The Madness of Hillary

My new mantra, from Michael Clayton: "I'm not here to argue with you, I'm here to tell you how it is." And it's ugly. Drudge, who apparently got this one right (a broken clock's accurate twice a day...):

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.

Normally, we'd consider this more of the same baseless muck from Drudge, but when the Clinton campaign was questioned about it, they offered a non-denial non-denial (not even the non-denial denial), and went on the attack:

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.

Ashamed is a good word, because the Hillary campaign knows exactly how this stuff gets used. Yesterday, the racist wing of the GOP ran with the story, lacing it with the poison of their bigotry (also here and here).

Of course, Obama was dressing in traditional garb, as many leaders do, as a way of honoring the culture he was visiting. This is known as good diplomacy, so it's not surprising that the bomb-'em-first-and-let-God-sort-them-out set is opposed.