Liberal Bloggers: Clinton Campaign Darkened Obama's Skin in New TV Ad

[GaryC 7]

Liberal Bloggers: Clinton Campaign Darkened Obama's Skin in New TV Ad

March 04, 2008 5:15 PM

Some liberal blogs are questioning whether in Hillary Clinton's new TV ad attacking Barack Obama for not holding any subcommittee hearings on Afghanistan, he has been given the same treatment TIME magazine once infamously gave OJ Simpson -- his skin being made artificially darker.

The question was first raised by a diarist on DailyKos who asked readers to look at the original debate clip of Obama saying he hasn't held hearings because he's been too busy running for president and compare it to Obama's hue in the new Clinton ad, which you can watch HERE.

Americablog's John Aravosis screen-grabs three images of Obama from the debate and compares it to the Clinton ad. (Which to be fair, is dark and foreboding throughout the ad.)

Aravosis writes: "It just keeps happening again and again and again. The Clintons keeps doing things, saying things, that sound awfully racist. And we're to believe that this, the - what? 8th, 10th time? - this has happened is again just a coincidence."

I do wonder what the reaction would be were the McCain campaign to darken Obama's skin in a TV ad. Front-page of the New York Times, perhaps? (Recall the democRATS ad?)

Asked for comment, Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson said, "this is a bogus assertion. Ads look different based on software, screens, computers, television, etc."

The Obama campaign did not have any comment -- on or off the record.

Anyway -- check it out for yourself. What do you think?

- jpt

Edited March 6, 2008 by GaryC

[Ban Hammer 13,348]

hmmm....

[one...two...tree 2,762]

An age old tactic. I'm not surprised.

[no name 1]

Check the background of both photos, clearly not the same.

Source, Gary for that Obama website?

[GaryC 7]

Check the background of both photos, clearly not the same.

Source, Gary for that Obama website?

Sorry, ABC news.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...al-blogger.html

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Check this out...

Who posted the blackface event at Hillary's website?

The Hillary Clinton campaign had to quickly scrub their Action Center of either a bad joke or a dirty trick this afternoon. The Rocky Mountain News noticed a strange invitation to a NAFTA rally next Monday, which suggested that Bill Clinton might appear at the Downtown Ritz-Carlton in blackface. No, really:

Inquiries from the

Rocky Mountain News

prompted

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's

campaign to remove a purported supporter's

"Bill in blackface?"

event announcement from Clinton's official campaign Web site.

The notice appeared in an

"action center"

section of

www.hillaryclinton.com

where average supporters are allowed to publicize local events that are not necessarily sanctioned by the campaign.

In this case, the notice promised

"Laughter at NAFTA Rally!"

on Monday in downtown Cleveland.

The description:

"We've hired some high-end comedic talent to ease the way into Primary Day! Want to see HRC in cat-scratch mode? Bill in blackface? How about Mark Penn doling out pizza crusts and doughnut holes to the volunteers? We've got it all!"

And what's more, the RMN managed to cache the invitation before Team Hillary had a chance to, er, whitewash its site.

Now, the campaign itself doesn't actually post these notices on the site. It relies on its community to promote events, such as this fundraiser. Bill Clinton had no intention of showing up in blackface. The event's sponsor, "Dinah Feind", doesn't show up in any donor searches at Open Secrets. In short, someone wanted to make the Hillary Clinton campaign look … well, racist.

Who would want to do that? Republicans don't have much motivation, because she appears on her way out already. The Mark Pen-pizza crust reference sounds like a disgruntled former supporter or campaign worker. It makes for a better mystery than the Democratic primary race at the moment …

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/02/28/who-...llarys-website/

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

You know what you can do with screen grabs? Photoshop.

[Peikko 1,575]

An age old tactic. I'm not surprised.

Honestly, I am surprised you 'buy' into this kind of thing. I wouldn't be at all surpised to discover that these kind of rumours eminate from a right wing source hell bent on stirring the dem pot to their own peculiar advantage, just like it's Gary here who posted this particular gem

However, if you want to believe in this kind of stuff, no one is going to be stopping you.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

An age old tactic. I'm not surprised.

Honestly, I am surprised you 'buy' into this kind of thing. I wouldn't be at all surpised to discover that these kind of rumours eminate from a right wing source hell bent on stirring the dem pot to their own peculiar advantage, just like it's Gary here who posted this particular gem

However, if you want to believe in this kind of stuff, no one is going to be stopping you.

Amen sister

[no name 1]

Check the background of both photos, clearly not the same.

Source, Gary for that Obama website?

Sorry, ABC news.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...al-blogger.html

oh, how you've twisted it. it's a BLOG on ABC, not the news itself.

[Jenn! 918]

I can't even tell which one is supposed to be "darker". It just looks like when I fool with the picture controls on my TV.

[GaryC 7]

Check the background of both photos, clearly not the same.

Source, Gary for that Obama website?

Sorry, ABC news.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...al-blogger.html

oh, how you've twisted it. it's a BLOG on ABC, not the news itself.

This isn't the only place its on. But you don't care do you?

[Peikko 1,575]

Not really, it's a storm in a teacup.

Meanwhile, back here on planet earth...

[GaryC 7]

http://www.hillaryproject.com/index.php?/e...darkened_obama/

http://cliffschecter.bravenewfilms.org/blo...ama-s-skin-tone

http://politics.propeller.com/story/2008/0...ken-obamas-skin

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/04/o...in_n_89829.html

http://www.americablog.com/2008/03/why-is-...han-normal.html

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5006003,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0...from=public_rss

http://www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/D/5/2/w..._new_attack_ad/

http://www.congoo.com/news/2008March4/Clin...r-Obama-Blacker

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980380/posts

Take your pick. If you don't like any of these I have several hundred more for you.

[Alex+R 0]

Check the background of both photos, clearly not the same.

Source, Gary for that Obama website?

Sorry, ABC news.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...al-blogger.html

oh, how you've twisted it. it's a BLOG on ABC, not the news itself.

That's ABC's blog.

That said, I doubt they've intentionally darkened his skin. Although it would certainly work for some voters, since 8/10 voters polled yesterday who said race was important to them voted for Hillary. (Woulda thought it would go the other way, but you never know.)