Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama march into tonight's Ohio debate with their arms swinging over a 2006 photograph of Obama visiting Kenya. The Obama campaign blamed the Clinton campaign for "shameful" tactics, while the Clinton campaign denied responsibility and said the Obama campaign should be "ashamed" of thinking the photo would be controversial.
Yesterday, the Drudge Report claimed the photograph of Obama, wearing Somali dress while on a visit to Kenya, was allegedly circulated by a Clinton staffer who emailed, "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?" Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said, "I just want to make it very clear that we were not aware of it, the campaign didn't sanction it and don't know anything about it."
However, Obama took the opportunity to say, "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. 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.''
Clinton supporter Representative Stephanie Tubbs was interviewed by Pat Buchanan on MSNBC and said she had "no shame or no problem with people looking at Barack Obama in his native clothing." Wait, wouldn't that be some Hawaiian-American clothing? You may also remember Tubbs from Chris Matthews' interview of Obama supporter Texas State Senator Kirk Watson, who couldn't list any of Obama's achievements.
A new NY Times-CBS poll shows that Obama is seen as more electable than Clinton in a general election against John McCain. Which is probably why Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank found a Team Clinton presentation "a fascinating tour of an alternate reality." For instance, Harold Ickes said, "We're on the way to locking this nomination down."
