Posted by Damozel | *Hey, someone’s bound to call it that: I am just getting the jump on the bandwagon. I am ‘genuinely’ ‘baffled’ by the ‘outrage’ of the media, pro-Obama bloggers, and Obama’s people over the dressed-Obama photo and the curren…

I like the way OBAMA reacted.

In a radio interview with WAOI in San Antonio, Sen. Barack Obama commented about the photo on the website Drudge Report showing him dressed in traditional Somali attire.

“Everybody knows that whether it’s me or Senator Clinton, or Bill Clinton, that when you travel to other countries they ask you to try on traditional garb that you have been given as a gift,” he told WAOI, “The notion that the Clinton campaign would be trying to circulate this as a negative on the same day that Senator Clinton was giving a speech about how we repair our relationships around the world is sad. We are going to try to stay focused on what will make a difference in our foreign policy, including bringing the war in Iraq to an honorable end.”

He noted that he believes Americans are saddened when they see “these kind of politics.”

“The notion that they would try to use this to imply in some way that I’m foreign, I think is, you know, unfortunate,” Obama later told Dallas/Ft. Worth radio station WBAP.

“These are the kinds of political tricks and silliness you start seeing at the end of campaigns,” Obama said in an interview with the ABC Radio affiliate.

Sorry. They did send it and won’t admit it.
I’m posting the link between the Clinton camp and Drudge again.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/23/usa.hillaryclinton1

Hillary Clinton woos man who nearly ruined her husband
· Campaign staff use Drudge Report against poll

Yesterday, it emerged that the caring went two ways. The New York Times reported that the Clinton campaign had grown adept at using the Drudge Report to leak news that could steal the thunder from rivals, or to solidify her position as the frontrunner for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination for next year.

Earlier this month, Ms Clinton’s staff leaked campaign fundraising data to the website just as her rival for the nomination, Barack Obama, was to deliver a policy speech on Iraq - and a crucial 20 minutes before the official release of the information. The story on Ms Clinton’s fundraising prowess dominated the news cycle.

The New York Times reported that the Clinton campaign had opened a direct line of communication to Drudge through a former Democratic national committee official, Tracy Sefl. Ms Sefl refused to comment yesterday, but the revelation was widely seen as a sign of Drudge’s importance in the US media, despite his reclusive nature and a history of getting some stories spectacularly wrong.

The Drudge Report’s influence goes beyond its average readership - the site claims 422 million log-ons in the past month - with television and radio producers scouring the site for potential scoops.

The non-denial denials coming from the campaign.
Hillary saying she isn’t even aware of this.
Shall I continue?
This is just another in the sting of strategic errors.
They look foolish now.

Obama is the one who turned this picture into a smear. Not even drudge tried to insinuate that anyone meant anything vicious with it. A picture without a vicious context is supposted to be a smear? Obama didn’t seem to have a problem when it ran on the cover of National Enquirer, and that is right, he should not have a problem. He should have responded basically exactly as Ms. Williams did and used it as an opportunity to tout his diplomatic trip and how much respect he has for other cultures. Instead, he made it seem that there was something wrong the picture. Goodness, if he is that bothered by its existance (and he has NO reason to be) he shouldn’t have let the AP take it! I mean, honestly, if he believes the image of him dressed in Somalian traditional clothing is such a problem, what is he going to do as president? Is he going to refuse to partake in such ceremonies because he is afraid? That is just silly. He is who he is and by reacting the way he did he is telling Americans they should feel uncomfortable, when in fact, there is nothing for them to feel uncomfortable with. If this non-smear bothers him, I wonder why his campaign isn’t hooting and hollering about Jon Stewart’s use o his middle name yesterday. He really needs a thicker skin if he is going to make it through the general.

There are hundreds of pictures of Hillary wearing a hajib. She has never shied away from them, they were broadcast as front page news when Bhenazir Bhutto died. There are certainly people who make an ignorant argument about the fact that she as a woman cannot be commander-in-chief and negotiate with middle east countries and pictures of her with a hajib reinforce this concept. Certainly, Barack Obama has made plenty of sexist statements to also reinforce this image.

He overreacted, and it is going to bite him in the general election if he makes it. He needs to grow a thicker skin.

Do you have an actual factual for this statement?

Dukakis playing mushroom in his tanker’s helmet is poison.

Obama in bath towels is just plain dweeby.

Now how do you give a guy a melvin in that getup?