January 1, 2015

When Samantha Power asked "Why do you think my dad was the one who died?"

From the "In the Land of the Possible/Samantha Power has the President’s ear. To what end?" by Evan Osnos in The New Yorker:
Her mother, Vera Delaney... a nephrologist... married a Dublin piano player, raconteur, dentist, and drinker named Jim Power—“a fearsomely formidable pub debater,” as the Irish Independent once put it. “I was extremely close to my father, inseparable,” Power said. “Where we hung out most of the time was the pub.” Her father expounded on the day’s papers, while she read mysteries by the light of a slot machine in the basement. Her parents’ marriage didn’t last. “My mother, in effect, started leading her own life,” Power said. At the hospital, Delaney fell in love with her boss, Edmund Bourke. Divorce was illegal in Ireland, and they wanted more opportunities in medicine, so, when Samantha was nine and her brother was five, the family moved to Pittsburgh and, later, Atlanta. Jim Power remained in Ireland. She said, “We stayed in touch, and, then, the drink, I think.” She trailed off. He died when she was fourteen. [Power's husband Cass] Sunstein recalled that, decades later, on a trip to Ireland, Power took him to visit her father’s favorite pub, where they met a woman who had worked behind the bar and remembered her dad. Others seemed to drink just as much, and Power asked, “Why do you think my dad was the one who died?” The barwoman answered simply, “It’s because you left.” Power told me, “I knew he was drinking too much. But I had no idea he was sick—he was just forty-seven, and his death was devastating.”

79 comments:

Michael K said...

She is getting ready to withhold the US veto the next time the UN passes a crazy resolution against Israel.

She is 44 with a 13 month old ?

Anonymous said...

Irish Bartender more insightful than President's adviser. News at 11.

Anonymous said...

Nice guilt-tripping flattery from the bar maid. She could have just said his condition was exacerbated by loneliness or a broken heart, which would imply possible solutions other than Samantha not taken advantage of opportunities.

@michael She would have gotten pregnant at 42, which is older, but not unheard of. (She was born in late 1970).

Anonymous said...

I love the stubborn belief in spite of evidence... (It was the drink) like it was the alcohols fault that he was depressed because his wife cheated on him stole his two kids and left for America. Whoa can't think that...

Curious George said...

God help us.

chickelit said...

Nice role model for the ladies.

Robert J. said...

All battlespace prep for the nomination of Sunstein to the Supreme Court.

furious_a said...

Nothing more useful than the occasional reminder of how incestuous Washington, D.C. Realm is.

Humperdink said...

furious_a, How true.

I waded through 2/3 of the article until I hit the Cass Susstein part. Called it quits.

chickelit said...

It's odd how her Wiki page connotes a wholly different story:

Raised in Ireland until she was nine, Power lived in Castleknock and was schooled in Mount Anville Montessori, Goatstown, Dublin until her parents immigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1979.

Factually accurate, but requires a special parsing of "parents."

Wince said...

Evil Republican senators asking her about her prior policy statements. Imagine!

Laslo Spatula said...

In a slightly different life Charles Manson would've had Samantha Power eating out of the palm of his hand.
“I wanted to feel like someone was going to care for me because I hadn’t felt that from anywhere else in my life."

Replace "someone" with Obama. Replace Obama with Manson.

Helter Skelter in 2015, people.

I am Laslo.

Bruce Hayden said...

All battlespace prep for the nomination of Sunstein to the Supreme Court.

Interesting. The door just closed on another Ginsburg, Sotomayor, or Kagan getting confirmed. Sunstein might just be independent enough of a Dem to sneak through - if he weren't married to Powers. Still, I would vote against him if I were in the Senate, since he is one of the best credentialed cheerleaders for regulatory overreach. We need Justices who will see that the regulatory state has overreached, and not, in his view, just needs smarter people running it. He should have changed his tune, after being appointed by Obama to solve the problems of a regulatory state out of control, and he failed miserably. Most probably would have seen the futility. He apparently did not.

Michael K said...

"She would have gotten pregnant at 42, "

Oh, I know. My mother was 40 the year I was born and had my sister at that age but she was a Depression mother when people postponed marriage for reasons other than career.

I am wondering how the social experiment of women having late babies and turning them over to 80 IQ illegals to raise, will turn out? It might even settle the argument between "blank slate" Gouldians and genetic Pinkertons. If we would ever hear the results, which I doubt.

Robert J. said...

Sunstein might just be independent enough of a Dem to sneak through

Just keep an eye out and see how many flattering profiles of Sunstein-Power appear in the media in coming months. She grew up practically an orphan, you know. And of course he is a Legal Olympian.

Scott said...

Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican, asked her to explain what she meant, in a 2003 essay in The New Republic, when she called for “a historical reckoning with crimes committed, sponsored or permitted by the United States.” Power disavowed the piece, saying that she “probably very much overstated the case,” and adding, “This country is the greatest country on earth. I would never apologize for America.” Rubio pressed the point, leaning toward the microphone, his eyes sweeping the gallery, and Power had to repeat the line—“This is the greatest country on earth”—two more times.

Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, brandished notes containing a quote in which Power referred to the United States as the “most important empire in the history of mankind.” He asked, “Do you believe America is an empire?”

Power gave a quick shake of her head and searched for the right words. “I believe that we are a great—a great and strong and powerful country, and the most powerful country in the history of the world,” she said. “Also, the most inspirational.” Empire, she went on, “is probably not a word choice that I would use today, having served.” She added, “Serving in the executive branch is very different than sounding off from an academic perch.”

...

To survive the questioning, Power had set aside the ferocity and independence that made her name. David Rieff, a frequent critic of Power’s humanitarian prescriptions, later derided her performance as that of an “apparatchik whose willingness to pander to her interrogators seemed to know no bounds.” When I asked Power about her performance, she smiled and said, “My thing in confirmation was, I can’t say anything that is not true.” If she received an awkward question, “I need to find something that is responsive, and that may just take it in a slightly different direction, but feels deeply true to me. That was what I felt I was able to do.” On August 1st, the Senate approved her nomination, by a vote of eighty-seven to ten.


So once again, we have an Administration official who has to mute what she really feels in order to keep the hoi polloi from freaking out. A book about this administration should be titled, "Profiles In Mendacity."

Anonymous said...

You know, thanks, Prof. Althouse. I made a link to it and now I am glad you read it and reviewed it.

The analogy in Power being the UN Ambassador is the same as Obama being the POTUS - twice.

Luck can play a role. Can you imagine Powers being where she is w/o Obama? Can you imagine Obama being where he is w/o NYT, NPR, PBS, and Andrew Sullivan's fan story?

I wish someone would have asked Powers about Benghazi. What exactly was she doing? What did she do or not do?

SGT Ted said...

Is it still guilt tripping flattery if it's true? But yea who cares what brought it on, it's just another dead father. The wife/mother has no responsibility for the condition of the relationship. Women are special.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Powers and Sunstein are prototypical elitists who believe they know better than us little people. Thankfully, the voters decided in the last election it was a big mistake to give more and more power to central planning control freaks like them [and Obama, Pelosi Reid, etc].

I am familiar with old Irish drunks like her father. They are generally very smart but also are angry misfits who never found their "rightful" place in society as an adored genius.

SGT Ted said...

People like Samantha Powers have built their careers and cut their teeth on the "hate America" ideology of the neo-Commies that call themselves "progressives". She will not have changed her stripes.

Gahrie said...

...but that's OK, because her Mom was happy after all.

CStanley said...

Sheesh, what a judgmental bunch concerning her late age for motherhood. Presume much?

I'm about to celebrate my 50th birthday, having just celebrated my daughter's fifth. She's not being raised by 80 IQ illegals, but by myself and my husband even as we work at shepherding a young adult through college and a tween with special needs through middle school. It's hard, and the youngest wasn't according to our plan, but God's.

Perhaps Powers is part of this demographic that you are concerned about, but I think there are larger societal concerns and perhaps people should mind their own business. Pregnancies happen, sometimes when they weren't intended, but the children who result from them are miracles.

khesanh0802 said...

Hard to trust the wife of a guy who wants to nudge us along to whatever he believes is right. It seems she has the character to be effective, but she has sold her soul to the incompetent Obama administration. She might have been dynamite in a Republican administration that had a little backbone.

Was anyone else aware she went to Africa to make us feel better about the Ebola crisis? I don't think even the NYT reported that (well, maybe in the classifieds).

madAsHell said...

I just can't believe any of the stories from this administration. I think Bob@10:06 hits it on the head.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Drunks are pretty much harmless except for the damage they inflict on their families. Most family member survive and thrive though some,like Powers obviously, make it a central dramatic theme of their childhood. IOW, "oh woe is my, my father..or brother...or mother was a drunk".

mccullough said...

Drinks From My Father

Mid-Life Lawyer said...

Liberals always think they have more power over others than they do. He died because he drank himself to death because he was an alcoholic. This had nothing to do with her.

Anonymous said...

On a personal note, I've never heard tales of sorrowful, drunken Irishmen talking politics in pubs until they expire.

Also, it's the New Yorker:

1. Woman-check
2. Woman with the human right(s) ideas-check
3. Political power-check

What am I missing?

bbkingfish said...

Well done.

Our hostess is setting the bar high for the new year.

George M. Spencer said...

Enlightening for the intelligence people in Beijing and Moscow.

SteveR said...

I had the same question when my mother died at 49. It was cancer.

Fernandinande said...

Michael K said...
I am wondering how the social experiment of women having late babies and turning them over to 80 IQ illegals to raise, will turn out?


It doesn't matter (kids raised by nannies).

It might even settle the argument between "blank slate" Gouldians and genetic Pinkertons. If we would ever hear the results, which I doubt.

It's been settled, and if you're "hearing" from the MSM, that's why you haven't heard of it.

David said...

Sad. But strange that a political figure would seek to share this with a reporter.

Think also if Samantha's father had taken up with another woman and left with the kids for America, leaving the Poor Wife to die of drink and loneliness. What a beast the man would be.

pm317 said...

All battlespace prep for the nomination of Sunstein to the Supreme Court.

It is the old Chicago pay to play.. Cass Sunstein has to get his share. I wonder what the Clooneys and Hankses will get or got.

Seeing Red said...

I don't know if Samantha's rage at the US is because her family left Ireland for a better life that Ireland couldn't give and she absorbed the hate there, or because she came here and absorbed the jealousy here that Ireland didn't reach its potential because it's full of Irishmen (hehehe, I'm Irish) or living amongst the descendants of her family's conquerors/oppressors. Ireland coulda' been a contenda!

She's jealous or guilty or a combination of both. She might have low self esteem too.

pm317 said...

But strange that a political figure would seek to share this with a reporter.


Not so strange if you think of her getting a big ego boost from it all -- she was so important to him that he died mourning his loss (of her) but the clue to her narcissism is that there is no sense of abandonment shared on her part.

{I felt I abandoned my dad/parents when I left for a place far and away and felt guilty and I had a pretty neat relationship with my dad}

pm317 said...

How much of the story is a composite?

Anonymous said...

@michael

My mom was older for her era (38) as well because I'm the last. Dad was a few years older. She was great and looked very good, still does, but I found it contributed somewhat to social isolation on the parental level, which stretched into my level. This is why I never wanted to be an older mom.

Todayt that wouldn't be a problem in certain demographics, but I have to say, it creeps me out to go to university towns where the women have babies at 35-40+ and, not always, but commonly, marry fifteen-years-older professors; so you've got an entire town of middle-aged, people, who would be the grandparents in an immigrant area, walking around with very expensive strollers. Haha.

Well, I suppose they both have their positives. You can get access to the greater liquid energy of family/youth, which can be economically or psychologically unstable, or you can get access to position, money, and relative stability, which can be...well...OLD.

pm317 said...

And don't forget 'nuance' -- pet word of the lefty (pseudo)intellectual.

pm317 said...

My mom was older for her era (38) as well because I'm the last.

My mom was 36 and I was also the last. My 36th year was very special because I could think about how she must have been at that age (but very different times and circumstances, of course).

Danno said...

Nice to see blog coverage of the other half of the "DC power couple".

kjbe said...

I love the stubborn belief in spite of evidence... (It was the drink) like it was the alcohols fault that he was depressed because his wife cheated on him stole his two kids and left for America. Whoa can't think that...

The timeline suggests his drinking is the reason his wife left. Also, alcohol is a depressant, so, his self medicating was making his probable depression even worse.

The bar maid's comment sounds like that of an enabling 'friend'.

Jupiter said...

I hope she and her husband go down on the same plane.

Michael K said...

" it creeps me out to go to university towns where the women have babies at 35-40+ and, not always, but commonly, marry fifteen-years-older professors; so you've got an entire town of middle-aged, people, who would be the grandparents in an immigrant area, walking around with very expensive strollers. Haha. "

I don't have a problem with older parents, given my own history with a 40 year old mother and I am a 77 year old father of a 24 year old. My issue is with the "power couples" who have kids late in life (relatively speaking) and then to back to work at high power jobs leaving immigrant nannies to raise their children.

"It's been settled, and if you're "hearing" from the MSM, that's why you haven't heard of it."

I'd be interested to hear as I think it is still early in the experiment. I do know we are getting a few bits of feedback on the gay parenting thing but haven't heard much about the power couple/ nanny child culture.

chickelit said...

Sustein dumped his wife for her, as he knew that because of her he can get to the WH West Wing, which he did, and then to SCOTUS.

Icing on the cake!

Lydia said...

I cut Powers some slack because she was very hard on Bill Clinton re the genocide in Rwanda, and because she once called Hillary a monster.

Also, not sure we can say she put off having children because of her career -- she didn't marry until she was 38, and then had her first child a year after.

chickelit said...

mrs.e said...

The timeline suggests his drinking is the reason his wife left.

The Wiki timeline suggests that her "parents" both immigrated to America and her real father never existed.

Jason said...

I wish Powers were the biggest problem with this Administration. Instead, she's the smallest.

Jason said...

The Irish are weird. You can talk to them as if they are normal people and they are usually pretty smart about lots of things. Until you mention Palestine. They all fucking love Hezbollah, regard Israeli Jews as modern day Nazis, they love them some Hugo Chavez and have a big soft spot for Che Guevara.

Lydia said...

Sustein dumped his wife for her...

He was divorced from his wife in the early 1990s. He later had a partner, philosopher Martha Nussbaum, but it's not clear if their relationship was solid by the time Powers came along.

CWJ said...

"The bar maid's comment sounds like that of an enabling 'friend'."

It's a story in service of political image management peddled to an sympathetic journal to get the word out. Why would we think the bar maid's comment is even an accurate quote?

I think that is also the answer to David's querry above.

Michael K said...

"You can talk to them as if they are normal people and they are usually pretty smart about lots of things."

Have you talked to the Irish in Ireland ? I have and they are odd.

I asked directions one time of an old guy with three teeth who was watching us as we turned around on his street. He said, "Do you see that sign over there?"

I said, "Yes."

He said, "Well, you can't see it from here but it's there nonetheless."

So, I had established myself as a liar.

It went on from there with the usual Irish directions. "You can't miss it."

For one thing, an Irish friend of mine told me that the Irish really don't like Americans coming over to visit and look for "their roots." He said the Irish are very aware that "the cream left" and those left behind are the grandchildren of losers.

I found them fairly rude. And so have other friends. That explains it.

Chef Mojo said...

Remember the sneering at Sarah Palin for having a late child, and one with Down Syndrome to boot? That it was reckless of her to have a late child because of the increased risk of birth defects?

Good times, good times...

Titus said...

She is so fab, especially compared to the old homers here.

Lot's of regret here not cumming from the old white invisible straight flyover state......"man".

Because most of you don't get erect let alone chizzed in many years, the thought of some 40 year old elite, and hot, ginger, still getting it on-must bring you all really down-not as down as your hog though.

Happy New Year! kiss kiss.

This year, the republican congress leadship, representing the New Confederacy, brings back the KKK into the fold-mission accomplished-and not a peep from the base-this is actually win for the pubes-yes, they do support racists-Thank the Lord-the pubes are really on our side and they speak to euro-white american organizations that hate blacks, hispanics, and fags more than us!

Just remember the urbans will appear in the 2016 election! We have much larger population than you small state shits.. New York and California's populations represent like all your states!

chickelit said...

How's the food in Bang galore, Titus?

SGT Ted said...

Titus...

wait, what?

chickelit said...

We have much larger population than you small state shits.. New York and California's populations represent like all your states!

Sounds like Titus has never lived in California and has no clue about who really lives here.

Welcome to Shakertown!

Danno said...

Titus, In this post, you are babbling incomprehensibly. Mexifornia and New York may well be large states, but New York has been losing massive amounts of people. You also fail to realize that the Dems rely on many small states like Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut, that all should be merged into one decent-sized state, as well as Delaware and Maryland which should be merged as well. The fastest growing states (i.e., Texas, Florida, Georgia and other sunbelt states), have generally been red states, or at least purple. So the facts are not totally in your favor.

retired said...

No way sunstein gets confirmed. An immoral hard left nut. And not a judge.

Danno said...

Shorter version-

Titus, Quit being a pompous ass.

Chef Mojo said...

We have much larger population than you small state shits.. New York and California's populations represent like all your states!

Titus, I expected better of you. That was just tacky.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

I wondered if Powers is a us citizen.

All I could were a couple of vague references that she became one in her teens.

My real curiosity was whether she is still an Irish citizen. I could find nothing on this one Way or the other.

John henry

pm317 said...

If you are not a citizen, you can't work for the government, not directly anyway.

Skeptical Voter said...

In vitro fertilization will yield children at age 42 and 43 and a half for couples where the woman has waited into her late 30's before marriage. I'm a proud grandfather now of an 18 month old girl and a two week old boy. Neither would have been achieved without IVF due to the age of my daughter and son in law.

Unlike my wife and I who had our children in our middle 20's where we simply needed to be in the same county to conceive, women such as Ms. Power who wait until their late 30's or early 40's need a little "help" from the medical profession to conceive and carry to full term.

Big Mike said...

So he died because of Samantha? I think a lot of people are going to die because of Samantha before she leaves her job.

Jason said...

I had many soldiers under my command who were non-citizens.

cubanbob said...

This year, the republican congress leadship, representing the New Confederacy, brings back the KKK into the fold-mission accomplished-and not a peep from the base-this is actually win for the pubes-yes, they do support racists-Thank the Lord-the pubes are really on our side and they speak to euro-white american organizations that hate blacks, hispanics, and fags more than us!"

For a guy who claims he is going to get a big inheritance the last thing your wallet would want to vote for is the party of the estate tax. Here is a hint: the party that may curb the death tax isn't the one that is fab.

furious_a said...

We have much larger population than you small state shits...

...like Delaware, Vermont, Hawai'i, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland. And it was the minority vote that carried Prop 8 in California, so the cowardly Queer Mafia singled out the Mormons, instead.

furious_a said...

President hosts at the White House 81 times a race hustler with blood on his hands dating back to Tawana Brawley and Crown Heights and nobody says a word.

R-congressman no one heard of speaks once to some Duke front group and hysterical old queer loses his mind.

Gahrie said...

My real curiosity was whether she is still an Irish citizen

There are many thousands of American citizens who are considered to have dual citizenship by other countries, and themselves believe that they have dual citizenship. However, if they ever take the American oath of citizenship (something most people born here nver do funnily enough) the first sentence explicitly states that they are renouncing any former citizenship:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen...

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Judging is fun!

None of you bitter old men has any idea what went on between her parents you and sound ridiculous blaming her mother for decisions made decades ago that literally couldn't have less to do with you.

You have ZERO idea whether Samantha's mother had excellent reasons or no reasons to leave her father.

amielalune said...

Oh, is that what turned her into an evil ugly hatefilled socialist bitch?

I'm just very sorry that her parents procreated at all.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

(p.s. yes I know that I do not know whether you are in fact bitter, old, or men.)

jaed said...

because she once called Hillary a monster

Yes, but wasn't her reason for calling Hillary a monster simply that Hillary - darn her! - was at the time running against His Nibs, and simply refused to just step out of the way and let the coronation of Obama proceed?

Less slack for that.

Kyzer SoSay said...

Well, stop commenting here if you don't know anything and go find your pants. Nobody wants to see THAT.

acm said...

Yeah, generally if I heard that Pat had left Chris and taken their kids, and Chris had continued drinking to excess and died of alcohol-related problems shortly thereafter, I'd say Pat made a pretty solid choice. People don't just up and become self-destructive addicts in their forties after a divorce/separation, and parents have a moral duty to raise their kids in functional homes. Homes with active alcoholics are not functional homes. Raising the kids well comes before "but he/she will die of drink and loneliness without me!". Alcoholics/addicts who don't choose to get sober will die of drink and loneliness without their families or they'll die of drink and "pressure" or drink and "smothering" if their families stay. There is no reason to believe that the dad in this story would've lived a long healthy, sober life if his wife hadn't left.

I used Pat and Chris to indicate that I don't care whether it was the man or the woman who was the addict.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Kyzernick, it's not my fault that the philistines around here don't recognize a classic Simpsons line when someone uses it as a moniker. ;)

Alec Bean said...

Someone commented, " if they ever take the American oath of citizenship (something most people born here nver do funnily enough) the first sentence explicitly states that they are renouncing any former citizenship: I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.."

It's a common MISCONCEPTION that taking the oath to become a U.S. citizen is renouncing a person's former citizen. Tell me where in the oath is the word, citizenship??? Allegiance and citizenship are APPLES and ORANGES! For example, all the Chinese dissidents sitting in a Chinese jail are not loyal to their government, but it does NOT mean they are not Chinese citizens!

If a person, after becoming U.S. citizen, continues to flip real estate in his home country, he does NOT violate his U.S. oath at all. It doesn't require allegiance of any sort for this activity. However, if he serves in his home country's military, then he is violating his U.S. oath. In either case, he is not losing his former citizenship.

When the U.S. government went after 2 Canadian-Americans for having dual citizenship decades ago, the two fought their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against the U.S. for being UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The reason is a foreign citizenship is governed by a *FOREIGN LAW*. You simply cannot use the U.S. Oath, governed by a U.S. law, to override a foreign law!!!

There is a reason that this oath uses ambiguous wording like allegiance and fidelity instead of citizenship directly because the Supreme Court would NOT permit it!

If you are still a non-believer, check out this authoritative source from the Department of State on Dual Citizenship, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/Advice-about-Possible-Loss-of-US-Nationality-Dual-Nationality/Dual-Nationality.html

Alec Bean said...

Where is the edit button on this site?

Previously I wrote, "It's a common MISCONCEPTION that taking the oath to become a U.S. citizen is renouncing a person's former citizen." I meant to say "....a person's former citizenship."

Also I wrote, "However, if he serves in his home country's military, then he is violating his U.S. oath." I meant to say "if he serves in his home country's military *VOLUNTARILY*,...."