Mike is 100 percent right about this. I have never not let a source take something off the record if they asked immediately after making their comment. And I assumed pretty much every other reporter out there followed the same protocol. It just strikes me as incredibly pedantic and unforgiving--and, in the long-term, contrary to your self-interest (the idea is to get people to talk to you, after all)--to operate any other way.
Alas, it looks like Power has just resigned from the campaign. I think we can all agree that the world is much better off. Kudos to Gerri Peev of The Scotsman and the Clinton campaign for stamping out that dangerous menace...
--Noam Scheiber