The gaffe that keeps on giving

As coincidence would have it, Barack Obama was wrapping up a state-wide tour of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia just as his former foreign policy advisor Samantha Power arrived in town to honour the last engagement in her worldwide book tour.

Soon after a somewhat hoarse but nonetheless eloquent Obama fired up a rapturous crowd of volunteers at the city's convention centre, a somewhat hoarse but also eloquent Ms Power addressed a more sedentary gathering at the public library across town. The discussion focused mainly on issues related to her new book: a new direction for US foreign policy, the ethics of humanitarian intervention and possible reforms within the UN. But Ms Power was at ease discussing the incident she now drily refers to as "Monstergate." "I used to an author of a book. Now I'm an author of a comment," she quipped. "I know that my blunder is fair game for life."

In fact, "Monstergate" was the latest in a series of potential blunders that the straight-talking Power might have caught herself in. Although it was not widely reported, just a few days before the infamous Scotsman interview was published, she told a gathering at London's ICA in London that Obama's 14-16 monthtime timeframe for withdrawing troops from Iraq was contingent, and might have to be revised. This largely slipped under the radar, possibly because the audience was British, but had the US media latched onto this things might have been very different.

Power, however, claims she has now learned her lesson, and will in future be the model of discretion. And she has made an exemplary start. At a recent Columbia Law School appearance, she explained she decision to quit the Obama team thus: it made sense for her to step aside, she said, "at least for a while."