Politics Daily reports that the Arizona Republican Party is running a photo of Obama with a cigarette dangling from his mouth as part of their campaign against health care reform. The image appeared on AZGOP news, but appears to have since been removed.
Look how hopeless he looks — irresponsible even with his own health. Surely a great PR strategy.
Except the photo is doctored. Photoshopped. The original photo was taken by Kwame Ross on Aug. 3, 2004.
I’m not alleging that the Arizona GOP doctored the photo themselves — just that they didn’t bother to do any research before posting the photo. Obama does smoke. This doesn’t bother me but might bother some people, so it makes sense that the GOP would try to use that against him in their propaganda. Hard for the Arizona GOP to pass up an opportunity to use a photo that shows him looking so tired and hopeless while smoking, though, even if it’s a fake photo.
