Fear of turbans
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is apparently circulating photos of Barack Obama in Somali nomadic dress while visiting a Somali-inhabited part of Kenya. It’s the turban which they’re calling attention to, of course — because we all know turban means Muslim means terrorist. Hillary herself wore a hijab on a trip to Saudi Arabia, and Dubya and Bill Clinton donned native dress too.
This is beyond childish, but there are a couple of politically interesting trends here. First, Clinton is transforming into the second coming of Karl Rove, running on fear of terrorism (’I can protect you in a dangerous world, Obama can’t') and fear of Muslims.
Second, Clinton’s campaign is stacked with desi women at every level, from policy director Neera Tanden, a Punjabi who knows turbans from Muslims, to personal assistant Huma Abedin, who’s of Muslim descent, to local fundraisers who are friends of mine. Any one of them should have called bullshit on this non-substantive strategy of smear. This campaign is turning into an embarrassment. It harms Sikh Americans, it harms Muslim Americans, and it’s anti-feminist, trivializing a candidate who claims to be running on substance, not fashion.
So WTF, South Asian sisters? You need to disavow this, like Obama decried his staffers’ ‘senator from Punjab‘ smear.
on Monday, February 25th, 2008, 1:57 pm in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Religion, Sikhs › 
Email this
› 
Facebook this
› 
Reddit this
› Link
› Reader links
hillary’s just jealous (barack looks better in a skirt)
this is cheap politics by both parties. hillary takes huge amounts of money from turban wearers and now throws out the fear factor about them? hellloooo miss opportunity! and obama also has a base of sikh supporters who are vocally calling on turbanites to vote for him, with the earnest belief that he represents “change” and would herald a more multiculti sensitive america. so why didn’t he say that a turban is not the symbol of evil, in his usual rhetorician fashion, instead of jumping on the bandwagon that the turban is osama’s crown?? both candidates are attuned and sensitive to the post 9/11 issues of the turban and are avidly consulted for their support when it comes to turban-issues.
if battling out the caricature of evil is the next phase of the campaign… honestly, i wish it was november already. absurdistan, zindabad.
Until this morning, I was on the fence between the both candidates. And, having worked in political PR, I still am waiting to see an ace of spades from both sides prior to March 4. Now, my vote to goes to the turbinator, as despite her policies, Hillary is pushing a “fear-mongering” agenda, which digusts me to no end. I truly am surprised at the lack of the Islamo-facist response to date, but will await Drudge to uncover one.
Signed,
A pakki, puri Jatti
Did anyone get the memo that the 9/11 hijackers were not wearing turbans?!
As a matter of fact, they were riding first class and dressed Brooks Brothers style.
Not that I would be surprised if her campaign did it, but so far, there seems to be absolutely no evidence (except Drudge!) that the Clinton campaign did it. So this first sentence is a bit of a stretch, despite the plausible deniability that the “apparently” affords. Why not say that Drudge is alleging that Hillary’s campaign is doing this, which would both be more accurate, and allow people to add the appropriate amounts of salt to their estimates of the story’s current credibility?
there seems to be absolutely no evidence (except Drudge!) that the Clinton campaign did it
The campaign denies it’s coming from the top, but doesn’t deny the emails have come from someplace in the campaign:
Remember also that people in the campaign were forwarding the Obama Muslim smear email two months back.
The larger and sadder issue for me is that this is even an issue.
Can we get some education up in this piece?
Le sigh.
cant even believe this news so silly..now u know they are really competing..throwing dirt at each other..no wonder they call politics dirty politics..
Who you wearing, Obama?
Where’s Joan Rivers when you need her?
TPM (as opposed to Drudge) reports that A key Obama supporter says that Hillary camp had nothing to do with the turban pic
RC, ‘I take them at their word’ means ‘I don’t want to argue about it,’ not ‘it isn’t true’ :)
some obama gossip..obama was asked if a movie was made on him whom would he like to play his character..he answered will smith..and the lady asked him whom did he want to play his wife michelle..he said none.she is the most beautiful woman on earth for me and no one can play her..isnt that sweet..and then he adds thats why Iam married to her last 14 years..
manish, I take you at your word. Just like you apparently took Drudge at theirs.
Well, they have denied it completely. Really, might we even dare to imagine that Obama’s campaign might have cynically faked noble outrage while piling on and exploiting the ‘
HillaryThe Clintons will stoop to anything’ image? Or is Obama far too changeful to do something like that?And we should also remember that they were fired, just like the people in Obama’s campaign who alleged that Hillary was D-Punjab, and that any business relationship with Indians was traitorous.
No, they denied ‘officially’ distributing the email– just as they denied it when the Obama=Muslim email was being forwarded by their staffers.
That, or publicly disavowing the message of the email– which they did not do, and continue to defend– would be fine.
The non-denials continue:
Clinton surrogate calls Somali clothing ‘the clothes of [Obama’s] nation.’
Just trying out my facebook application.Thank You!
You guys are blessed!
Obama is half-African. Shame on the Clinton campaign for stooping so low.
Um, that’s supporter, not surrogate (or, if supporter’s TV remarks are gold standards, Obama clearly has no accomplishments). She also said that the Clinton campaign absolutely does not condone sending out these photos, and that nobody in the campaign has done it.
So far, the only word we have is Drudge’s, and Obama’s campaign taking strategic offense in the absence of any evidence, despite repeated and unconditional denials from Clinton’s campaign.
Transcript and link, please. I’ve only seen ‘the top didn’t, but I don’t know if someone in the campaign did, and why would anyone take offense at these photos?’
Very different from: someone at the local level did, we fired ‘em, and we disavow the message.
Their ‘I don’t have time to bring in 700 people’ is disingenuous. They never send email to their entire team? C’mon.