Standpoint lays into Sam Power

In its wisdom, Standpoint magazine chose Samantha Power for its "Overrated" slot last month. Ms Power has the audacity to be not yet 40 years of age and, among other things, craftily impresses interviewers with her "Amazonian looks and athletic prowess," the anonymous author writes.

Power might have been forgiven these attributes, had she not "used her experience as a reporter in the Balkans to become an academic expert on genocide." One might ponder what better starting point there could be than first-hand experience of such an issue, but no suggestions are offered here.

The article also claims that scant attention has been paid to the "dubious ethics of a Pulitzer Prize-winner seeking to withdraw a remark made on the record"—a reference to "Monstergate," in which Power dubbed Hillary Clinton a monster and subsequently had to resign as Barack Obama's foreign policy adviser. The dubious ethics of the journalist who was interviewing Power and decided to print the comments, which Power had specifically labelled "off the record," are not mentioned here: a strange inversion of the whole protocol. Nevertheless, the author steamrollers on: "Monstering Hillary seems an unlikely qualification for a career as a White House foreign policy adviser." Which makes one wonder what made Hillary Clinton qualified for her job? Was it her tireless questioning of Obama's readiness to be a leader throughout her nine-month long nomination campaign?

"That a woman of [Power's] views should have the ear of the president is alarming," the author warns—making one wonder if would it be less alarming were Power a man—before, finally, the real beef emerges: Power once suggested that the US should cease to "service Israel's military" in order instead to "invest in the new state of Palestine." She also, apparently, believes that America needs to be multilateralist and "European". Well indeed. What could possibly be worse?