(h/t: warner)

There is a pattern emerging in right-wing circles: Combining any slander against Barack Obama, no matter how ridiculous, with a picture of him dressed in African clothing.  Because who else would wear African clothing but Marxists, Communists, anti-Semites, undercover Muslims, terrorist sympathizers, blame America firsters, or people who don’t support the troops?

This week, it was the picture of Obama in Somalian clothing that was forwarded to Drudge by an unconfirmed rival Democratic campaign (my guess is Kucinich).  The Tennessee Republican Party quickly added the photo to a press release that associated Obama with Louis Farrakhan, Islam, and “confessed domestic terrorist” Bill Ayers.  Last month, it was the ironically-titled blog Bar of Integrity that posted this AP photo of Obama and his older brother Malik along with various accusations of freedom hating, etc.:

Seeing as how half of Obama’s family lives in Kenya, and he’s visited there several times, there are bound to be hundreds of pictures like this of him dressed in African clothing.  But most Americans are used to our presidents dressing in traditional foreign clothing on diplomatic trips, and will see this as a sign of Barack Obama’s internationalism.

As Blake Dvorak of Real Clear Politics points out, there are a number of rational reasons for conservatives to choose John McCain over Barack Obama, a number of legitimate issues to push– experience, leadership style, political philosophy, etc.  But if they choose to ignore all those and go after Obama’s rhetorical talent or his African heritage, or tell ghost stories about him being the Antichrist or a Muslim Manchurian candidate, they will lose.  America can be convinced not to vote for Obama, but they won’t be scared into it.