That's THEIR style.

Your comments and recs are welcome!

Here's what Salon's War Room has to say.

qive it a rest already

You're right. Hillary's campaign can't deny that they are pushing the photo because they are.

"Look Obama IS a Muslim after all!"

Well I guess Obama should thank them for acting like republicans during the primary. It gets him ready for the GE.  

If the Clinton people didn't send it, why won't they deny it?

First you accuse Obama of planting the photo. Then you compare it to the Bhutto assassination, the logical connection of which completely escapes me.
And now you defend Maggie William's non-denial of this and transparent attempt to make this something "nobody should be ashamed of." As if the Clinton campaign hasn't been pushing the secret Muslim/marginal negro candidate thing all along.

Hillary is imploding in front of our very eyes.

that she thinks dressing in native attire when visiting a foreign country means you're not American. She'd be lying, she respects foreign customs and she respects Muslims.  It's Obama who is disrespecting his own ancestors by claiming it's a 'smear.'  Is he such a bigot?  

NOT A SINGLE pro-Hillary blogger I know would EVER post this.  It is unfair to Obama, and meritless.

Let's see.  Show picture.  Say it's not fair and meritless.  Picture spread to another web site.   Mission accomplished.

I have to acknowledge that maybe a pro-Hillary blogger would not post the picture.  But maybe an anti-Obama blogger would.  

Look forward to your work in the Summer and Fall.    

Maggie's quote is very telling.  It's easy now to see where the ramp up in slimy political games from the Clinton campaign originated...

PART DEUX

Why are you worried about any of this?

Obama has all the momentum.

Clinton has cultivated connections with Drudge and used them before:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us/pol itics/22drudge.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx =1203951964-dMAs0opE63i43seNuakmjA
...Mrs. Clinton's communications team, led by Howard Wolfson, is not leaving Mr. Drudge to the Republicans. Five current and former Democratic officials said Mrs. Clinton has on her side the closest thing her party has ever had to Mr. Rhoades in Tracy Sefl, a former Democratic National Committee official, who has established a friendly working relationship with Mr. Drudge -- and through whom Mrs. Clinton's campaign often worked quietly to open a line of communication...
(via http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/)

What a feminist role model.

If Clinton is the nominee, this will be her Willie Horton.

This is ridiculous.  If the girl is making false claim of rape charge then it's the duty as the lawyer to bring out the fact.  The jury made the decision.    How are you going to preserve the justice system, if lawyers don't do their duty and preserve their oath.

Yes, please keep doing exactly what you've been doing...maybe Obama will win Texas by 20 instead of 10!

What i don't understand is what's the fuss.!
There is nothing wrong with that picture.
There is nothing wrong with the muslim costume.
There is nothing wrong with him being born from a muslim father.
why he is so ashamed of his origin?

I will still give my support to Hillary if she was born from a muslim father. She is the one with the best credential in this race.  

Religious, Race, Gender have no place in this race.
We want the candidate that will deliver the promise.

I will even support Romney the mormon if he can beat Hillary's credential and policy.

Where are all those Obama supporters who like to use the word "whiner"????  Guess that doesn't apply to their candidate, only to others.

Question, has Obama visited the troops in Afghanistan or Iraq since he has been in the Senate?

The picture of Obama in Somali garb is meant to remind people that he "is" a muslim.  I don't even see where the Obama campaign has said that wearing the garb is divisive.  To release that picture is very Rove-esque and if she's trying to do that to a fellow democrat, then that is truly a shame.  Her campaign hasn't really made a denial either.

"We have over 700 people on staff. I don't know if someone on our staff sent it out or not," Elleithee said. "If someone on our staff makes the point that we are treated differently by the press than Sen. Obama, we agree with that sentiment. We don't think there's anything wrong with this photo. Sen. Clinton has herself, while traveling abroad, dressed in traditional, local dress. And there's nothing divisive about that."
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0 208/More_on_the_photo.html

So so sad.

To the diarist: "Williams stops photo flap," that's rather optimistic, isn't it? As with any scandal, the denial is usually the beginning, not the end.

So the Clinton campaign fed Drudge this photo. He says so, and they don't say they didn't. If you want to say he's lying, somebody has to have a different version of the story. They don't. They did it. The end.

Go ahead and drag Bhutto into it if you want to. Commenting on foreign politics in not disrespectful to anyone. The Bhutto murder showed the bankruptcy of Clinton's foreign policy approach. It was quite correct to point that out, and in no way comparable to trying to fan the flames of religious bigotry to bolster a collapsing campaign.

Finally, I would point out that what makes a smear is not the objective content but what you are trying to do. If I were to circulate photos suggesting Clinton had lesbian affairs, that is a smear, despite the fact that there is nothing wrong with being a lesbian.

Obama supporters are unreal. You're ready to hang an unproven Drudge allegation on Hillary's campaign with no proof. How about what was said about this on Salon that the photo probably came from the same people who tried to slime Kerry. Look at the result. This time, they're trying to slime Hillary.

Just another slimeboat dirty trick, folks. Get a freaking clue!

Uh yes.  Another well pointed fact and low attempt by the Obama campaign.

NOTE that Drudge constantly links to pro-Obama stories, and to anti-Clinton stories.  He got the memo from Karl et al. that they want to face Obama in the fall, and he's only too happy to oblige...

Did I miss something? Did I miss the massive GOP effort, spearheaded by Karl et al., to get Obama the nomination?

Williams: "If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed."

Too clever by half, Maggie. You know full well how this photo is being used -- to further the sick "Obama is a secret Muslim" smear. To innocently say, "I don't see what's wrong with this photo" is disingenuous and creepy.

Why can't Williams just speak in a straightforward manner?

I'm not necessarily a fan of David Axelrod (though if the choice is Axelrod or Penn--I mean, come on), and that Bhutto comment is mystifying.

But although the "Republicans want to face Obama" theme may be comforting to Senator Clinton's supporters, there really needs to be some supporting evidence for that claim.

For example, the exit poll figure is thrown out fairly often--that when you look at exit polls, Senator Clinton is more popular among rank-and-file Democrats--which is a good argument, except that it (inadvertently, presumably) reinforces Senator Obama's point that he's bringing Independents and Republicans into a coalition.

What is the evidence that the Republicans would prefer to meet Obama in the general election? Is it based on a "sense" that Senator Clinton would fight harder? Or what?

The Obama campaign's behavior on this matter is repugnant and beneath contempt.

There is nothing even slightly wrong with this photo. To say that it is divisive or motivated by religion-baiting is simply beyond the pale. You simply cannot smear the reputations of others so casually or glibly.

If any Obama campaign official or ally asks for my donation or time this fall, I'll tell them to take their politics of hope and unity and go stuff it.

It's Obama's 'dukakis in the tank picture'. It makes him look way beyond silly. Expect to see more and more of these kinds of pictures if he's the nominee. Apparently, his campaign thinks they're pretty damaging by their reaction.

Pat Buchanan has said that the GOP can put Obama away in the general in about two weeks. I think he's telling the truth here. A few more pictures like this and Farakhan endorsing him and he'll be just another mondale/mcgovern to put down in the history books as a landslide loss.

The HRC campaign did NOTHING to stop the photo flap.  Your suggestion that this has been stopped would mean that the story is dead.  Is it?  Not one bit.

What would it take to stop this ugly flap?
Obviously, it would take someone from the HRC campaign to refute the statement that was attributed to them.

Did they refute it?  NO.

I guess that the HRC campaign staff are OK with Drudge attributing the comment to them.  If not, wouldn't they contact Drudge to have him correct the details of the story?  

From ABC News:
"Back in October, The New York Times identified Tracy Sefl as the Clinton campaign's conduit to the DrudgeReport.

Asked by ABC News on Monday if she gave the photo to the DrudgeReport, Sefl, who is vice president at the Glover Park Group, said, "no."

Like Wolfson, she could not speak for all Clinton campaign associates.

Asked if she has contacted the DrudgeReport to seek a correction to its claim that the Clinton campaign is the source of the photo, she said, "No comment."

Candy Crowley said that the picture is extremely damaging to Obama. He's probably lost the general election over that one photo.

The Obama campaign making a big deal out of it was a mistake and the press helping them along thinking that they were hurting Clinton when they actually were damaging Obama beyond repair.

Jeezus. Aside from the fact that Obama does not look good in a dress, I don't see how that picture is going to cause him to lose the election--he needs to make a joke of it, and move on. Actually, I think with the right caption that picture could be really funny.

If people were really that freaked out about Muslims, Obama would not have made it this far with his "Muslim name." The ones who are hiding under their beds because they're scared of Muslims are pretty much all Republicans anyway.

Obama's rapid responses in recent days have made me more confident that he will be right there when the Republicans go after him

And thousands, if not tens of thousands, of volunteers.  Hillary is supposed to personally know what they are all doing 24/7, in order to be able to instantly answer questions that pop up?

Please.  At least pretend that you are thinking of your opponent as a human being due the courtesy of a fair shake.

... show that the Obama folks have either a very low opinion of the intelligence of the Hillary campaign or a very low opinion of the decency of the Democratic electorate.

Consider:

They claim that the Clinton campaign was/is race-baiting. Why would the Clinton campaign do this? Either 1) the tactic is ineffective and the Clinton campaign is stupid for trying it, or 2) the tactic is effective and it's a smart thing to do.

How could it possibly be a smart thing to do, when African Americans make up a very sizable fraction of the Democratic electorate--probably around 20% or so? For it to be a smart thing to do, you'd have to think that there are enough closet racists out there voting in Democratic primaries to compensate for immediately losing 20% of the vote.

So either Obama's campaign thinks that 1) Hillary's campaign is just plain stupid, or 2) a big chunk of Democratic voters are racists. So which is it?

Actually, there's a third choice: the Obama campaign is cynically and despicably painting honorable public servants such as Hillary Clinton as race-baiters, when they know perfectly well that's not the case, just for their own political advantage.

"NOT A SINGLE pro-Hillary blogger I know would EVER post this.  It is unfair to Obama, and meritless. NOW it's Obama who's made it into a phony campaign issue, and publicized the PHOTO!"

So, you agree that Maggie Williams is full of BS when she states "If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him [BELOW THE FOLD] wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed"?

Well, now the flap has gone into a second day.

Why does a top Clinton surrogate say that the picture on Drudge yesterday shows Obama in the clothing of "his native country"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnLSkWulP VE

Isn't she stating - not just implying - that Obama is not really an American?

Or she just showing her rank incompetence?

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/sto ries/2008/02/26/lewis_0227_web1.html

So, it looks like civil rights leader John Lewis is now a dastardly back-stabber, very much unlike the paragon of virtue he was while a Clinton supporter.