Fortunately there are political minor leagues

It's unfortunate that Obama has lost an advisor who may have had good intentions and perhaps talents, but just wasn't ready for the discipline of actual power. It's bad enough for him that she was unable to curb her tongue during the campaign. How much worse would it have been if she'd stayed out of sight until January and then somehow became a high government official!

Maybe there is a benefit from long campaigns, because it exposes both the candidate and a lot of potential advisors to a lot of inconsequential scrutiny. Whether some Obama campaigner said something indiscreet to a Canadian official is a tempest in a teacup now. Rather like the Eugene Emeralds losing a baseball game. Not a big deal in itself and it serves to weed out those who don't have what it takes.

I'm actually not that distressed to see Obama ditch Samantha Powers since she seems to come from the "moral obligation to fix the world" school of international relations. That's what got us into Iraq and Afghanistan. We don't need to do it again in Darfur.

I accept the idea that bad outcomes are often inevitable and it isn't admirable to spend time and treasure vainly attempting to delay that fact. The people of Afghanistan are not going to have happy lives because there are 25 million of them, squatting in the middle of a stinking desert, with no export product to speak of apart from heroin. Iraqis might, since they have wealth, if we left them alone but it can't be forced on them.

Instead, we have intervened. A half decade later, they are less happy, we are less safe, and we're a trillion dollars poorer (including deferred costs). Knowing this, there are those who want us to save Darfur, militarily since there are no other options. Just goes to show that a fancy university education isn't always enough.