Obama's success makes him a target

WASHINGTON: As Senator Barack Obama has risen in the polls and extended his string of primary victories, he has taken rhetorical mortar shots from all sides in the political war.

The incoming attacks on Obama continued apace Monday. Senator Hillary Clinton portrayed the Illinois senator as a novice who would need a "foreign policy manual," and her aides declined to deny having made public a photo of Obama in African dress, including a white turban.

Clinton's comments about Obama's foreign policy experience came on the same day that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona, found himself wobbling on one of his key foreign policy positions: He made, then retracted a statement that unless he can persuade Americans that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding, he will lose the election.

Earlier, the posting on some Internet sites of a photo of Obama in Somali garb, including a white turban, caused an instant flap.

The Obama campaign asserted that Clinton aides had leaked the photo - taken during a 2006 trip to Africa - apparently to underscore his foreign links, from his name to his Kenyan ancestry.

The Clinton campaign manager, Maggie Williams, tried to turn the matter back at the Obama team.

"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."

Shortly afterward, in her speech at George Washington University, Clinton restated her belief that Obama is dangerously lacking in foreign policy experience, saying: "He wavers from seeming to believe that mediation and meetings without preconditions can solve some of the world's most intractable problems to advocating rash, unilateral military action without the cooperation of our allies in the most sensitive part of the world."

Clinton was referring to Obama's declared openness to meet with leaders even of countries deeply at odds with the United States; and to consider unilateral attacks on terrorist targets in Pakistan if actionable intelligence becomes available.

"With me this is not theoretical," Clinton told supporters.

Clinton said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and changes in Cuba and Kosovo underscored "how essential it is we have sound strategy and sound leadership."

McCain, for his part, knocked himself temporarily off-message on Monday when he told reporters in Ohio that to win the White House he must persuade war-weary Americans that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding, and that if he cannot, "then I lose."

He quickly withdrew that remark.

"Let me not put it that stark," McCain said. "Let me just put it this way: Americans will judge my candidacy first and foremost on how they believe I can lead the county both from our economy and for national security. Obviously, Iraq will play a role."

"If I may, I'd like to retract 'I'll lose,' " he said.

McCain's Democratic opponents have urged a quick troop withdrawal, while he has been a steadfast supporter of the year-old troop-increase plan.

On Sunday, Clinton - who only days earlier had spoken of the "absolute honor" of sharing a stage with Obama - sarcastically described his message as naive and suggestive of "magic wands" and "celestial choirs."

In recent weeks, conservative blogs and television commentators have accused Obama of unpatriotic derelictions, from failing to wear a U.S. flag lapel, as many American politicians do, to having failed to place his hand over his heart last autumn during a playing of the national anthem.

Obama has fired back a few shots of his own. "Senator Clinton has gotten mad because I said she supported" the North American Free Trade Agreement, he told an overflow crowd of 10,000 supporters on Sunday in Toledo, Ohio. "I said: 'Well, hold on a second. The Clinton administration passed Nafta, signed Nafta.' "

"You can't just take credit for the good things," he added.

As to the patriotism questions, Obama told reporters in Lorain, Ohio: "Look, there is always some nonsense going on in a general election. First, it was my name that was a problem. Then there was the Muslim thing, and that hasn't worked out so well. Now it's the patriotism thing."

Rumors still circulate on Internet sites that Obama is secretly a Muslim. He is in fact a Christian.

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.

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