Will Obama’s Internet Photo Hurt Him?

I’m not sure what file to classify this story under. Is it a hoax? A political miscalculation? Much ado about nothing? Or will it become known as one of the swiftboating maneuvers of the 2008 presidential campaign? It centers on this photo, which has probably already been shown about a million times on Fox News today. The picture has also been spreading across the Internet the way fires spread across California. It was taken in September at a campaign event in Iowa, and if it’s been emailed to you, it probably came with a caption saying that Barack Obama wouldn’t put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. Obama says the photo was taken instead during the playing of the National Anthem. He says the rapid distribution of the image over the Internet is a “classic dirty trick.” In any case, conservative bloggers have had a field day. Here is a case where the reality of the photo is not in question, but the reality of the caption. For more, go here.
–David Schonauer