Why didn't Obama just call Hillary Clinton, it is not as if they don't know each other and don't speak, and just ask her if she had knowledge of the photo? If he was actually embarrassed by the photo, why did he make such a big deal of it to the point of actually calling more attention to it?

Actually, I quite liked the photo. I thought he looked rather cute.

Why is it only Barack Obama who gets to define himself? He writes two books, he runs for political office, and he willingly posed for such photos, but then he acts as if -- having cast himself in such a public sphere -- he should get to say how people see him. He is entitled to his input of course, but so are other people. He belongs to the public now.

Clinton, on the other hand, when she tries to assert some control over her public image, is scourged for trying to do so. Seems a little odd to me.

For men to put their fear of assertive women ahead of extracting the neoconservatives from the White House is about as deplorable as it gets. Anyone who thinks Barack Obama, with his utter lack of experience and an arrogant America-bashing wife are going to just waltz into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. next year is drinking sand. Karl Rove knew you would react this way, which is why he went to Illinois in 2004 and elevated this small-time, corrupt legislator to the status of the next American Idol. Obama's speechwriter is the brother of a Fox News VP, for goodness sake. How can men not get that they are being played by the Bush-Cheney camp in order to sink the one candidate they can't beat in the fall? It defies reason.

Not that it matters a whole lot, but he was wearing clothing commonly worn in the Wajir area of Kenya that he was visting, which I was presumptuous enough to assume made the garments Kenyan. I was not aware of the local demographics of Northeastern Kenya, so I stand corrected there. His outfit was indeed customarily worn by the ethnic Somalis living in that area.

The larger point, however, is that you don't go out and play dumb and pretend like this photo has no special significance, especially when you're telling your own staff to throw "the kitchen sink" at him. The Clinton folks, as they are quite fond of reminding us, are supposed to be smarter than this.

When something like this comes out in the context of an insidious whispering campaign (which your people have been caught red-handed participating in as far back as Iowa), you should come out and denounce it in the strongest terms, even if it does help out your adversary. Some principles are more important than strategic advantage. You certainly shouldn't be parroting the right-wing radio line, what's the big deal? Maggie Williams statement sounds like Rush Limbaugh's justification of Bill Cunningham's use of Obama's middle name.

Absent the context, you're right; the photo wouldn't have been a big deal. But life doesn't happen in a vacuum, and people who aspire to be leaders ought to know better than this. Hell, I expect most teenagers to know better than this.

I'm happy Clinton finally came around to condemning the photo during the debate and promised to punish anyone in her campaign if they did indeed circulate it. That was the responsible thing to do. I only wished she'd done it sooner, rather than sending out Maggie Williams to issue that disgraceful statement. Better late than never, I guess.

5 Obama accomplishments (courtesy of Bob Geiger on the Huffington Report):

1) The Lugar-Obama legislation, which helped decrease the threat of old nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in the former Soviet Union.

2)Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 which Obama co-authored and that led to USAspending.gov, which keeps Americans better informed on government spending.

3)The Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, which passed in July of 2007 and addressed the hideous treatment received by Veterans under the Bush administration, began its legislative life as the Dignity for Wounded Warriors Act, introduced by Obama earlier in the year.

4)He sponsored a bill in the IL Senate that would nearly ban all gifts from lobbyists, and that banned the personal use of campaign money (in a state with a KNOWN history of political corruption, I'd call that a major accomplishment). It passed, BTW.

5)He sponsored an IL Senate bill that would provide job skills training to IL recipients of federal aid below the poverty level. It passed, BTW.

This is not to mention the, oh, 821 other IL Senate bills that he sponsored during his tenure in the state senate....some of which passed, some of which didn't. Sure, he has only a few accomplishments in the U.S. Senate (the 3 biggest ones that passed are listed above)...but then again, he's only been a U.S. Senator for 3 years, 2 of which were under a Republican majority.

So, don't go throwing around this who-has-the-most-experience bullshit just to prove that the Clintons are better due to their numerous years in office...besides, I'd rather have a candidate with good JUDGEMENT than with good experience...and Hillary's judgement on many things (particularly on the war) has been severely lacking...

Try to get your facts straight. It was not Kenyan garb but Somali garb. Obama was obviously quite willing to pose for the photo. Furthermore, Drudge presented no evidence that it came from the Clinton campaign. If you are going to start trusting statements by Drudge, you are going to have a long and miserable campaign season when the General Election rolls around. Are you going to believe every nasty thing Drudge says about Obama then?

Hah. Love the ending. But if I knew you'd lost your job in August, I woulda bought your sausage (& mashed) too.

Hillary Clinton, to my knowledge, has never advertised herself as a feminist and has not run a feminist campaign. Surely you are not foolish enough to base you distaste for Clinton on what feminists at Salon say.

Noooo. Your problem -- which is easily documented by looking at your past posts -- is that you cannot bear for women to have any power at all and equate all power in women as being "feminism."

You must be scared to death.