As most campaign junkies know, Samantha Power - one of the planet's leading experts on genocide, and foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama - resigned today in the wake of the furor caused by her offhandedly calling Hillary Clinton a "monster" in an interview with The Scotsman earlier this week. This was probably the right thing for her to do, given the circumstances; her description was ill-advised and rather impolitic, even if clearly only her opinion on the matter. Her resignation makes this a twelve-hour story rather than a one-week story, and there's no doubt that she's still going to have a foreign policy role in a hypothetical future Obama administration, which is a great thing.

Contrast this to Howard Wolfson, Clinton spokesman, who said in response to the Obama campaign's demand that the Clinton campaign release the Clintons' tax returns from 2000 to 2008:

"I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president."

Not only does Wolfson remain with the Clinton campaign, he hasn't even apologized for comparing the Obama campaign with a standard request to one of the most partisan witch-hunters of the past generation. This was clearly not a statement of opinion (as Power's statement was) but an argumentative analogy. But there's very little media noise and no yammering talking head on CNN is demanding Wolfson resign or be fired.

And the Clinton campaign has the gall to suggest that her campaign is being treated unfairly by the media?

Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Howard Wolfson, Media Bias, Politics, Primary Election 2008