Racism and the Race Card [Updated]

[There are UPDATES at the end of the story.] From the Times UK:

… Democrats are increasingly dividing along ethnic lines.

Mr Obama’s grip on the black vote has strengthened so much over successive contests [HUH, WHY WOULD THAT BE?] that he won 92 per cent support from African-Americans in Mississippi on Tuesday — a primary in which Mrs Clinton was backed by almost three quarters of whites. [...]

… Mrs Clinton’s camp claims that, for all Mr Obama’s post-racial appeal, he has deliberately stoked controversy before primaries in states such as South Carolina with large black populations. For instance, having previously accepted Mrs Clinton’s assurance that she had nothing to do with the distribution of a picture showing him wearing a turban and tribal outfit, Mr Obama used a speech in Mississippi this week to accuse the Clinton campaign of leaking the photograph “to make people afraid”. [MORE ON THAT COOKED-UP PHOTO BROUHAHA BELOW, from one of our intrepid readers]

Sean Wilentz, a history professor at Princeton University, is among the Clinton supporters who believe that her campaign has been slow to recognise how Mr Obama was galvanising support among black voters and white liberals. He accuses the Obama team of having “purposefully polluted the contest with a new strain of what historically has been the most toxic poison in American politics”.

Asked why so many whites were voting for Mrs Clinton in states such as Mississippi, he stressed that those who had stayed Democrats in the South are unlikely racists, but added: “If there is a racial element, the question is how did it happen and in whose interests was it for Hillary to lose her black following?”

One of our readers, who I’ll call Z, did some actual digging on the source of the photo — unlike the MSM (including Charlie Rose, who said, as if it were fact, that the Clinton campaign released the photo):

Z wrote to me: Obama is race baiting again, accusing Hillary of ‘leaking’ that Somali picture on Monday night.

Have you done any digging about the origin of that picture?

My research result is:

That picture is from AP wire service phone, exif info as follows:
 # Date Created = 2006/08/27
# Time Created = 10:41:01+00:00
# By-line = Anonymous
# By-line Title = STR
# City = WAJIR
# Country/Primary Location Name = KEN
# Original Transmission Reference = WXSC101
# Headline = Barack Obama, Mahmed Hassan,
# Credit = ASSOCIATED PRESS
# Source = AP
# Caption/Abstract =** FILE ** Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, is dressed as a Somali Elder by Sheikh Mahmed Hassan, left, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya, near the borders with Somalia and Ethiopia. The garb was presented to Obama by elders in Wajir. Obama’s estranged late father was Kenyan and Obama visited the country in 2006, attracting thousands of well-wishers.(AP Photo)
# Writer/Editor = SA RAJ**LON** SMC**DC**

Then it appeared in the National Enquirer on the 2/8/2008 issue. (Please see attached picture.) [CLICK TO SEE FULL-SIZE IMAGE.]

SusanUnPC here: That NATIONAL ENQUIRER was sold in early February at supermarkets and drug stores ALL over the United States — WEEKS before Drudge put up the photograph. Which means that MILLIONS of Americans — in supermarket lines and through purchasing the rag — saw that photo weeks before Drudge’s obviously false accusation that Clinton’s camp released the photo.

Back to Z’s letter to me:

On 2/23, 2/24, it appeared on the online discussion site
www.freerepublic.com

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975546/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975275/posts

On 2/25, Drudge had this on his website
“stressed Clinton staffers circulated a photo over the weekend of a
‘dressed’ Barack Obama”

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashoa.htm

And all hell broke loose, the photo furor buried TV exposure of Hillary’s foreign policy speech that day at George Washington University, with endorsements by various generals.

During the debate, Obama and Hillary had this exchange.

SEN. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo. So I think that’s something that we can set aside.

But on Monday night, Obama had this to say:

“When in the midst of a campaign you decide to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent because you’re behind and your campaign starts leaking photographs of me when I’m traveling overseas wearing the native clothes of those folks to make people afraid, and then you run an ad talking about who’s going to answer the phone at three in the morning, an ad straight out of the Republican playbook, that’s not real change.”

I just feel we really have to call him on this, and expose him as what he really is – a liar, and a race baiter.

NOW I ASK YOU: WHO HAD THE MOST TO BENEFIT FROM PLAYING THE RACE CARD?

UPDATE at 1:00 p.m., March 14: Is that why he flip-flopped on the origin of the photo? From ABC News’s Jake Tapper on March 11, 2008 in “Obama Flips on Whether Clinton Leaked that Photo.”

Tapper quotes from Obama’s statement during the Cleveland debate, February 26, 2008:

Obama: "I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo. So I think that’s something that we can set aside."

Then Tapper quotes from Obama’s statement in Jackson, Mississippi on March 10, 2008:

Obama: "When in the midst of a campaign you decide to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent because you’re behind, and you start, your campaign starts leaking photos of me when I’m traveling overseas wearing native clothes of those folks, to make people afraid, then you run an ad talking about who’s going to answer the phone at three in the morning, an ad straight out of the Republican playbook, that’s not real change. That’s not real change. That’s the same old thing."

On February 28, Jake Tapper also pointed out:

The Obama campaign publicized his August 2006 trip to Africa and even permitted a documentary film crew to come along for 2007’s "Senator Obama Goes to Africa."

Obama encouraged the media to go on the trip, write about it, and take photos of him in Africa. That’s why the Associated Press photo exists! Because Obama okayed the photo being taken! Oy.

Whenever it’s convenient, Mr. Obama, it is YOU who pull the race card. Because you wanted to maximize the black vote in Mississippi, and get blacks angry enough to turn out in larger numbers for you.