Power Finds Press Trouble Again

Samantha Power—the Harvard Kennedy School human rights scholar who resigned in controversy from the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.)—has found herself back-pedalling again over remarks she made in an interview, this time about her former colleague Michael Ignatieff.

Power phoned The Ottawa Citizen, according to the newspaper, in an attempt to retract comments she made minutes earlier in an interview about Ignatieff, Canada’s deputy Liberal leader and her predecessor as the director of the Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

According to the Citizen, Power had wished Ignatieff well “in his political endeavours,” but worried that doing so could be seen as a statement from the Obama campaign against the government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Though Power no longer advises the Obama campaign, she is still viewed as one of Obama’s closest advisers on foreign policy issues.

In a report posted on The Citizen’s Web site, Power said she hopes that Ignatieff becomes the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, but that she did not mention either the current leader of the party, Stéphane Dion, or Harper by name.

Power resigned her post as one of Obama’s senior advisers in March after calling Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton “a monster” in an interview with a British newspaper. She subsequently apologized to both Obama and Clinton.