Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power seems to have surrounded herself entirely with people who agree with her, fencing herself off to a life where her ideas and reflections go unchallenged.
Or at least, such a total echo chamber is our best explanation of why someone would give the sort of interview Power gave recently to Politico.
The former ambassador hosted an election night viewing party in 2016 for a group of powerful and influential women, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Bill Clinton apologist Gloria Steinem. HBO was even there to document the entire thing. Things obviously didn’t go as planned.
The way Power tells the story to Politico, however, is so overwrought, so tear-soaked in hand wringing self-importance, that we can’t tell if this is the funniest or the saddest thing we’ve read in a great long while.
“I thought what an amazing night for them. I mean, that’s what America represents to the world, when a glass ceiling is shattered in our country, it creates a whole new sense of possibility for people everywhere,” Power told Politico.
She added, “As the host, I was kind of hoping it wouldn’t be quite the blowout that it was anticipated to be, because I wanted to make sure that people had a chance to interact with Gloria Steinem …”
To be clear: Power’s greatest fear that evening was that it would be over too soon and that she wouldn’t have a proper chance to play uber-hostess.
“I wanted to milk the soft power dividend of this moment,” she told Politico.
We’re going to pause for a moment to let you reflect on the phrase “milk the soft power dividend of this moment.” Is there a better example of the sort of substance-free drivel that makes professional bureaucrats (and especially diplomats) sound so utterly ridiculous to the rest of the world?
At her 2016 viewing party, Power continued, “you really see what so many people went through, which was all of that sense of promise and excitement, and frankly, a dose of complacency. And then, it slowly dawning on us that not only was this going to be much closer than anybody anticipated, but that it was not going to end well.”
She added, “And for me, every time I see that, I am haunted most, actually, by the images of my children, who were running around the apartment for much of the night, but when the election is called, my daughter, who at that time is four, is just lying in my lap, kind of like this pale, Irish statue, and there’s something about the way she’s lying, I don’t know, that just makes her look like she’s the one who’s going to inherit … what he does is on her, right?”
If you think that’s bad, you’re in for a treat.
“It’s like we’ve somehow collectively landed in this place, but the people who are going to feel this, and be affected by this are these innocents. And as it happens, I was looking at a young child, but there’s so many other innocents who are being subjected to the cruelty, as we speak here today,” Power said.
She continued, “But yes, I think that scene moves viewers the most because it triggers, I think, a kind of post-traumatic stress about their own election night experience, which mirrored mine.”
She knows the supposed trauma she’s talking about involves nothing more than watching a political opponent win an open and fair election, right?
Seriously, has Power no one in her life to whisper in her ear, “Those are inside thoughts, friend.”
Anyway, you can read the entire Politico interview here, if that’s your sort of thing.
(h/t Seth Mandel)
