Monday Drudge: The Obama Photo, or HRC's New Low
According to Matt Drudge, the Clinton campaign is circulating a 2006 photo of Obama dressed as a Muslim. According to Mike Allen's Politico post with David Plouffe's reaction, the "Clinton campaign did not deny the charge, but did not comment further." I was sufficiently outraged to be motivated to call the Clinton campaign for the first time to urge her to quit. The staffer who answered the phone at her Arlington headquarters denied knowing anything about it, saying that she was seeing it for the first time this morning on the Drudge Report, and that they were looking into it. I asked her whether Drudge's quoted email comment and the Politico's non-denial were untrue, and she said something so vague that I really can't remember it. In any event, it amounted to a denial.
Update: According to Ben Smith at Politico, Maggie Williams of the Clinton campaign has this to say:
That doesn't look like a denial, either.
Hillary, just quit. Now.
Update II: I called the Arlington office back about Maggie Williams' denial, and the staffer who answered the phone first tried to read me her statement. I said yes, I've seen the statement; I don't see a denial in there anywhere. The staffer then denied that it came from the Clinton campaign.
Why didn't Maggie Williams just say that, then? This is ridiculous. I should have asked for the name of the staffer.
Update III: Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic has a latest, anonymous statement from the Clinton campaign, saying they can't be sure it didn't come from them. Which is it, guys?
Update: According to Ben Smith at Politico, Maggie Williams of the Clinton campaign has this to say:
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.
That doesn't look like a denial, either.
Hillary, just quit. Now.
Update II: I called the Arlington office back about Maggie Williams' denial, and the staffer who answered the phone first tried to read me her statement. I said yes, I've seen the statement; I don't see a denial in there anywhere. The staffer then denied that it came from the Clinton campaign.
Why didn't Maggie Williams just say that, then? This is ridiculous. I should have asked for the name of the staffer.
Update III: Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic has a latest, anonymous statement from the Clinton campaign, saying they can't be sure it didn't come from them. Which is it, guys?
posted by Blake at 10:40 AM
2 Comments:
Of course they did this. I was talking to some people last weekend and they had mentioned how much they hated Obama because he was a Muslim that was with the same group that attacked us on 9-11, yada, yada, yada. Wonder where they got this false notion!
Thanks for visiting my barely breathing blog, Jeanette! :-) I treasure every comment.
The thing is, they could have gotten this notion from any number of places: Clinton, right-wing nasties, those emails circulating through the American Jewish community seeking to paint Obama as anti-Israel. I wouldn't be surprised if Clinton's campaign was in some way involved in leaking the photo, but absent convincing evidence I hate alleging anything like that.
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