At this point I’d really like to dial back my criticism of the Clinton campaign and start focusing on the general election and the senate and house races. Really. I would. But it’s not possible to do that because the Clinton campaign continues to commit what, from a Democrat, can only be described as atrocities. Their latest offense against decency involves forwarding a picture of Barack Obama wearing traditional Somali garb to Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report. Obama wore the clothing during a trip to his father’s native Kenya in 2006.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe accused the Clinton campaign Monday of “shameful offensive fear-mongering” by circulating a photo as an attempted smear.
Plouffe was reacting to a banner headline on the Drudge Report saying that aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) had e-mailed a photo calling attention to the African roots of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
“The photo, taken in 2006, shows the Democrat front-runner dressed as a Somali Elder, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya,” the Drudge Report said.
Somalia, for those that don’t know, is a predominantly Islamic country.
“Wouldn’t we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?” questioned one campaign staffer, in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.
Why, exactly, would we be seeing such a picture on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC? Would it suggest that she was secretly a Muslim and therefore, presumably, sympathetic to al-Qaeda? The Clinton campaign doesn’t deny sending the picture around. Instead, they make an excuse the undermines their rationale for sending it around.
This is from Clinton’s new campaign manager, Maggie Williams:
Enough.
If Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.
This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.
We will not be distracted.
Stuff like this makes me feel sorry for my comrades that are supporting Hillary’s campaign. There is no defense for their actions here. They are transparently using Bill Kristol’s politics of fear. And, this originates with the staff and is defended by the campaign manager. Maggie Williams neither denies that the photo was sent around by the campaign, nor apologizes for it. Instead, she disingenuously suggests that there is nothing divisive about the photograph.
This isn’t even dog-whistle politics. This is straight up playing directly to Obama’s heritage to invoke fear and white backlash. This is a 100% Republican tactic. Yes, we should expect to see lots of this stuff in the summer and fall, coming from Republicans. They will try to paint Obama as a Muslim, a terrorist sympathizer, and a less than authentically patriotic American.
The Clintonites, if pressed, would probably argue that they are only testing Obama and he’ll be stronger for it for having weathered it in the primaries. That may be true for Obama, but the Clintons’ motives are purely self-serving.
Plouffe said in a statement: “On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election. This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world,” said Plouffe.
It’s the Clintons’ decision to campaign this way that led to my decision not to vote for them in November, or for any office for anything ever again. It violates my personal ethical standards. It is campaigning like this that made me hate Jesse Helms and Trent Lott. I don’t mind political differences…you’re conservative, I’m liberal…let’s try to get along. It’s race-baiting, religious bigotry, and fear-mongering that make me do more than oppose Republicans politically. You don’t get a pass because you have a ‘D’ at the end of your name. Not from me. And, hopefully, not from any progressives.
But, as you can see, this actually is just me showing my prejudice against ovaries.
