Advertising can be extremely complex. What's interesting to me is it's Hillary's left hand, instead of her right, over hear heart. The image took me back to baseball games I've attended where I held my right hand over my heart during the national anthem, or in grade school during the pledge of allegiance. I wonder if there's another layer of significance in the 'left hand' choice (maybe, the wedding ring), or if that photo was the best available image for the ad?

All in all, a very perceptive observation Mr. Turk.

Fish

I imagine the picture was not taken during the pledge or the national anthem. It has the look of a "gee whiz" expression rather than a formal recognition of the country. I just thought it ended up being a subtle way to bring up the "hand over your heart" attacks on Obama without actually making them.

here's an example of where the picture was used before.. on the Iowa supporter cards (although you can't see the hand over the heart - it is the same image)

It's also the default photo used for most of the "help make history!" or "keep the momentum going" front page screens, and is on a lot of the lit. I don't have a scanner handy but would happily provide more.

http://www.veracifier.com/post/4739/hillary-supporters-urged-to-caucus-1...

According to: http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/10/17/hoax-quote-collections-quote-... it's a Reuters image from a 2007 campaign rally in Iowa (which sounds about right).

It's her left hand, it's not placed over her heart, and it's a commonplace and perfectly obvious gesture for anyone who does public speaking. When you receive applause, and are moved to acknowledge that praise and to do so with humility, you place your left hand high on your chest. End of story.

Knowing I'd get this push back, I went so far in the post as to actually acknowledge it. I said specifically it may have been unintentional.

However, given the Obama campaign's charge that the Clinton camp is distributing pictures of him in traditional Somali clothing as evidence that he's a Muslim who can't be trusted, I wonder if that's true.

Their staff has been caught circulating the "Obama's a Muslim" e-mail and lost their jobs. They've been accused of circulating misleading photos of him in Somalia, and now they have this "innocent" picture of her with her hand over her heart in their ads.

The photo may be completely innocent. The event may have been completely innocent. Use of the image in this ad at a time you're actively pushing a "he's not like us" campaign simply makes me supicious.

At the debate in Ohio on February 26, Sen. Obama said he believed Hillary knew nothing about a photo of him that was published on the Drudge Report and said the issue should be "set aside":

SEN. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo. So I think that's something that we can set aside.

Subsequently, Sen. Obama lost Ohio and Texas. Now, he's telling the voters of Mississippi that Hillary was responsible for the photo appearing on a right wing website and that she did so to scare them. From his event Monday night:

When in the midst of a campaign you decide to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent because you’re behind and your campaign starts leaking photographs of me when I’m traveling overseas wearing the native clothes of those folks to make people afraid, and then you run an ad talking about who’s going to answer the phone at three in the morning, an ad straight out of the Republican playbook, that’s not real change.”

This all comes down to loyalty to country. Follow this if you can.

If a Republican Presidential candidate had the middle name of Adolph, would you not ask him why he did not change his name? Would not question his loyalty to the country?

Liberals and Democrats say it is wrong to bring up Obama Hussein Obama's middle name. Some even say it is racist, but if his wife is saying people are using that middle name as a fear bomb, your stuck back to asking the initial question. Why didn't Obama change his name? Why did he keep the Arabic name of a foreign dictator, and not just any dictator, but one he opposed taking down?

It nags and people try to deny it but then you end up talking about Hillary in an ad with her hand over her heart......... Sorry, Obama's loyalty to country is being challenged and the argument is gaining momentum.

As for Obama's Muslim background, it has been confirmed by other sources:

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5354

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5286

Come on. Seriously? The guy attended some Muslim school as a child and you're making a larger point that he should change his middle name and is somehow un-American?

Let me draw a little parallel. Until I was about 10, my mother considered herself a Methodist. If the "religion" listed on childhood documents is an indication, I'm a Methodst. We occasionally attended church services, but I have never considered myself a Methodist. I can certainly say I have never practiced the religion as a matter of choice.

I know a lot of people that graduated from Georgetown, but don't know a single one that considers themselves to be a Jesuit. Attending Creighton, Fordham, Boston College, Gonzaga or Marquette doesn't make you a Jesuit, despite the fact that they are Jesuit schools.

Hussein in Arabic means "good". It doesn't mean "dictator". Should anyone named Hussein or Adolph change their name on the theory that people will confuse them with some dictator?

What about Joseph? Should everyone named Joseph change their name because of Stalin? Or are they allowed to keep it because of the Judeo-Christina/Biblical reference? Does the connection to Christianity allow them to skate on that whole "he's got the same name" problem? That's a really sound white-christian-supermacist attitude.

Give me a break.

I agree with jerry-- When I first saw that image, I saw it as a gesture of "Oh my! Thanks!" I know I do that same gesture whenever I have that same feeling -- I'm right-handed and I use my left-hand to do that gesture. Don't know why, just do...

On the Somalia picture - can we put that to bed, please? It's been proven it didn't come from her campaign but from right-wing nut jobs...