Barack Obama's political dojo?

[Updated 12:36pm, February 26] Another day, another bushel of election controversy...

If you haven't heard, the big outrage today is this photo of Barack Obama wearing a traditional Somali tribal outfit.

As with other contrived election-year controversies, this is a non-issue blown out of proportion by folks looking for a juicy scandal. Apparently Senator Obama (and other government officials) visited Africa as part of a Senate trip a few years back. At one stop along the trip, he was presented with a traditional African tribal outfit as a gift. Being a gracious guest, he tried it on for size, photos were taken...

...and now they've been "leaked" to the public. Woo.

I would like to believe this is an obvious non-issue, as forgettable as any other time that a political dignitary gets shanghaied into funny costumes by the locals he's visiting.

On the other hand, it's also obvious that whoever leaked this photo was hoping to somehow sway voters away from Barack Obama -- as if some thick-necked yokel somewhere would see this photo and yelp, "Whut the tarnation--?! Hey, Mabel, that Barack kid's a terrorist in disguise! I ain't votin' for him, dad gum!" (stereotypical hick speech courtesy of stereotypical hick).

While this is a transparently pathetic attempt to smear the Obama campaign, what bothers me is that it's only an opening salvo in the year-long parade of innuendo. We already know that the usual public morons are trying to find out just how hard they can throw crap at Obama without risking blowback on themselves -- and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that less-prominent morons will simply fling poo without the slightest regard for decency or accuracy.

Brace yourselves, kids -- it's gonna get worse.

The second part of Obama-Photo-Gate is that the smear attack was purportedly from the Hillary Clinton campaign -- or, at least, that's what the Drudge Report claims. But given that Matt Drudge is little more than a right-wing toolbox, this claim should be taken with liberal (heh) doses of skepticism. After all, you don't need to be an evil Republican mastermind (yes, it's redundant) to realize that it'd be oh so convenient to try and stir up the yokels against Barack Obama and then blame Hillary Clinton for it -- one easy bank-shot, two damaged Democratic frontrunners.

It's too obvious... or is it?

And speaking as a quasi-detatched observer of the Democratic Presidential Primary, I have to say that -- from my seat up here in the nosebleed section -- that the Clinton campaign looks like it's starting to crash and burn.

My suspicion is that the Clinton campaign had originally expected to have the Democratic nomination secured two weeks ago; it'd certainly explain the financing problems she's been having lately, as if she hadn't anticipated the need to campaign past Super Tuesday. Add to this Obama's growing lead in the polls, the delegates, and the fundraising, and you can't blame her for feeling the heat.

Unfortunately, I think Hillary's attempts to stop Obamamania are only going to hurt her instead. While she once graciously shared the spotlight with him, she now resorts to no-holds-barred attacks on everything from his speeches to his experience to his policies. But instead of slowing the Obama campaign's momentum, her attacks seems to boomerang on herself instead -- aided in equal parts by the harshness of her tone and his refusal to reciprocate with equal ferocity.

And while Hillary likes to tout her experience as a political fighter -- experience hard-earned from years of attacks from the right-wing meatgrinder -- I think she's failing to notice that those tactics won't work on Barack Obama. Her formidable skills have been honed for use against the Karl Rove/Dick Cheney/Tom DeLay "destroy your opponent" school of political infighting, where survival comes from hitting your opponent faster and harder than they can. But against Barack Obama -- with his optimistic message of hope and his refusal to demonize her in return (publically, at least) -- these tactics are simply ineffective. If anything, Obama's ability to effortlessly deflect her attacks could be a case study in political jujitsu.

I'm not sure who Hillary Clinton is getting her campaigning advice from, but I predict that if she keeps trying to charge head-on against Barack Obama, she's going to end up with paint in her hair while Obama gives her a playful smirk in reply...

[Updated 12:36pm, February 26] The Clinton campaign is now telling news reporters to stop blindly following Matt Drudge and actually find proof that they leaked the Obama photo.