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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.”

Click here to read the Drudge Report posting.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 7:58 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Top Story, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.