerful force. "I'd do anything he asked me to do. It's not about working for the next President of the United States, it's Obama. If he ran General Motors I'd be working for him."
Posted by:ryuge

#26  BO threw Ms Powers under the bus in what has become a democratic ritual sacrifice.
Posted by: JohnQC   2008-03-07 19:15  

#25  In the clips that I have seen of the Wilders' film, both Blair and Bush are attacked for dhimmism. John McCain's views are closer to those of the average Brit, than are B Hussein O's.

I'm happy to see that McCain has chosen to sit back and let the Dems self-destruct.
Posted by: McZoid   2008-03-07 18:02  

#24  Man, this broad just can't shut up...

WASHINGTON - A former adviser to Barack Obama, who resigned Friday after calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster," said Obama may not be able to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within a year as he has promised on the campaign trail.

Power's comments about Iraq came in an interview with the BBC. She said Obama's position is that withdrawing all U.S. troops within 16 months is a "best-case scenario" that he will revisit if he becomes president.

"He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. senator," she said. "He will rely upon a plan — an operational plan — that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn't have daily access now, as a result of not being the president."

Obama has actually shortened his original 16-month commitment to say he'll end the war in 2009. Obama advisers say President Bush's plan to draw troops down to 15 brigades this year means Obama could complete the removal in a year.

In Mississippi, Clinton questioned the Iraq comments based on Obama's public statements.

"He has attacked me continuously for having no hard exit date, and now we learn he doesn't have one, in fact he doesn't have a plan at all," Clinton told reporters while campaigning in Mississippi. Her campaign sent out a fundraising appeal based on the Power's resignation.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Obama's plan to draw down approximately two brigades a month upon becoming president is "a rock solid commitment."

"He has been and will continue to be crystal clear with the American people," Plouffe told reporters in a conference call.

Plouffe noted that one of Clinton's military advisers, retired Gen. Jack Keane, said last week that she would not remove troops immediately upon taking office.

Keane told The New York Sun, "I have no doubts whatsoever that if she were president in January '09 she would not act irresponsibly and issue orders to conduct an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of the consequences, and squander the gains that have been made."

Clinton said Power's comment on Iraq is reminiscent of Obama's senior economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, telling Canadians privately that the debate over free trade in Ohio had was "political positioning" and not an indicator of policy plans. The description appeared in a Canadian government memo, but Goolsbee and the Canadian Embassy later said Goolsbee never suggested Obama's public and private positions are different.

Recent reports in Canada said an official in the Clinton campaign also gave Canada back-channel assurances that her harsh words about the North American Free Trade Agreement were for political show. The campaign denied the report.

Clinton said the two instances suggest "he keeps telling people one thing, while his campaign tells people abroad something else. I'm not sure what the American people should believe."

No matter which one of these two clowns wins, what a disappointment all those moonbats are in for. But it's not like they aren't used to it...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-03-07 17:15  

#23  He'll repair our image all right, he'll convince the EUnicks that we are just as big of pussies as they are. Then we can be friends again.

Ptui!
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-03-07 16:44  

#22  I'm sure she'll be around in a 'consultant' capacity...
Posted by: Pappy   2008-03-07 16:43  

#21  Of course we care what our British cousins think about our internal affairs! At least as much as they care what we think about theirs. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-03-07 16:41  

#20  Miss Powers has just resigned!!! She was the one that called Hillary a "monster."
Posted by: Sherry   2008-03-07 12:12  

#19  4 words for Britain -
No taxation without representation.

Wait till the EU get ahold of ya. Love the British, but y'all about to get screwed. What are they going to re-name paliament again?
Posted by: swksvolFF   2008-03-07 12:10  

#18  Sounds like Ms Powers "needs to work hard to gain the trust" of her own party.
Posted by: DoDo   2008-03-07 12:03  

#17  Yikes! looks like I was wrong...

WASHINGTON - A Barack Obama adviser has resigned after calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster."

A campaign official told The Associated Press Friday that Samantha Power's resignation is effective immediately.

Power told The Scotsman that Clinton is a "monster" who will stoop to anything to win. She tried to make the remark off the record, but the Scottish newspaper printed it anyway. She apologized in a statement and the campaign decried the remark.

...and that's not even the part that pissed me off. But, whatever works...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-03-07 11:52  

#16  They're getting quite good at this. Well, at least they're getting quite expierienced at it...

LONDON - An adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama apologized Friday for telling a Scottish newspaper that rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is "a monster."

Samantha Power, a foreign policy adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and Pulitzer Prize winner, was quoted in remarks she later attempted to retract as saying in The Scotsman newspaper that Clinton was stooping to low tactics to recover ground in the race to win the party's presidential nomination.

Power issued a statement Friday in which she acknowledged the comments but said she "deeply regretted them."

"It is wrong for anyone to pursue this campaign in such negative and personal terms," she said in the statement. "I apologize to Senator Clinton and to Senator Obama, who has made very clear that these kinds of expressions should have no place in American politics."

Obama's spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail: "Senator Obama decries such characterizations which have no place in this campaign."

But she's not going anywhere, right, Barry?

Posted by: tu3031   2008-03-07 11:44  

#15  I hate to inform our dear British friends that we Yanks don't give a rip about your public opinion. Our opinion is that you all better get your house in order and crack down on your Muzz infiltrators while you still have a chance. Your support of Paleos over Israelis really inspire our confidence. If you think we're going to carry water for you again, forgeddaboutit.
Posted by: Rupert Chaimp5657   2008-03-07 11:21  

#14  Aren't these the same Rocket Scientists who thought the Brits celebrated the Fourth of July?
Posted by: mojo   2008-03-07 11:20  

#13  why is it only americans need be concerned with out image --- how about this obama -- how are you going to repair the euros image in the us?
scew 'em all..let em sink further into their welfare state -- espescially now since they have to contend with the euro exchange
Posted by: dan   2008-03-07 11:14  

#12  "Repair image of US," as in “for the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country" .... ?

Ok thanks, I get it.
Posted by: Besoeker   2008-03-07 10:38  

#11  Something must be done to repaitr the damage George Washington caused to the US image in the UK.
Posted by: JFM   2008-03-07 10:24  

#10  The Telegraph musta left before she got to this part...

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."

Ms Power's comments reveal how the inexperienced Obama campaign is coming under increasing pressure from a battle-hardened Clinton camp that saw Ohio as its last chance to save its candidate.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-03-07 09:53  

#9  Frankly, I don't give a flying shit what the leftist government thinks of us. In fact, the more they scream, the more I know we are on the right track.

The answer is of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-03-07 09:52  

#8  Most Working class/middle class in uk have no problem with USA.Just the Lefties like Galloway and Tony Benn who feel sorry for the so called oppressed paleos/muslims who hate us infidels anyway!!!!
Posted by: Paul   2008-03-07 09:21  

#7  They like us! They really, really like us!
Posted by: Sally Field   2008-03-07 09:16  

#6  Miss Power is the self proclaimed "genocide chick", who won the Pullitzer Prize for her reporting from Bosnia. She plays basketball with George Clooney and is the inspiration for the latest David Hare play.

This auburn haired Irish journalist is a professor at Harvard, the founder of a human rights think tank and was cited by Men's Vogue as one of the most beautiful women in the world. She is also one of Mr Obama's most trusted advisers on foreign policy. The would-be President of the United States texts her with, "It's Obama, call me" in the middle of the night. Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British Ambassador to Washington has already called on her three times.

Neither she nor Obama have met Gordon Brown or David Cameron. Their main point of contact is Mark Malloch Brown, the Prime Minister's agent provocateur eminence grise in the Foreign Office. "David Miliband seems impressive to me. I am confused by what's happened to Gordon Brown. I thought he was impressive."

I don't know whether to pray or vomit.
Maybe I'll do both...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-03-07 09:13  

#5  Somebody should tell Samantha there is no UK anymore. It's just a province in the EU. So there won't be much special about the relationship. Their choice, not ours. Though we didn't provide them any real alternative, but that's water over the bridge.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-03-07 09:02  

#4  There comes a time when you have say, "If that's what it takes for you to think better of me, I don't care for your opinion anymore."
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2008-03-07 08:29  

#3  Followed by the Standard Obama Disclaimer: Didn't mean a word of it.
Posted by: ed   2008-03-07 07:07  

#2  First principle in foreign relations should be - Don't Worry What Other Think of You, Make Others Worry About What You Think of Them.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-03-07 06:39  

#1  Samantha Power is a Paleo-loving tool. I don't need or want her or her naive boss to represent me, in the UK or anywhere.
Posted by: Frank G   2008-03-07 06:36  

00:00