Matt Drudge of The Drudge Report isn’t someone to consider in the eyes of many, especially if you’re liberal, but the aftermath of his report is causing waves of fury, especially if you’re an Obama supporter.
This morning, Drudge put up a photo of Obama dressed in traditional Somali garb during a visit to the country in 2006. Worse yet, he pinned the circulation of the photo on Clinton campaign staffers.
No matter who actually did it, this is bad for Clinton, and the aftermath of the event is worse than the actual circulation of the photo itself. In their response to the charge of putting up the photo, seen here on Politico, the campaign says:
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.
What’s missing from this response is an outright denial. If they didn’t circulate the photo, what harm is there in denying you did it? It would turn attention away from themselves and on to another source. Perhaps an unaffiliated Clinton supporter, or even someone from the McCain camp. Yet, their response is to essential say, “We won’t deny it, we just want you to forget about it.”
The whole situation is ridiculous, and it comes on the heels of the “Obama is a Muslim” emails that were circulating several months ago, and which some people still believe. I think this blog post sums it up best in showing that a lot of our political leaders don traditional clothing on their visits around the world. Even Clinton has done it before, as you can see.
Maggie Williams, Clinton’s campaign manager, is the source of the above quote. So, if they really didn’t send it, I hope Clinton either reprimands or fires her. It’s simply bad press to not deny something if you didn’t do it. It’s even worse press to not come out and admit that you did, but try to ignore the situation entirely.
I must say, though, the next couple days ought to be interesting. I wasn’t incredibly big on Clinton before, but was willing to accept her into the fold if she should win the nomination. Now I have to say that if it can be proven beyond a doubt that it was her campaign that circulated this, she is completely off my consideration list now.
Fear mongering is a bad, bad way to run your campaign. It’s a Karl Rove tactic, and not something you should be emulating.