Power Trip

Ankush at Ezra Klein's place reports that Samantha Power, "human-rights activist, journalist, professor, and adviser to Barack Obama" (and, I'd add, one of the foremost writers on genocide issues in the world) is becoming a foreign affairs columnist for Time.

Power is about as good as it gets -- a conscientious and deep thinker who, on even her worst day, could put Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer to shame. She also had the foresight to oppose the Iraq war, which, as we all know, typically means that you're never to be heard from in the traditional news media. To be sure, this column won't make her the next Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., but it's a glimmer of hope for those of you who, like me, shared Ezra's lament last week about the serious dearth of public intellectuals today.

Having read some of Power's stuff, I can vouch for her brilliance, and I am thrilled she's getting a prime perch in a magazine that still is one of the nation's foremost political sources.