The Price of Power The Times has more on Samantha Power's resignation from the Obama campaign for calling Hillary Clinton "a monster."

While [Power's] comments were unauthorized and immediately condemned, they also drew attention to other remarks Ms. Power made in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, saying that as president, Mr. Obama would not necessarily follow through on the plan of withdrawing from Iraq that he had presented as a candidate.

Bizarrely, the Times doesn't say what those comments were. But here's the BBC link to her interview with Stephen Sackur. (Videos of the interview are in the right-hand column.)

Power comes off as smart, thoughtful,informed, compassionate, certainly more deliberate than the "monster" remark would suggest—but also pretty clearly off-message.

Sackur: So the 16 months [withdrawal plan] is negotiable?

Power: It's the best case scenario.

Sackur: It's the best-case scenario.

Power: It is...

Sackur: So we needn't take it seriously at all....

Argh.

Here's something that caught my eye on watching the interview, and also reading Power's interview with the Scotsman: She gave these interviews ostensibly while she was on tour promoting her new book about UN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello.

And this is where someone—the Obama campaign, I think—screwed up.

Because with all due respect to Sam's considerable biographical prowess, writers do not typically get sent overseas to promote their book about a UN diplomat, nor do writers of such books typically land lengthy television interviews on the BBC.

Powers was obviously booked to do these interviews because of her connection with Obama.

(In the BBC interview, you can see precisely how much she spoke about her book: Zilch. At least in the excerpts shown.)

Did the Obama campaign sign off on this book tour?

Because it would have been obvious to anyone who gave it a moment's thought that as soon as Power stepped onto those interview sets, the questions weren't going to be about Sergio Vieiro de Mella, but about Senator Barack Obama.

And when you're on a book tour, you're tired, you're run-down, you're stressed out, and sooner or later you're going to say something you shouldn't....

  ¶ 3:39 PM