Desperate Clinton Staffers Circulating Obama in Muslim Garb Photo

This is what happens when blind ambition gets the better of you.

A relatively innocuous photo of Barack Obama dressed in an outfit while he was visiting Kenya was circulating around the blogosphere this weekend, and some imply some sinister motive.

Now a desperate Hillary Clinton campaign is sending it around.

This will really hit the fan today and she'll deny having anything to do with it, but this will likely be the final nail in her coffin.

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.

I'm no fan of Obama. Far from it. But if he was really still a closet Muslim, why would he have allowed the photo to even be taken if he were trying to hide something?

Rick Moran goes off on this topic.

Now Obama already has some problematic connections to Kenya including his appearances for presidential candidate Raila Odinga, a distant cousin and someone whose recent actions in fomenting violence in Kenya following a crooked presidential election are extremely troublesome. (There have also been rumors of a deal between Odinga and the small Islamist party in Kenya that he would, if elected, establish Sharia law – a dubious proposition and almost certainly a lie that has been picked up by some conservatives in this country and passed off as the truth.)

But the idea that Obama in traditional Kenyan garb proves he’s some kind of closet Muslim or Islamic sympathizer is absurd. Kenya is 70% Christian and only 10% Muslim. To extrapolate that Obama’s dress denotes anything other than acknowledging his birthright not to mention playing the gracious guest by donning the clothing of his hosts is irrational, stupid, ignorant, and totally without foundation.

Gateway Pundit notes where this photo first came from.

More reaction via Memeorandum here and here.

Don Surber also thinks this will backfire. He's right.

Update: Allahpundit weighs in with Stupid: Hillary circulating photo of Obama in Somali dress.

Andrew Sullivan has The Latest Clinton Gambit.

Ankle Biting Pundits has If You Thought The “Plagarism” Charge Reeked of Desparation.

Heh. Maybe the Vast Clinton Attack Machine should have thought twice attaching itself to this line of attack.


Oops!

Obama slams photo.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe accused the Clinton campaign Monday of "shameful offensive fear-mongering" by circulating a photo as an attempted smear.

Plouffe was reacting to a banner headline on the Drudge Report saying that aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) had e-mailed a photo calling attention to the African roots of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

"The photo, taken in 2006, shows the Democrat front-runner dressed as a Somali Elder, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya," the Drudge Report said.

The Clinton campaign did not deny the charge, but did not comment further.

Update II: Michelle Malkin has Politicians going native: A photo compilation
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