Unbelievable. It's really hard to get past what a jerk obama is. Team Obama has such blatent disrepect of Hillary Clinton. It seems like anyone who falls under the power of the oholy obama-alla follows suit. All this for a 1/2 do-nothing senator. Unreal.

Samantha Powers is just another overeducated ivy tower academic basketball player from Harvard whose immature misogynist petulant and vindictive comments about a woman about whom she knows zilch were more reflective of a washerwoman from Ireland than a Yale foreign pollicy grad. Hope Barack enjoys playing basketball with this academic flake and crack sexist jokes with Jon Favreau, his esteemed "Director of Speechwriters" next door! What a team!Wow! All somebody has to do to get promoted these days is to behave like sexist disrespectful little punks...and His Hopeness will make sure their efforts are rewarded.

I understand and respect the perspective of the other commenters, but my own perspective is that it's time to let bygones be bygones. Secretary Clinton is clearly trying to do so--and we should respect that. Continuing to hold old grudges, in the absence of new information, is neither in Clinton's best interest nor this country's. Though I, too, supported Clinton in the Democratic primary (fervently!), and though I shared (and continue to share) your horror and disgust at the sexism meted out to Clinton, I must confess that I have been quite impressed by Obama's seeming ability to focus on ultimate goals and, whenever possible, to work with former opponents to achieve these goals. I believe Senator Clinton is trying to do the same, and that we should encourage, not discourage, this.

The larger point here is that Clinton has a unique opportunity to reverse the disastrous diplomatic (I use the term guardedly) policies of the last eight years, and Power has the potential to be quite helpful. The SUBSTANTIVE foreign policy disagreements between Clinton and either Obama or Power are negligible compared to the many, many points of agreement--and, ultimately, that is what is important.

UPDATE: I meant "Power"--not "Powers"--of course. Edits made above. :)

Lovely. This is like when Obama hired backstabber and campaign saboteur Patti Solis Doyle to be the VP chief of staff right after the primaries.

What exactly is meant by "director of multilateral affairs"? My understanding is that Powers would not be directly involved in shaping foreign policy, certainly not to the degree that Hillary is, but will serve more to coordinate between agencies and brief the President, but I don't really know. I have faith in Hillary's ability to defend her turf, but this better not be Obama's way of trying to marginalize her. It'll be interesting to see over time who has more access to Obama.

Power and Obama are soul mates in the sense that they both showed a lack of courtesy, restraint, and grace during the primaries while Hillary showed great courtesy, restraint, and grace in the way she absorbed the punches.

Hillary will work with whomever she must, and she will not show hard feelings. I, on the other hand, am free to hold a grudge against Power for slamming my girl, who is no monster and happens to be attractive enough to have loads of "obsessive" websites dedicated to her every look, move, and foray.

And how many followers, fans, and supporters do you have Samantha?

(I didn't think so.)

I am like B. Elli Cose. I was and am still an ardent Hillary supporter but it is indeed time for a new beginning. No one will ever replace our Hillary but I am also glad to say Obama made a great choice in choosing her for SoS. I have grown more confident of him. Hillary can handle anything.

over at Huffington Post. The flood of anti-Hillary comments it's attracted is a depressing spectacle. CDS is plainly an incurable disease.

Ariana Huffington is an anti-Clinton Conservative Republican who started Huffpo for the sole purpose of destroying the Clintons when she knew HRC was going to run for President. From her wiki:

"Prior to the Huffington Post, Huffington hosted a website called Ariannaonline.com. Her first foray into the Internet was a website called Resignation.com, which called for the resignation of President Bill Clinton and was a rallying place for conservatives opposing Clinton."

Link

Huffington has turned a generation of so called progressives against the Clintons with that rag - that's why you'll see comments referring to the Clinton Chronicles and GOP expressions like "Billary" coming from Democrats. Talk about Operation Chaos. It's atrocious. Someday those people will wake up and realized they're being duped.

I am baffled by this thread. Secretary Clinton is not a little girl in need of Obama's protection. So she might be working with someone who said something nasty about her a while back? So what? Would we rather the President based his appointment decisions on not wanting to hurt Hillary's feelings, rather than finding the most qualified person for the job? THAT would be offensive and paternalistic. This is not. If you think that Clinton is selfish enough or petty enough to feel slighted by these things, you are doing her a great disservice.

Politics is a nasty business, and BOTH primary campaigns did things to be ashamed of. It's history. Obama and Hillary have shown nothing but class towards one another since then. It will be a loooong four years if you watch Obama's every move through the lens of old grudges and bitterness.

The campaign is over, people. We won. And by "we" I mean all of us Clinton supporters who wanted to see her in a position of authority, influence, and power and able to act on the ideals that both she and Obama have espoused. He IMMEDIATELY rescinded the global gag rule. The FIRST legislation he signed into law was the Ledbetter equal pay bill. Sure, it would have been nice to see Clinton signing those orders, but the victory is just as real.

oops, wrong spot.

Obama has two strong things going for him IMO.

He's not Bush and he has Hillary as SOS.

Other than that.....not so much

Well, isn't it heartwarmingly reassuring for the women who voted for Change and Hope to see that Mr. Jon Favreau and Ms. Samantha Powers have both been promoted for their decidedly undiplomatic deeds! The former playboy of the Western Cardboard saloons is now "Director of White House Speechwriters" and the latter Ivy Tower inhabitant and hoi poloi-soundin' Gal of Indiscretions is now "Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs". And, to top it all off, Sir Larry Summers, of the "women can't add" Harvard fame is head of Economic Council. So, all someone has to do to ensure his/her rise to the top is to say something nasty about a Clinton, and presto! you gotta promotion? You betcha! By that yardstick, Arianna HuffyPuffopoulos will soon be made made Senior Director of Media and Communications! Praise Olympus and pass the vitriol!