Snippets of an article from the International Herald Tribune:
A flap erupted when some Internet sites on Monday posted a photo of Obama in Somalian garb, including a white turban. When the Obama campaign charged that Clinton aides had leaked the photo - taken during a 2006 trip to Africa - the Clinton campaign manager, Maggie Williams, tried to turn the matter back at the Obama team, even though her camp has not denied any role in distributing the photo.
"If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed," Williams said in a statement. "Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely."
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The attacks on Obama's patriotism took flight again recently, when his wife said that this campaign had made her proud of the country for the first time. Senator McCain's wife, Cindy, made a point of saying that she had always been proud of the country. Obama later said that his wife was talking about the nation's politics.
Obama suggested the outline of his counterattack to the patriotism questions in a general election. He said he would be glad to compare his patriotism with that of a Republican Party whose president failed to get troops enough body armor in Iraq, that did not give proper benefits to wounded veterans and that has engaged in "illegal wiretapping."
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Editor: To some extent, Americans of color will always be considered foreigners, especially if they don't act White, or if they criticize their country's policies. Asian Americans tend to get this a bit more, I think, but it's interesting to see an African-American presidential candidate get it.
And so, I encourage Americans of European descent to vigorously criticize their country's policies where they go wrong, and to learn more about non-European cultures.
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