Rocky Mountain News Inquiry Prompts Clinton Campaign To Remove "Bill In Blackface" Event From Web Site

"We've hired some high-end comedic talent to ease the way into Primary Day! Want to see HRC in cat-scratch mode? Bill in blackface? How about Mark Penn doling out pizza crusts and doughnut holes to the volunteers? We've got it all!"--Cleveland campaign event for Hillary Clinton

Wayward supporter or Obama's revenge for those photos?



From the Rocky:

Inquiries from the Rocky Mountain News prompted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign to remove a supporter's "Bill in blackface?" event announcement from Clinton's official campaign Web site.

The notice appeared in an "action center" section of www.hillaryclinton.com where average supporters are allowed to publicize local events that are not necessarily sanctioned by the campaign.

In this case, the notice promised "Laughter at NAFTA Rally!" on Monday in downtown Cleveland.

The description:

"We've hired some high-end comedic talent to ease the way into Primary Day! Want to see HRC in cat-scratch mode? Bill in blackface? How about Mark Penn doling out pizza crusts and doughnut holes to the volunteers? We've got it all!"

The event was listed at:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/actioncenter/event/view/?id=10076

An archived version of the announcement is available HERE.

Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee called the language of the announcement "inappropriate and offensive."

"Any one of our supporters can host an event using the action network on our Web site and post it up there," Elleithee said. "If we ever find anything objectionable and it doesn't reflect what our campaign is about, we remove it, as we did in this case."

Whoops! A little too late in this case--not what Hillary needed at this moment.

Campaigns in the digital age will be forced to scrutinize all content provided through open-forum, user-generated sources. Great for organizing grass-roots supporters, but subject to the potential for misguided supporters inadvertently damaging their own candidate, or hacking by the opposition.

Posted by Republican Princess.