Gawker has a new angle on Samantha Power, from the vantage point of her private life:
Samantha Power, the frighteningly accomplished author and academic who blabbed, resigned today. But watch out for the collateral damage. First of all, Barack should not wait for the invitation to George Clooney’s villa by Lake Como; Samantha Power, who got sweaty with the Hollywood star on the basketball court, was the campaign’s Clooney connection. And, second, expect the prospects of Cass Sunstein, tipped for the Supreme Court under an Obama presidency, fade a little: the distinguished law professor recently left his long-time partner and Chicago University to be with Power, according to Above The Law.
There’s a glam photo, too—uncredited on Gawker’s site.
But I dug around and, lo and behold, found it accompanying a June 2007 glam profile of Power in Men’s Vogue , which makes her sound a wee bit more sophisticated than the label “academic” would indicate.
It’s only natural that Power plays against type, no matter how spectators and critics may cast her. “I keep scrambling from one venue to another, you know? A reporter and then I’m the professor, and then I set up the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, a think tank, you know? And then I go work for Obama and then I write another book—just trying to think of ways to permeate the political culture a little bit,” she says, citing Al Gore’s use-Hollywood-for-good model.
And then there’s this eerily prescient comment from her friend (and Clinton supporter) Richard Holbrooke:
Power can change minds and might one day reshape relations among nations, but a lot depends on some smaller-scale feats of diplomacy. Holbrooke suggests her book isn’t the only work in progress: “She will always face the risk that more bureaucratically minded players—I’m picking my way through this very carefully—will exploit her passions, which make her vulnerable to the charge that she’s not ‘careful enough.’ But I admire these qualities in her. We need voices like Samantha Power. Whether she does this inside the government or as an outside writer is a story that’s still unfolding.”
I guess she’ll be doing it as an outside writer.
