The Trail: A Daily Diary of Campaign 2008

Obama Team Charges 'Double Standard' on Adviser Statements

By Alec MacGillis
Barack Obama's campaign, which has been spending more time than it would like discussing the utterances of its academic advisers, this afternoon downplayed the recent suggestion of its newly-departed foreign policy adviser that Obama's pledge to withdraw combat troops from Iraq within 16 months was less than hard and fast. And it charged that one of Clinton's Iraq advisers had suggested much the same last week, with little repercussion.

Samantha Power -- Harvard professor, author of books on the Rwandan genocide and slain UN official Sergio Vieira de Mello and resident big thinker in the Obama camp -- said in an interview with the BBC that Obama's withdrawal of troops from Iraq would inevitably depend somewhat on the circumstances he finds when he takes office. The Clinton campaign this afternoon pounced on the matter of fact remark as proof that Obama's promise to get out troops out of Iraq was disingenuous -- just an hour or two after the Clinton camp successfully demanded Power resign her campaign advisory post for another recent comment, telling the Scotsman newspaper that Clinton was behaving like a "monster."

(Whatever is it with the Obama campaign and the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth? After the recent Canadian consulate flap, the Scotsman and now BBC, one can only imagine there will be another bombshell arriving from New Zealand any day now. The Obama campaign may want to follow the lead of top Clinton aide Mandy Grunwald, who refuses to talk to the foreign press, period.)

The BBC interview proceeded as follows:

BBC: "You said that he'll revisit it when he goes to the White House. So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out within sixteen months, isn't a commitment isn't it?

POWER: "You can't make a commitment in whatever month we're in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are gonna be like in Jan. 2009. We can't even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troop pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US senator.

He will rely upon a plan, an operational plan that he pulls together, in consultation with people who are on the ground, to whom he doesn't have daily access now as a result of not being the president. So to think, I mean it would be the height of ideology, you know, to sort of say, well I said it therefore I'm going to impose it on whatever reality entreats me -

BBC:Ok, so the 16 months is negotiable?

POWER: It's the best case scenario.

BBC: It's the best case scenario.

POWER: It is -

BBC: And of course in Iraq we've never seen best case scenario.

POWER: We have never seen best case scenario

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

POWER: What we can take seriously is that he will try to get US forces out as quickly and as responsibly as possible. And that's the best case, estimate of what it would take.

Clinton seized on these remarks today, comparing them to reports that Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee had privately assured Canadian officials that Obama's ant-NAFTA rhetoric was partly for political consumption. (The Obama campaign has, in fits and starts, denied those reports, and points to an Associated Press report that the Clinton campaign has given similar assurances to the Canadians.) "Sen. Obama has made his speech opposing Iraq in 2002 and the war in the Iraq the core of his campaign, which makes these comment especially troubling. While Sen. Obama campaigns on his to end the war his top advisors tell people abroad that he will not rely on his own plan should he become president," Clinton said today. "This is the latest example of promising the American people one thing on the campaign trail and telling people in other countries another. You saw this with NAFTA as well."

In a conference call with reporters, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe rejected this, saying that Power's comments did not represent a change in Obama's Iraq thinking. "On Iraq he has been very clear. He offered a withdrawal plan well over a year ago, it's essential to his candidacy and a rock solid commitment," Plouffe said. "He obviously feels incredibly strongly on this issue." Pressed by reporters, Plouffe added that Obama would, in one of his first acts as president, meet with the Joints Chiefs of Staff and "make clear...that a withdrawal should begin immediately." "He has been and will continue to be crystal clear with the American people that if and when he is elected president we will be out of Iraq," Plouffe said. "It will be 16 months at the most where you can withdraw combat troops...There should be no confusion about that."

Plouffe also noted that Gen. Jack Keane, an architect of the Iraq surge strategy and informal adviser to Clinton on Iraq, had recently told the New York Sun that he doubted Clinton would withdraw troops from Iraq as quickly as she has said she would on the campaign trail. "Senator Clinton is very knowledgeable about national security and is probably going to be strong on defense," Keane said. 'I have no doubts whatsoever that if she were president in January '09 she would not act irresponsibly and issue orders to conduct an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of the consequences, and squander the gains that have been made."

Also on the call, Plouffe said that Power had made the "right decision" in stepping down over the "monster" comment. Power is "a very brilliant person and a valuable part of the campaign, but [the campaign] can't condone those kind of comments," he said. But he charged that there was a "double standard" in Clinton's demanding Power's resignation while responding slowly to several people in her own camp who have strayed across the line, such as BET network founder Bob Johnson and machinists' union president Tom Buffenbarger.

Plouffe also further pressed the Obama campaign's call for Clinton to release her and her husband's tax returns of the past six years as soon as possible, saying there were too many questions about the links between the Clintons' newfound wealth and contributors to her campaign and investors involved in her husband's philanthropic and business ventures. Clinton is "one of the most secretive politicians in America today. There is no reason why the six years of prior tax returns cannot be released right now," Plouffe said. "They can go to Kinko's and Xerox them...Considering the huge amounts of money they have made in recent years...it's essential for the American people to know where they're getting money from."

Posted at 3:18 PM ET on Mar 7, 2008
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