Samantha Power, a Barack Obama Advisor, Resigns After Calling Hillary Clinton a "Monster"

According to MSNBC and a story by the Associated Press, Samantha Power, an unpaid advisor on the Barack Obama team, has resigned after making what could be considered defame comments about Senator Hillary Clinton. Power's comments calling Clinton "a monster ... who was stooping to anything" were never meant to be published. The Harvard professor was speaking to a Scottish newspaper and tried to recoup saying that her comments were off the record. They were published anyway and once the American media found out, the words were just one more thing for what have become two bitter rivals to fight over.

Since the beginning of the political race, Obama has been calling for change and has been criticizing how politics are run. He has made it well known that he doesn't favor portraying his competitors negatively. Even though Obama didn't make these comments himself, people are likely to think that he feels this way as well. Although Power resigned voluntarily, Obama would have had to terminate her regardless to save face-value especially after Clinton removed members of her campaign when they spoke of Obama's teenage drug use or helped spread the false rumor that the Illinois senator is a Muslim.

While this may have gained a few supporters for Clinton, I don't think much damage was done because the situation was resolved so quickly; the person at fault stepped down; and because as the American public has come to expect, politics are a dirty place. I know I personally think that anyone involved in politics is capable of being a monster who will stoop to any level. It's the nature of the beast, and unfortunately we usually end up promoting the person to digs up the most dirt and "talks the most crap" about their opponent. Almost every campaign I have seen starts off pretty and nice and over time turns spiteful and harsh.

I live in Iowa so I witnessed a big part of the turn. When candidates first started campaigning here, no delegates had been determined yet and everyone was on equal footing. Slowly the commercials turned from being about the candidate and their goals and experiences to subliminally down talking other candidates to all out bashing them. Debates are much of the same these days as it seems neither Obama nor Clinton will stop at anything to get to the White House.

My major concern is that the feud between these two has become so heated and will be so drawn out that the entire Democratic party will pay a major price for it--and that price could be losing the White House all together once November rolls around. McCain has already made comments to the American public about how uncivil the Democratic race has become. He is already preparing for either candidate and legitimately starting a White House campaign while both Clinton and Obama are still looking for ways to destroy one another. A split ticket could be disastrous as well because it would pull Democratic voters in two directions with Republicans having only one to favor. Overall, the Democratic race has turned into something that most people knew it would-a heated battle. Before the caucuses ever started most people knew it would come down to Obama and Clinton. Now most people just want to see one of them win so this part can be over, but as we've seen, it looks like Obama and Clinton both are going to fight tooth and nail to win.