Kenya Photo Worth Several Sharp Words From Clinton, Obama Camps
The Drudge Report ran this photo of Barack Obama in Somali garb from a 2006 trip to Africa. The Web site claims Hillary Clinton's campaign provided the photo to it.
A two-year-old picture of Barack Obama dressed in traditional Somali garb has sparked a new war of words between the Democratic presidential front-runner and rival Hillary Clinton, whose aides say they can’t confirm or deny whether her camp is the source of the photo.
The photograph shows the Illinois senator outfitted as a Somali elder during his 2006 visit to northeastern Kenya, part of a five-country tour of Africa. It appeared at the top of Monday’s Drudge Report, and was said to have been provided by Clinton staffers over the weekend.
Now both campaigns are suggesting that the other should feel some sort of shame over the flap. According to Obama aides, the Clinton campaign is sinking to “shameful fear-mongering.” Clinton’s campaign chief retorted that she can’t figure out why Obama would be “ashamed” of having the photo out in the public.
While the source of the photo is unverified, Drudge claims it was sent to the site by a Clinton aide, who argued that had it been a costumed Clinton, it would have made the front pages.
“Wouldn’t we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC,” shorthand for the candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, wrote the unnamed Clinton campaign staffer, according to the Drudge Report.
Expressing outrage, Obama’s campaign suggested the purpose of the photo release was to invoke reminders of persistent rumors that Obama is secretly Muslim, and by extension, anti-American.
“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,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said.
“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,” Plouffe continued.
A longtime member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama, who as a child lived for four years in Indonesia, has repeatedly denied that he is Muslim. Previous attacks have been decried by both candidates, and one Clinton campaign volunteer was asked to step down after forwarding an e-mail spreading the Muslim rumor.
But seeing an opportunity to refute the Obama camp’s outrage, Clinton campaign Manager Maggie Williams turned the perceived prejudice on its head.”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,” Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams said in a statement.
“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,” she said.
Indeed, the New York senator, her husband, Bill Clinton, and other past presidents have all been photographed in traditional costume while visiting nations abroad.
President Bush and Russian President Vladimir
Putin wore traditional Vietnamese “ao dai” robes
during the 2006 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. (AP Photo)
Speaking on a conference call, Obama advisers rejected the suggestion that the candidate is shamed by the photo, but likened the incident to receipt of an unwanted Christmas present.
General Scott Gration, who was along on the trip to Africa, said Obama was given the outfit and encouraged to try it on during a visit with Somalis, Gabras and other ethnic groups.
“We all have pictures of us in hats and accepting other gifts. As was pointed out to me earlier, we try on Christmas gifts, sometimes that we may not want to keep, but we try them on as being a grateful recipient. Senator Obama did what any leader should do: accepted the gift, accepted the hospitality, accepted that token of friendship and he did it in a way that showed respect and helped build the bridges that he does so well,” Gration said.
“He’s a unifier in all atmospheres and certainly that day he was somebody who accepted a gift of friendship in a way that we would expect our president to do,” he continued.
Meanwhile, a senior Clinton staff member could not rule out the source of the photo, but suggested that had it been Clinton dressed in such gear, it would’ve been splashed across newspapers around the country.”There are 700 people in our organization. We can’t be sure that it didn’t come from us. It is not the intent of the campaign to release this picture to tarnish Senator Obama in any way. But if someone in the campaign thinks the Obama gets treated differently by the media, well they’re right,” the senior staffer said.
GOPAC head and FOX News contributor Michael Steele said he’d be surprised to find out the photo came from the Clinton campaign.”If there is a staffer who sort of in their own roguish way had gone out and put this out there, this will be their last day on the job,” Steele said.
“I think this is something that just kind of popped up on the ‘Net and they are attributing it to her. I’d be hard-pressed to find someone on the staff who is wasting their time in the heat of this battle to do something like that.”
[...] PA; no one believes that this is a coincidence. The interesting part is that Obama is pissed. His campaign manager ranted: “On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in [...]
Maybe Hillary will make it to the white house after all. Barack may hire her to clean the bathrooms and keep his and Michelle’s bedroom clean.
Your frontpage caption is misleading again. It’s not “muslim dress”, it’s a traditional African dress. And in case you writers at fox didn’t know, African is not synonimous with muslim.
America, land of the free. Land of oppurtunity… for white christian men. A candidate’s religion should have nothing to do with the office he holds, hence seperation of church and state. The muslim non-issue is getting very old, everyone should know by now that Obama has been going to a Christian church in Chicago for quite some time. And so what if he is black, Arab or what have you. The point is he is an American. You know, America, the melting pot? Where people from all different cultures and backgrounds can live in the pursuit of happiness? Or atleast that was the original idea. It is very disappointing reading a lot of these comments. I really did not believe people were so racist and gripped by fear. I have a hard time believing that people actually harbor these beliefs that since Obama spent time in Indonesia and has Arab lineage he has to be a Muslim. People are so quick to judge by appearances and when they see Obama all they see is a black man threatening to take the most important title in our country. You guys really make white people look bad. Do we really want a president that doesn’t care if we stay in Iraq for “another 100 years”? Do we really want the Clintons back in the white house? Do we want to ignore a candidate who has given hope and inspiration to the American people for the first time in 8 years, simply because he is black or supposedly a muslim? I am very disappointed that here, in America, which from kindergarten I have been told is the greatest country in the universe, such racism and hatred still exists today. As an open-minded free-thinking white female who does not live everyday of my life in fear like President Bush would like me to, I will be voting for Obama.
IT IS WHAT IT IS !!!!! AND HE IS !!!!!! HE WONT WEAR AN AMERICAN FLAG, WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU ? WAKE UP AMERICA BEFORE ITS TOO LATE !!!!!!
Democrats> ugh!!!vote Rep.
It seems HRC was doing a little investigating the muslim angle about BO last year.
Mystery Man Obama’s Muslim Past
AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | February 1, 2007
The Huffington Post should be embarrassed, not Insight.
Insight magazine, under fire by the Huffington Post website and other “progressives” for running a story about Hillary Clinton operatives looking into Barack Obama’s alleged attendance at a radical Islamic school, has been cited as a credible source on more than a half dozen occasions by the Huffington Post itself. In fact, one of the Insight stories cited by the Huffington Post as legitimate concerned plans by the Hillary Clinton for President campaign to deal with the threat posed by an Obama candidacy. This article cited “sources close to Ms. Clinton.”
All of this is relevant to whether or not Insight was accurate in subsequently claiming that researchers connected to Senator Clinton were looking into whether Obama, as a boy in Muslim Indonesia, attended an extremist-oriented religious school commonly known as a madrassa. Insight has reiterated that it was reporting on the Clinton campaign’s interest in the story and that it did not say that details about Obama’s alleged radical Muslim past had been confirmed.
Insight, which was deemed highly credible in the past by the Huffington Post, a popular left-wing site, suddenly became unbelievable after its alarming story about Obama attracted national media attention. But this is why the story must be thoroughly investigated and either verified or put to rest.
The Huffington Post can’t have it both ways-if Insight was credible on other major political issues of national importance, why is it not credible when the controversy involves Senator Clinton’s operatives doing opposition research on Obama? For the record, Insight, which is affiliated with the Washington Times, stands by the story. Insight editor Jeffrey Kuhner told AIM, “We stand behind the story 150 percent. We know it’s true. We know it’s accurate.”
WOW for the first time in American history Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackon don’t have anything to say.Or is it because Obama doesn’t want there support.Damage control lol
Why is Obama always referred to as the first black candidate for President. Isn’t he half white? Isn’t his white side also running for President? Maybe not!
I sure believe it’s Hillary’s doing nothing is to low for her and Billy boy!