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Tennessee GOP Edits Somali Garb Photo Out Of Anti-Obama Press Release
The Tennessee Republican Party has edited an incendiary press release that accused Barack Obama of anti-Semitism and links to Louis Farrakhan, after the release was denounced by the national party, and after John McCain reportedly apologized to Obama.
The new version still contains the key accusations, only removing some particularly controversial elements, and now carries the following notice at the bottom:
*Clarification: This release originally referenced a photo of Sen. Obama and incorrectly termed it to be "Muslim" garb. It is, in fact, Somali tribal garb, hence, we have deleted the photo. Also, in order to diffuse attempts by Democrats and the Left to divert attention from the main point of this release — that Sen. Obama has surrounded himself with advisers and recieved endorsements from people who are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel — we have deleted the use of Barack Obama’s middle name.
A screen capture of the original version is available here.
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Well, pushback may be working just a teeny bit - taking off the incendiary picture and adding a clarification does moderate things a little bit. This doesn't mean they won't try it again, but this is a start.
February 28, 2008 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shorter TN GOP: Obama isn't a Muslim, he just hates Jews!
February 28, 2008 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shouldn't there be a "sic" after "diffuse" (c.f. "defuse") as well?
February 28, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Aw, how sweet of them. Maybe they were listening to Rove.
February 28, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's actually pretty interesting that the Tennessee GOP finds it useful to run an openly racist opposition to Obama. I suspect a lot of people will find it so offnesive that it has national repurcussions.
February 28, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rest easy Jews of America, the Tennessee Republican Party has your back!
February 28, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm surprised these chuckleheads even have the internet.
Are they so stupid that there won't be massive pushback on stuff like that? Obama has a million supporters who are itching to call these people on their bullshit and shine a light on them.
We are going to see a lot of this for a while.
February 28, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
This incident crystallizes a salient difference between the parties:
for the Democrats, the left-wing kooks like Kucinich and the Berkeley
City Councail are considered fringe elements.
For the Republicans, these guys are in the mainstream, and running the
Tennessee Republican Party.
February 28, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who exactly is putting this attack out? The name, the person. The "Tennessee GOP" did not make the decision to od this. It did not hold a referendum. Some person authorized this. Who is it?
February 28, 2008 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink