Senator Barack Obama’s campaign issued a fiery statement today about the photo allegedly circulated by the Clinton camp of Barack Obama dressed in as a traditional Somali Elder on a 2006 trip to Africa. Campaign manager called the act “the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election.” Plouffe continued, “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.”

Later on a conference call, Obama surrogate General Scott Gration explained that he too was along for the trip. “We try on Christmas gifts, sometimes that we may not want to keep, but we try them on as being a grateful recipient. Sen. Obama did what any leader should do: accepted the gift, accepted the hospitality, accept that token of friendship and he did it in a way that showed respect and helped build the bridges that he does so well. He’s a unifier in all atmospheres and certainly that day he was somebody who accepted a gift of friendship in a way that we would expect our president to do.”

Foreign Policy advisor Susan Rice noted the irony that the Clinton camp would push the photo on the day when Senator Clinton is set to talk about the importance of restoring America’s reputation in the world. The photo, Rice said, is “I think it’s a very unfortunate message to send, not one that in my experience the President or Mrs. Clinton themselves have embraced. I’ve traveled with each of them to Africa and I’ve seen them, as President Clinton did, dress himself in kinte cloth in Ghana or in traditional costume in Senegal. And there they showed the kind of outreach and respect that General Gration was just describing and which ought to be the hallmark of our engagement with the rest of the world.”