Friday, October 19, 2007

A conversation with Samantha Power - Charlie Rose

A conversation with Samantha Power - Charlie Rose

Samantha, as usual, is compelling and thoughtful in this recent interview with Charlie Rose. Unfortunately, there is still a willingness on the part of Samantha and other leading voices in the Save Darfur movement to cut the Bush Administration slack over Darfur.

I acknowledge that the Administration has little or no moral or political credibility on this or any other issue abroad. That is no reason to excuse or even endorse what is essentially lip service to addressing genocide. The movement that forced Clinton to intervene in Bosnia and Kosovo had a clear goal (stopping the genocide without rewarding it) and was unwilling to compromise on that. Any pronouncements or policies that fell short of that were not acceptable. I wish the Darfur movement had that clarity, strength and persistence.

Having said that, I wish there were more people like Samantha, with her character, values, intelligence, and passion speaking at the national level about foreign policy and would love to see someone like her on the domestic side. she sees the big picture and is far from an inflexible ideologue. She also paints a very appealing picture of Obama...

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