Hillary Camp Circulates Picture of Obama in Somali Dress

Mary Katharine Ham | February 25, 2008 11:30 AM

Yowza, next, they'll be forwarding those "Obama-is-a-Muslim" e-mails as campaign lit.

With a week to go until the Texas and Ohio primaries, stressed Clinton staffers circulated a photo over the weekend of a "dressed" Barack Obama.

The photo, taken in 2006, shows the Democrat frontrunner fitted as a Somali Elder, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya.

The senator was on a five-country tour of Africa.

"Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?" questioned one campaign staffer, in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

When the going gets tough, the tough get really lame, it would seem. This is just the pre-Iowa mini-meltdown writ large.

Hillary's people are spinning so fast, I'm several seconds from a post-Gravitron-style meltdown of my own the likes of which has not been seen since the North Carolina State Fair circa 1988.

“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.”

Huh? Is that meant to suggest that Obama's folks are actually circulating the photo in order to make Hillary's folks look desperate and nasty? Or, is this just another iteration of Bob Kerrey's ill-advised talking point: "Hey, you know, I think it could really be a boon in the Muslim world that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that he spent some time in a madrassa."

"Hey, if you're ashamed of this photo of you in traditional Somali dress, shame on you! Why shouldn't we circulate it?"

Maybe this portends a more interesting night at the

Plouffe said in a statement: “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. 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," said Plouffe.