Could this be what's going on? Article: GOP fears charges of racism, sexism

[scheming daemons]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8659.html


The GOP needs to make sure the racist attacks on Obama appear to be coming from Clinton, and that the sexist attacks on Clinton appear to be coming from Obama.

They need us tearing at each other in order to make their hands look clean.


Then, in the general election, they can innocently claim, "*WE* aren't the ones who first said this, it was Hillary/Obama!"


Think about it. They did the same thing in 1988 with the Willie Horton ad. Lee Atwater (Karl Rove's evil "teacher") claimed that it wasn't the Bush campaign that came up with this attack, but Al Gore in the primaries.

[Tatiana]

1. I agree, in part.

But why doesn't Clinton simply state "we had nothing to do with the circulation of that photo?"

They haven't. So even if the Republicans came up with the idea, Clinton, a DEMOCRAT, used it.

[maddiejoan]

2. Because

it could very well have come from some idiot staffer somewhere amongst the 'staffers' (define staffer)

If she flat out denies something that she has no way in knowing is true, than that would really bite her.

Why not give her a chance to find out before issuing an irresponsible statement? (as Ploufe has already done --based on zero facts)

[scheming daemons]

3. Kick..... because I think the GOP is behind this, not Hillary (and I'm a rabid Obama supporter)

I'm kicking this to prove that at least ONE rabid Obama supporter (me!) thinks that this dissemination of the photo was done by the GOP in attempt at a "two-for-one".


Get a photo of Obama "out there" for the general public to see, and finger the Clinton's for doing it.


This photo story is a negative one for both Obama *AND* Clinton.


Read the article in the OP. The GOP wants to be able to do this kind of smear WITHOUT it appearing that THEY are behind it.

They haven't gotten their 527s set up yet (they will).... and right now, if they can get their "friends" in the media (drudge, Fox) to make it look like it was Hillary's campaign - they get:

A. the picture gets widely circulated on ALL the cable networks for the first time (it wasn't before today, even though the picture is old). This hurts Obama

B. the cable networks, when reporting the story, indicate that the Clinton campaign has not denied being behind it. This hurts Clinton

C. later on, in the general election, the GOP gets a free pass if they use this (and similar) photos, because all they have to do is say "We didn't generate this... it was started by a FELLOW DEMOCRAT in the primary campaign. If the Democrats complain about US, they should look in the mirror first!"


In that way... the two-fer can become a three-fer for them.



If you think about this logically, this has the GOP written all over it. McCain has the most to gain here.... Hillary and Obama both lose here.