Political Silly Season Continues

Sometime in the last day or so, someone circulated a picture of Barack Obama in traditional Somali dress. The Obama camp immediately wagged a finger at the Clinton campaign for underhanded tactics and the Clinton camp launched an attack at the Obama campaign for trying to manufacture a crisis. The Clinton camp stated:

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.

Under normal circumstances, I'd agree with the Clinton campaign. The photo itself is rather innocuous and couldn't possibly be divisive, right? Wrong. In and of itself, the photograph is nothing unique. As the Clinton spokesperson pointed out, many politicians don traditional ethnic and cultural apparel as a sign of respect for the people they encounter. The current photograph of Obama, however, is circulating on the heels of the infamous Obama is a Radical Muslim! emails. Despite repeated refutations, people still continue to position Barack Obama as a Muslim. And while this shouldn't be a problem in a country that celebrates freedom of religion, the word "Muslim" still conjures the specter of terrorism. Taken in this light, the Clinton campaign's dismissal of the photo as not being a matter of significance is completely and utterly disingenuous. There are those who, when seeing Obama in this style of dress, will believe the Obama is a Muslim! myth. Given Clinton's attack oratory of the last few days--so much for the gracious Clinton seen at the debate--I'd be willing to bet my next donation to the Obama campaign that the photo did, indeed, originate from within the Clinton campaign.

For the record, Barack Obama is a Christian.

By the way, the latest SUSA poll--the most accurate pollster of this election cycle--has Obama with the lead in Texas, 49-45%. No wonder the Clinton campaign is resorting to fear mongering propaganda.