Prometheus 6

I went to hear Samantha Power talk last night at Town Hall here in Seattle. She is touring to promote her latest book Chasing The Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World. She mentioned that she did not really regard Hiilary Clinton as a monster but judging from the response of the audience I do not think that too many there had been offended. Her problem is that if Obama is elected as president and she is offered a high-level post in his administration that she will have to be confirmed by the Senate, which means Clinton gets a say in the process. So Powers is expressing her regrets and appearing contrite but it is clear that she has substantial policy differences with Clinton and the rest of the old heads in Washington.

At the beginning of her talk Powers attributed her remark about Clinton to, in part, her Irish temper. During the question and answer period, however, I think Powers revealed an aspect of herself that, at least for me, provided a more satisfying explanation regarding her alleged faux pas. Powers is a passionate person with a sharp and incisive mind. You can almost see her brain turning as she attempts to respond truthfully and fully to questions from the floor. The problem is that her answers are way too long. I don't mean boring or didactic or muddled. Just too long.

What I mean is that she does not recognize when she has answered the question that was asked and any further elucidation is not necessary. Speaking before a sympathetic audience this trait is considerably less problematic than when being interviewed by a member of the press. Powers has a head full of good, smart and sensible ideas about foreign policy and this is a very, very good thing after 20 years of the Bushies and Clintonistas. She just needs to figure out how to present them in smaller, more digestible chunks. T.S. Eliot was right when he wrote that "humankind cannot bear too much reality." This is especially true if they live in the United States.

I forgot to add that the comment about how many countries his travel agent had visited was really dismissive but funny.