Has Axelrod or Plouffe sent anything this gross out? I ask earnestly. But I have the impression--again, only an impression--that the Clinton campaign team regularly sends out deplorable memos while the Obama team doesn't. This shouldn't decide the election, but it should weigh somewhat heavily. Having leaders who regularly abuse language for their partisan ends devalues language and, hence, meaning.

Why are HRC and BO being so easily manipulated by the wingers?  For crying out loud people, they both should be blasting Sludge and his minions for being typical winger liars.   Turn your guns on the right wing sleazoids for crying out loud!

Why is it that Dems show spine beating each other but turn to jelly when the wingers are involved?  This is a classic case of it happening yet again.  ARGH!!

Oy.

Ben Smith seems to be missing the point, which is that this picture is meant to make Obama look Muslim, not African.

But still - this seems like a pretty silly controversy.

On the one hand, the email sent out by the HRC campaign with the photo as an attachment isn't pushing the Muslim meme, it's arguing that the media is biased in its coverage: "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?"

On the other hand, doesn't it still say a lot about her campaign that they view the ABSENCE of this interpretation of the photo as ipso facto evidence of a double-standard?

primwallflow, I agree. The only thing more effective than innuendo is implied innuendo. Watch the emotions and loaded phrases literally fly out HRC's press office. Keyword city of the damned.

"On the one hand, the email sent out by the HRC campaign with the photo as an attachment . . . "

primwallflow, please tell me where you got this information, because the report I saw at Drudge

just said that the question, "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?" came from an "email obtained by the Drudge Report" by a campaign staffer.  It didn't say that the question accompanied the photo. It didn't say whether or not anytthing accompanied the photo, in fact, nor did it say to whom the photo was supposedly "circulated."  If the photo was "circulated" with the comment attached, why would would he have to "obtain" an email with the comment?  Or was the "circulated" photo, with the comment attached, actually "obtained" and not circulated at all?  I have no idea.  

tnmats:

"Why are HRC and BO being so easily manipulated by the wingers?"

My impression is that Obama's not being manipulated at all, he's actively participating because it benefits him.  Clinton is trying to blast Sludge and his minions but she's afraid of doing it too directly (she'd be burnt at the stake if she started talking about media bias too directly) and she's also trying to attack Obama with it - which is fair, in my opinion, but ill advised. I don't think there's anything Hillary can do about this kind of thing, which is why I hope Obama wins.