News Brief06:37 AM

(IsraelNN.com) Republicans in the state of Tennessee this week dropped the political "H-bomb,' emphasizing Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama's middle name "Hussein." The Republicans also disseminated a photograph of Sen. Obama wearing African garb on a visit to Kenya in 2006 and mistakenly referred to the clothing as "Muslim garb." It later removed the photograph and deleted the senator's middle name.

Party leaders initially stated it wanted the public to understand Obama's background after he received an unwelcome endorsement from Anti-Israel preacher Louis Farrakhan. "Nothing in Barack Obama's history or his choice of advisers suggests he will be a friend to Israel," said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party. "Supporters of Israel should view a possible Obama administration with extreme caution, as America's ally is being put in the cross-hairs by the anti-Jewish left," he said.
  
The party later reversed its tactics and explained, "In order to diffuse attempts by Democrats and the left to divert attention from the main point of this release--that Sen. Obama has surrounded himself with advisers and received endorsements from people who are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel--we have deleted the use of Barack Obama’s middle name."