The Obama campaign has responded, quite angrily, to the story that has erupted this morning regarding a picture of the candidate in what is being incorrectly referred to as “Muslim garb”:
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.).
(…)
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.
After that story was published at The Politico, the Clinton campaign released a statement:
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.”
As Marc Ambinder notes, this isn’t exactly a denial that someone in the campaign was behind this:
[The] statement by Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams does not include a denial that said photograph was distributed by the campaign, which, perhaps, one can justify under the assumption that Williams doesn’t have access to the e-mail records of all 700 of her employees.
(…)
[S]o someone (connected to the Clinton campaign?) circulated the photo because they wanted to show everyone how cool Obama looked in it… and the Obama campaign, for questioning the motive of the person who distributed it, is being offensive?
That, it seems, is what the Clinton campaign wants us to believe.
Related Post:
Clinton Supporter Behind “Obama Is A Secret Muslim” Nonsense ?
February 25th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
[...] Supporter Behind “Obama Is A Secret Muslim” Nonsense ? Obama Campaign Slams “Muslim Garb” Photo [...]
February 26th, 2008 at 11:57 am
This picture is going on my myspace account as the profile pic with the header: Change we can believe in