She made her name fresh out of Yale as a fearless journalist by decrying human rights abuses in the former Yugloslavia in the 1990s. She literally wrote the book on genocide, her Pulitzer-winning A Problem from Hell. She was toasted by the elites, hired by Harvard and celebrated by many for her ferocious defense of the defenseless.
And now as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power finally has real power. So with horrific images of dead children coming daily out of Syria, where is she?
Ambassador Power is finding herself raked across the coals in social media forums worldwide, both by the right (which has long despised her) and by some ardent fans on the left who are disappointed with Power’s long periods of silence. A Vocativ scan of the social media environment over the last seven days showed her to be the most controversial member of President Obama’s cabinet, surpassing even long-embattled Attorney General Eric Holder.
Power resumed tweeting Monday night after five days of Twitter silence, demanding that “the perps must face justice” for the chemical attack in Syria. But her reemergence in the Twitterverse hasn’t silenced her growing crowd of critics.
In fact, a Daily Mail report saying her “personal trip” to Ireland was because her husband, Cass Sunstein, was speaking at a comedy film festival, prompted several social media snorts of derision. It also tied nicely into a new trending hashtag on Tuesday evening, #NameObamasNewWar, as many of the suggestions were based on film titles.
@MassRon “Choomy Choomy Bang Bang” starring Dick Van Dyke as UN Ambassador Samantha Power #NameObamasNewWar
— Brow (@GovKaineBrow) August 28, 2013
As soon as the first reports of chemical weapon attacks in Syria emerged last week, people began asking where Power was, why she’d said nothing except one cryptic, nocturnal tweet, and why she couldn’t attend an Aug. 21 emergency U.N. Security Council meeting. Power’s spokespeople said she was on a personal trip. Already on vacation after only a few weeks on the job? (She was appointed Aug. 1.)
Her staff said it had been logistically impossible for her to get to from Ireland to New York in time.
But Fox News Googled how many flights depart from Dublin to N.Y.C. in a given day to show how Power could have made it back from her trip in time. In her defense, the Obama administration pointed out that the permanent representatives from other countries on the council also did not attend the meeting, and a more-than-capable deputy was sent in her place. Power’s office and the U.N. did not respond to our requests for comment.
Some observers wondered if Power was being muzzled by an extremely cautious administration, with this tweet from the day of the meeting hinting at her real feelings:
Reports devastating: 100s dead in streets, including kids killed by chem weapons. UN must get there fast & if true, perps must face justice.
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) August 21, 2013
Richard Grenell, who was the spokesman for multiple U.N. ambassadors including the mustachioed John Bolton, wrote a blistering op-ed about Power missing the meeting, a sentiment echoed by Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard.
Calling Power’s tweet “pathetic,” Kristol said, ”It’s better to say nothing” and acknowledged that it might have been a way for her to “subtly” indicate that she disapproves of President Obama’s inaction in the region.
“By being so ridiculous in this tweet, she’s actually telling us that the Obama administration’s policy is feckless and pathetic,” said Kristol. Conservative sites founded by Glenn Beck (The Blaze) and the late Andrew Breitbart (Breitbart.com) followed suit in calling her out.
Power is a conservative target anyway, given her marriage to Sunstein, a legal scholar and former regulatory czar that the likes of Beck and Co. love to hate. He was recently named to Obama’s NSA oversight panel, to their horror.
Personal vendettas aside, Power’s role in U.S. policy in Syria is an important one. And since Secretary of State Kerry stepped up to the plate Monday and said we now have clear evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Power hasn’t been holding herself back as much. These are her tweets from just last night:
Haunting images of entire families dead in their beds. Verdict is clear: Assad has used CWs against civilians in violation of int’l norm.
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) August 27, 2013
We’re reviewing response options & consulting w/allies & partners in NY & around the world. Widespread outrage & desire for accountability.
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) August 27, 2013
Polls show the idea of intervening in the crisis is an idea that’s currently even less popular than bashing Samantha Power.
The post Sidestepping Obama, conservatives target his U.N. ambassador over Syria: Samantha Power appeared first on Vocativ.