The The Clinton campaign sent out a statement yesterday about the now well-circulated photo of rival Barack Obama dressed in a Somali robe. The Clinton campaign says they didn't release the photo to Drudge, and I really have no way of knowing who did put the photo out there. But the response from the Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams yesterday was remarkably tone deaf:
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.
It's one thing to refute claims that your campaign sent out the photo – that's understandable. But it's another thing altogether to dispute the idea that the photo is "divisive." Whomever released that photo at this point in the campaign clearly intended for it to be just that. And to imply that a photo of Clinton in the same manner of garb would be no different is either totally naïve or willfully misleading. The Clinton campaign can't seriously think that there's no difference between a photo of a white woman in African clothing and a photo of an African American candidate who has already been the subject of a number of smear tactics, and whom many Americans have already been lead to believe is a secret Muslim/foreigner/terrorist lover. The Clinton campaign might be wise to recognize that the photo – not the reaction from their rival – is divisive. But this statement just makes them look even worse.
--Kate Sheppard
