The Power of Drudge (Revisited)

The clowns at Campaign Clinton are playing with fire.

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The Power of Drudge (Revisited)

The power of Matt Drudge was affirmed yet again this morning as a photo of Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) dressed in African tribal garb was featured on his Web site, setting off a furious back and forth between the Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigns.

"Clinton Staffers Circulate 'Dressed' Obama" screamed the Drudge headline that accompanied a story that cited an e-mail from a Clinton staffer that read: "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?"

Given the reach of Drudge -- and his unique ability to drive news coverage, particularly on television -- it wasn't surprising that Obama's campaign quickly released a statement condemning the tactics behind the photo.

"On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. "This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it's exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world."

The Clinton campaign -- rebutting the notion that she may be preparing to leave the campaign quietly -- pushed back hard. "Enough," said Clinton manager Maggie Williams in a statement released by the campaign, adding:

"If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely. This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry. We will not be distracted."

It's worth noting, however, that nowhere in her statement does Williams deny that the photo -- as Drudge has suggested but does not prove -- was being circulated by members of the Clinton campaign. Rather, Williams insisted that the photo is not meant to be offensive or divisive. That said, the Clinton campaign argues that Williams's statement should not be read in any way, shape or form as a tacit admission that they are behind leaking the photo to Drudge.

The Clinton campaign has spent weeks decrying the allegedly adulatory press coverage that Obama receives and trying to cast it as a double standard. This photo and e-mail could be seen as an extension of that argument, as the original alleged Clinton staffer's e-mail notes that if Clinton had appeared in similar garb it would have received wall-to-wall negative coverage in the news media.

Whether it was meant to be a political tactic or not by whoever sent it, the photo is certainly being played in that context. Any political junkie worth his or her name knows that as soon as the photo appeared on Drudge it would almost certainly become the daily talker on every cable news station in the country -- ensuring that hundreds of thousands of people would see the Obama image just eight days before the critical Ohio and Texas primaries.

Is it an attractive side of politics? Absolutely not. Could it work? In the decade The Fix has spent watching politics up close, it's hard to remember a time when an attack that walked the fine line between acceptable and not didn't work in some fashion.

The next 24 hours will be crucial in determining the story's staying power. It could well dissipate into the ether as tomorrow's debate in Cleveland between Obama and Clinton takes over the coverage. Or it could blow up as a major issue in that debate. Time will tell, but what we do know is that -- yet again -- Matt Drudge has affirmed his place as a major factor in presidential politics.

Posted by Chris Cillizza | Permalink | Comments (57)