Samantha Power leaves Obama campaign

"'Hillary Clinton's a monster': Obama aide blurts out attack in Scotsman interview" -- so screamed a headline in the Scottish newspaper The Scotsman today. The aide in question was the Time foreign policy columnist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government professor Samantha Power.

Here's an excerpt from the Scotsman story:

Earlier, clearly rattled by the Ohio defeat, Ms Power told The Scotsman Mrs Clinton was stopping at nothing to try to seize the lead from her candidate.

"We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.

"She is a monster, too -- that is off the record -- she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.

Shortly before 11 am this morning, members of Clinton's campaign team called for the Obama campaign to remove Power -- who is not part of the campaign entourage, and who has called herself an "informal adviser" to Obama.

According to an item published moments ago in Slate, Power has resigned from the campaign.

"I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign," she said in a statement.

PS: In 2004, shortly after Time Magazine named her one of the most 100 influential people in the world, I interviewed Power for Ideas about Hannah Arendt.