Risking good press on a hot button issue in order to release a poorly shopped photo with an implied slight?

It doesn’t even come close to passing the smell test.

Again, if you had a campaign staff of about 700 people spread out all over the US, how could you say in all seriousness that it’s impossible that one of those people sent it. So you don’t say something like that because you just never know. Very dangerous

But it would not have been a campaign-staff “leak” because of the timing and because it wasn’t needed. It was going around like wildfire by Republicans. When you have others doing the dirty work, you can
stay out of it.

What is obvious was that nothing was sent by a Clinton staffer TO Drudge, per his own report. I did mention in my blog entry that this thing circulated for 2 days by that time and you know how that is also.

I have no doubt people of all stripes were circulating that photo among themselves once they got it, as I’ve explained. I have friends on the Obama and Clinton sides and even on the McCain sides. But we all exchange info we find and it’s practically what the Net is these days.
I don’t think, “Wait, should I send it to so and so, s/he’s on this or that side.” We just exchange emails with others who are info-addicted.

As for Drudge’s general motives? Making trouble that is fun just from careful wording about obtaining a copy of an email that he won’t reveal despite how serious a charge it was for Obama supporters, which Obama took full advantage of even on March 10 since a primary was happening the next day. Drudge was the one who broke the Lewinsky stuff. And a headline like this one about the photo ensured tremendous traffic that day.

It’s a matter of probabilities. You ask why he’d tie it to Clinton? I’m in many email groups, and if it hadn’t made Drudge within 2 days, for all I know, I would have received it from the many people who send out gossipy stuff as was done today with the McCain book extract with McCain’s endearing words to his wife etc. It’s already campaign fodder but it’s from a book, and I sent the Raw Story excerpt to friends. If I were on a campaign staff, someone could see the email and say a staffer was ‘circulating’ this… But it’s meaningless when just ‘circulated’ among friends. No “To:” was given or noted.

You know? Some have speculated someone from Obama’s staff sent it to Drudge. I don’t believe that either. I think people need more before the certain finger pointing and damning that was done and which Obama himself encouraged.

Don’t write to ‘convince’ you but just to cite the other (much more plausible, to my own mind) explanations. Thanks for the response.