DISQUS

Jack and Jill Politics: Hillary Campaign Circulates Photo Of Obama in "Muslim" Garb

  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    Who was the Clinton staffer? There does not appear to be any denial from the Clinton campaign.
  • B-Serious · 1 year ago
    Yeah. You would think that they would deny this if it weren't true. Instead, they try to turn it around on Obama.


    This story is also on TalkingPointsMemo and Politico.com.



    I usually treat the drudgereport with a grain of salt. But, if this is true, and it doesn't SINK her campaign . . . I don't know what will.



    Why release the picture?



    Why do it unless you want people to get something out of it? She has no shame!
  • rikyrah · 1 year ago
    I believe Drudge. He gets on the nerves, but I believe him. HE is more trustworthy than her anyday of the week.
  • Rhonda · 1 year ago
    Yes, I noticed that Hillary isn't trying to deny it.


    The photo of course is a divisive one especially with his name, background, skin color, the fact that many have been trying to smear him as an undercover Muslim and how that would play in the minds of the average American in this day and age!!! It is divisive!!
  • Baldwin Park Democrat · 1 year ago
    It's definitely an attempt to play the race card and to use fear of Muslims to intimidate voters. It is cold, calculating, and just plain wrong. This has to backfire on her.


    I would expect this of Karl Rove but not of a Clinton. These tactics make me doubly sure I do not want Hillary Clinton to represent the Democrats in November!
  • NMP · 1 year ago
    Now this is more like it. Fuck all of that "I don't want to hate Hillary Clinton" shit. She's a hateful bitch that needs to be hated! She and her campaign, including that hankerchief head, Maggie Williams, are some dirty mother fuckers!
  • rikyrah · 1 year ago
    If you don't get to it, I'll post it on the Wiki later on today.


    I'm with NMP...told you it would be easy to hate her...



    And, it's time...it's time to call the Uncle Ruckus' OUT.



    Call a Handkerchief Head a Handkerchief Head.



    PERIOD.
  • Felicia · 1 year ago
    I hate to bring it up again because some people don't think letter writing works, but--if this turns out to be from a Clinton staffer, we (we meaning anybody offended by this fear-mongering tactic) need to start calling and writing the DNC. Clinton won't drop out, but if we threaten to not vote for the Democratic candidate in the fall, even Howard Dean's weak ass will have to do something.


    Just a suggestion...
  • Rhonda · 1 year ago
    You know as I look at what is happening, I am getting more and more increasingly upset. My cousins' father is from Jordan. Which makes them half Jamaican and half Jordanian They have Muslim names. They resemble Barack. They often face being ostracized and discriminated against...and they are Americans and Christians except for two of them. People also seemed to have a heightened fear of black Muslims which they often tell me about. When the Clinton campaign and the media use these tactics, to smear Obama (who is a CHRISTIAN) it turns the sword that has already been penetrated into Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, African Muslims, black muslims and all the people from that whole region (africa and the middle east) who live in this country. My cousins talk about their name and background being a barrier in many places and seeing Barack Obama up there is an inspiration, when things like this are done, it is wrong.


    P.S. Some are also trying to make Obama look like a follower of Louis Farrakhan. This weekend brother Louis made his first appearance sinc ebeing really ill at an event. He spent much of the time praising Obama. So people are trying to draw a correaltion between him and Farrakhan. They try to also use the fact that his Pastor Jeremiah Wright gave Farrakhan an award that was sponsored by the church.



    Boy Oh Boy.
  • D. · 1 year ago
    Don't kick me, bro....but I think it may be more fear-mongering than racial.


    Either way, I'm going to cosign with y'all on this one. It's one thing to attack Obama's policies; that's fair game. But to front something like this as a reason not to vote for him-regardless of how many world leaders in the past have done it-is stupid.



    I hope Obama gets the nomination, cause this kind of BS is way over the top.



    Don't get me wrong, "the politics of fear" have their usefulness. Pull out something like this before Iowa, it affects people more. Now, it just reeks of complete desparation.
  • rikyrah · 1 year ago
    Anonymous,


    Can you leave a link for the WSJ blog entry?



    At the very least, I'll add it to the Wiki.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    Sure, here it is. I'm too through with Hills.


    http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/02/25/clinton-aide-compares-obama-to-jesse-jackson/?mod=googlenews_wsj
  • Rhonda · 1 year ago
    D., I agree that it is fear-mongering but it is also racial. Think about the bigger picture. They are banking on people's fear of Islam and yes, people of color from certain parts of the world. Igniting fear in a group of people about another group of people is prejudice.


    They pulled this tactic when they were publicizing ALL latinos as racist against blacks. The Clinton campaign is banking on people's prejudice in so many ways in order to win and its no ok, by any means.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    On a related note, I think the Clinton aide's comparison of Obama with Jesse Jackson definitely has a racial element. Below is the quote from the Wall Street Journal's blog:


    Long-time Democratic National Committee member Harold Ickes, who served as deputy chief of staff for President Clinton and is a top aide to Sen. Hillary Clinton, made the comparison at a breakfast with reporters today when asked if he thinks stretching the Democratic primary on for three more months will hurt the Democrats in a general election.



    “We have two really strong and very good candidates. This party has been blessed … to have a woman who, I think will be the next president of the United States [and] to have a powerful spokesman in the form of Sen. Obama and he is, that’s one of the reasons I supported Jesse Jackson in 19894 and 1988, I thought we needed a strong, powerful candidate, a black candidate, running for president,” Ickes said.
  • Nita · 1 year ago
    The strange part is how fast that photo was embraced at a place like FR before I saw the progressive left blogs jump on it. I've been wondering for a while now if there were closet Clintonistas posting over at FR, because they seem to have a lot of the Clinton talking points before anyone else. Either Clinton is stealing from FR, or the FRers doing it and stoking negative feelings towards Muslims and blacks are closet Clintonistas -- or, I don't know.


    There's a huge difference between putting a photo out of Obama respecting Kenyan elders, and putting a photo out of other candidates wearing traditional garb. Hillary and Nancy and Bill and Bush were never accused of being closet true communists or muslims or terrorists or whatever. Obama has been. The photo itself is innocent, and I think it's cute personally. But the reasons why the photo are being circulated are not.
  • willyjsimmons · 1 year ago
    Why are you linking to drudge as a credible source?


    You've been added to my 'shitty blog' roll.
  • dnA · 1 year ago
    I guess you better put talking points memo up there too.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    I already contacted the DNC this morning to lodge my complaint. Here's the number: 202-863-8000. After South Carolina, this weekend's performances (rage and then mockery), and finally using this photo as a way to combine fear-mongering and racism, the DNC needs to hear from voters on the ground that they will support a viable third-party candidate should Sen. Clinton get the nomination. (You have to vote, apathy kills. But there's no law saying you HAVE to vote for one of the two large parties.)


    The DNC is chiefly concerned with the health of the party. Let them know that the base is weakening due to this campaign of fear and hate.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    The Drudge was obviously passed the photo to run a ridiculous smear article but decided to shout out her campaign instead. They dont seem to really be denying it or anything, unless i've missed something.
  • The Bag of Health and Politics · 1 year ago
    It's time to call a spade a spade Hillary Clinton is, and always has been a racist. We can blame a staffer, but the fact is this was done in her name with her approval. She has a history of making insensitive remarks to boot. She is a vile, disgusting, and pathetic human being, as most racists are.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    My heart is so heavy right now. We have SO MANY problems in our country that don't revolve around race or gender. Our schools, our economy, health care, elder care, vets...


    No good can come from using a whole race of people or a religion to win.
  • Nita · 1 year ago
    @ willyjsimmons said...Why are you linking to drudge as a credible source? You've been added to my 'shitty blog' roll.


    don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. or maybe this blog was already on your 'shitty roll' and you just needed a reason to apply for a decision you had already made (a la certain gays and the mcclurkin issue).



    the photo is real. the reasons why the photo was distributed are suspect. the reactions to that photo are real. i hope this link shows up, of Rick Moran's point of view about some conservatives' giddyness of this photo this weekend.



    http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2008/02/24/enough-with-all-of-this-obama-is-a-mooslim-crap/
  • Nita · 1 year ago
    @The Bag of Health and Politics said... We can blame a staffer, but the fact is this was done in her name with her approval.


    The Clintons approve right up until the fire catches up with them, and then they disavow. If this had only been one incident, it's forgiveable. But there have been way too many incidents. The incidents form a pattern. It's always someone else's fault, and it's just coincidental that they happen to profit from it. It's always someone else's fault.



    The buck doesn't stop with them, but they'll gladly take your bucks. By the way, I've seen you at Daily Kos. You appear to make a lot of Clintonistas angry. If they confronted you with facts instead of 'delete your thread! delete it now!' it'd be different.. but it's not. Keep on keeping on, man.
  • The Bag of Health and Politics · 1 year ago
    Thanks. It's actually worse than saying "delete this diary."


    The Clintonistas at Dailykos are on a campaign to get me banned there. They're troll rating random comments of mine for no apparent reason--heck 16 of them troll rated a tip jar in a thread about Chelsea's ignorant comment about war opponents which made it to the recommended list over there. They took to troll rating all my comments in my latest diary. It's starting to get really annoying.
  • Rachel · 1 year ago
    Man, just when I thought the Mrs. couldn't get any classier...All these temper tantrums and acting-out sessions are seriously not helping her look like a president. A poorly adjusted teenager, maybe.


    Like JB said, "I don't know karate, but I know kuh-razy".



    On the positive side, how great is it that this is the best her opposition research has been able to come up with? Weak sauce, Hillary.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    Seniorobservior


    Billary has become embolden by the lack of protest for Bill O'Riey's call to lynch Michelle. She is not even bothering to deny that her campaign released the photo of Sen. Obama or fire the staff person who released it. Bill O'riley needs to be suspended even yet. We can still make it happen.
  • Nita · 1 year ago
    @the bag, oh dear, that's bad. Forget what I said about keep on keeping on. If you get autobanned, then they won't let you back.


    You won't even be able to post 'nice' subjects because the Troll Rating Police have marked you for death, apparently. You could write about pooties (which I think is stupid over there and a waste of space, but to each their own) and you're very own Troll Rating Police will mark you as a troll... at the same time as marking up a favored person.



    You have to nip this in the bud now by documenting who is troll rating you, when they are troll rating you, and talk to the admins -- NOW. I'm serious. If the administrators won't help you, you might wanna lay low and just write in other people's blogs, write to your own blog, email people, and just give out recommends until the Election is over.



    Or set up multiple handles.



    I got banned from Daily Kos in December. I can read, but I can never contribute again. What happens is that if you get a certain number of hidden comments, then you're autobanned and the only way to fix the autoban is to talk to the administrators. It's a pain in the ass, and there's no guarantee that you will be reinstated. I didn't attempt to do so. I remember Universal (who is a big Clinton supporter) going ballistic because he was being followed around and having his comments troll rated. So he took notes and always contacted the admins when someone unfairly troll rated him -- EVERY TIME. I applauded him, when I was able to post on there. Censorship is not partisan. Abuse of power is not a partisan issue either.



    The problem is that such tactics -- trollrating comments after the fact regardless of whether the comments are 'legitimate' or not -- are condoned by Markos and is written in the faq as a legitimate way of removing 'trolls'. I know what the intent was; but I also believe that that intent is subverted. Unfortunately for many people 'troll' means 'i don't agree with you'. That's the human condition. So, it's up to you how you're gonna handle this. Again, I'd take it up with the administrators before you get autobanned.
  • Nita · 1 year ago
    @ anonymous, so it's official official: the Clintons circulated that photo? Lord help us.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    Here's Clinton's heated response to the photo claims:


    http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5irIOs_yU1RYYk9fhK4_Bw9RGGGBw
  • fafnir · 1 year ago
    C'mon,you'd take the word of a lying, dirt-peddling, scum sucking louse like Drudge? DRUDGE, for crying out loud! Obama was right: This is the silly season.
  • Alethea "LeLe" Hill · 1 year ago
    I know I won't be able convince some people otherwise but please consider this.


    How in the world would someone in Clinton camp get these pictures?
  • Nita · 1 year ago
    Thank you, Anonymous. Yeah, that's the Maggie Williams 'non-denial':


    "Enough. If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed," Clinton's campaign manager Maggie Williams said in a statement....."Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely," Williams said. "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."



    I hope there's a lot more to that statement, because the very first thing out of Maggie's mouth should have been abotu how the Clintons and their campaign had nothing to do with it, and that the Clintons would stand with the Obamas in condemning the attempt to paint Obama and all muslims as terrorists by association.



    Fafnir, don't shoot the messenger on this one.



    Your girl Hillary screwed up, and true to form she's going to blame it on Maggie and the 'lowly' staffers who sent this out trying to help her. Hillary hasn't taken responsibility for anything this campaign. I guess it takes a 'clairvoyent', to borrow a phrase from Chelsea, to see that this kind of thing is a bad idea.



    The person who sent this out is trying to take advantage of anti-muslim sentiment in America -- the fact that Williams is making a 'nondenial/nonapology' is suspect to me, fafnir. Where there's smoke, or in the Clintons' case, several plumes of smoke, there might be a forest fire. It's simply disingenuous to make the claims Maggie does in Anonymous' link, because then one would have to forget the fervor the Clintons were willing to take advantage of back in February 2006 with the Dubai port security scandal. The Clintons know there's anti-muslim sentiment in the U.S. but instead of truly mending bridges, they pull this stuff.



    Notice how the Clinton camp turns this issue back on the victim. It's never the Clintons' fault; the Clintons' are always the victim, even when they're the perpetrator. The last time I saw anything like that, it was a foreign con artist blocked from buying items with a stolen credit card accusing the company who wasn't going to get burned again of running the scam instead.



    If the Clinton campaign in any way shape or form wasn't behind it, then they needed to issue a deeper statement than Maggie's. The fact that they have not is suspect in two ways, one for if they approved it and one for if they didn't know but they don't mind that it happened.



    If the news is not reporting that deper statement, the news should be condemned.



    If it was yet another Clinton staffer (and the word so far is that it was) doing this, we really shouldn't be protecting the Clintons from the consequences of their actions, Fafnir. At some point, the Clintons are going to have to take responsibility for those things done in their name by the people they pay. Will they? or will it be like the Iraq War Resolution vote?
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    C'mon Rik -


    I am four square for Obama. I will not support Hillary unless there is hell or highwater but Matt Drudge is a bottom-feeding scumbag of the first order. You can't believe anything he writes about anybody to the left of Dick Cheney.



    PTCruiser
  • Felicia · 1 year ago
    ,How in the world would someone in Clinton camp get these pictures?


    Contrary to popular belief, Obama didn't sneak over to Kenya to visit an al qaeda training camp.



    He took his wife, daughters, family members, and a couple hundred reporters to Kenya a couple of years ago. The picture has ALWAYS been around. The Clinton camp just dug it up to reignite the Muslim-phobia and racism our country has.



    I know--I know--why would the Clinton campaign do such a thing? I'll give it to you in four words to keep it simple:

    because they are LOSING!
  • Nichelle · 1 year ago
    Exactly Felicia - the disingenuous questions are pretty hilarious here.


    Is there a persistent, stealth email smear campaign against Hillary Clinton that constantly accuses her of being a "secret Muslim" or of "hating America" because she "refuses to salute the flag" or accuses her parents of being communists?



    I didn't think so.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    Please do what I did when I saw this incredible story of what Hillary Clinton did today. I called everyone I knew who supported Barack but had not already donated to him, and I told them about this story, and asked them to donate to him.


    Right now Barack is less than 20,000 donors away from reaching his goal of ONE MILLION individual donors. Please, call your friends, your cousins, hell, your mailman and your beautician -- everyone you know, and tell them to help Barack reach 1 million donors and help squash this sh#t once and for all.
  • fafnir · 1 year ago
    Nita, I don't have a dog in this fight -- I will not vote for Clinton nor Obama; however, I will defend any Democrat, liberal, progressive or whatever, against anything that slithers out of Drudge's lying right-wing orafices.


    This two-year old photo of Obama is in the public domain, just like the costume photos of Hillary, Bush, and others. Nothing new here.



    Drudge has no honor or allegiance with Democrats. He wouldn't hesitate turning-out any Democrat foolish enough to "leak" information to him "anonymously."



    In a conference call today, Howard Wolfson of the Clinton campaign responded with an unequivocal "No" when asked for a clear denial. (Of course, it's not like Wolfson is going to fess-up to it either, but I give the benefit of doubt to a Democrat over Drudge's word.)
  • dnA · 1 year ago
    I think the series of non-denials prior to Wolfson's appearance speak for themselves.
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    I think the photo just makes Obama look silly. Like Dukakis in the tank and Kerry at NASA, looking like a giant sperm. You Obama supporters need to get thicker skin.
  • Caribbean Lionesse · 1 year ago
    I was simply seething when I heard about this last night - and then the disingenuous non-denial from Maggie Williams, trying to turn it around on Obama.


    Bitch puh-leese! Don't act like you don't know what is offensive about this. It is not the picture itself, it is the intent behind the distribution of the picture. It is the fact that Obama has been the victim of a disgusting, Islamophobic, xenophobic smear campaign and this ties right into what the crazies want to believe. I bet they're gleefully including this pic in the latest round of their smear emails now.



    I am simply...astounded at the dirtiness of the Clinton campaign. Not being an American or even living there, I used to wonder about the vitriol aimed at the Clintons and wondered why people seemed to be so rabidly against them. Really I had dismissed it as right-wing hating.



    But these kind of tactics...against their OWN. It's unbelievably nasty. No wonder...