Samantha Resigns, But Lets Slip “Wink Wink” About Iraq [Updated]

UPDATES: MSNBC video above (sans her far more important remarks to the BBC about Obama’s real Iraq policy) and story (which also fails to mention Power’s comments on Iraq). Below the fold, video of Power’s remarks on Iraq, and Facthub rebuttals. Hillary says, ““I think Senator Obama did the right thing but I think it is important to look at what she and his other advisers say behind closed doors…”

Original: Here’s another precious moment from the “Obama Amateur Hour” (so reminiscent of the “wink, wink, nod, nod” and embarrassingly amateurish nature of Obama’s NAFTA-gate).

Via The Page/Time’s headline story, “Power Shocker II: Adviser Pulls Back on Obama Iraq Pledge“:

Foreign policy confidant and TIME contributor tells yet another overseas interviewer that troop withdrawals might not come as fast as promised: “He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator.”

“You can’t make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January of 2009. . . . So to think – it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, ‘Well, I said it, therefore I’m going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.’”

Watch BBC interview here.

It brings to mind, for me, the Commander In Chief issue, and the readiness of Obama’s staff. Yes, she has resigned, but not before uttering those soon-to-be infamous words about, wink-wink, the truthiness about Iraq …

UPDATE:

Power Says Obama Iraq Plan Is Only A ‘Best Case Scenario’

KEY POINT: “Sen. Obama has repeatedly criticized Hillary for not having a “firm” and “clear” withdrawal deadline …” A SAMPLE:

Sen. Obama: ‘Why we would try [Hillary’s] approach as opposed to simply setting a timetable for withdrawal strikes me as a convoluted approach to the problem.’ “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to introduce an amendment repealing the congressional authorization for the war. It would require the president to seek new authority from Congress if he wanted to continue operations past Oct. 11, 2007, five years after initial authorization was given. ‘If you simply repeal the language, then presumably you’d have to reauthorize something. You’ve got 150,000 troops over there and support personnel,’ Obama told The Associated Press in an interview after a campaign stop in Las Vegas. ‘Why we would try that approach as opposed to simply setting a timetable for withdrawal strikes me as a convoluted approach to the problem,’ he said.” [AP, 7/13/07]

READ more examples and rebuttals.

More from Politico:

For all the chatter about Obama adviser Samantha Power’s calling Clinton a “monster,” another set of remarks made on her book tour in the United Kingdom may be equally threatening to the Obama campaign: Comments in a BBC interview that express a lack of confidence that Obama will be able to carry through his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months.

“He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator,” she said at one point in the interview.

Power downplayed Obama’s commitment to quick withdrawal from Iraq on Hard Talk, a program that often exceeds any of the U.S. talk shows in the rigor of its grillings. She was challenged on Obama’s Iraq plan, as it appears on his website, which says that Obama “will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.”

“What he’s actually said, after meeting with the generals and meeting with intelligence professionals, is that you – at best case scenario – will be able to withdraw one to two combat brigades each month. That’s what they’re telling him. He will revisit it when he becomes president,” Power says.

The host, Stephen Sackur, challenged her:”So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out in 16 months isn’t a commitment isn’t it?”

“You can’t make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January of 2009,” she said. “He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. 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. So to think – it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, ‘Well, I said it, therefore I’m going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.’”

“It’s a best-case scenario,” she said again.

MORE from The Page’s highlights of the Power resignation brouhaha:

OBAMA ADVISER LEAVES AFTER CONTROVERSIAL REMARKS CALLING CLINTON A “MONSTER.”

“I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton….” Read her full statement here.

She also accused Clinton of “deceit” and said she “is stooping to anything.”

Comes after Clinton House supporters call for Obama to drop the foreign policy ace and TIME contributor on media call with reporters.

Listen to the full call — including more on Wolfson’s Ken Starr comments, seating Michigan and Florida delegates and a potential Pennsylvania debate – here.

Issue leads NBC’s “Today” Friday morning. Watch it here.

Obama camp holds 1:30 pm ET media call to discuss “recent developments in the race.”

MORE HERE: “Barack Obama forced to decry adviser’s ‘monster’ remarks of Hillary Clinton,” which enumerates more of Power’s insulting and divisive remarks about Sen. Clinton:

… “Interestingly, the people in her innermost circle seem to not mind her; I think they really love her,” she said.

Power said Clinton has looked desperate in her recent TV appearances.

“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,” she said. …