Clinton Attacks Obama With Imaginary Gun

The old adage about glass houses may need to be supplemented with the more specific, "People who want to attack their opponents on gun control should do so with guns that really exist." Politico is reporting that sharp-eyed readers noticed something fanciful in the Clinton campaign's direct-mail piece:

"The gun in the photo does not exist," said Val Forgett III, president of Navy Arms in Martinsburg, W.Va. Forgett's company was Mauser's agent in the United States when the gun was released, and it sold Mauser guns here again in the 1990s. "The bolt is facing to the left side of the receiver, making it a left-handed bolt action rifle, indicating whoever constructed and approved the mailer did not recognize the image has been reversed."

There is no truth to reports that the next Clinton mailer will attack Obama's support for an outright ban on "hand phasers," and a 48 hour waiting period on the purchase of a "blaster."

This is hardly a fatal gaffe, but one which points up the hypocrisy of the campaign's attack, when Senator Clinton herself was likened to Rosie O'Donnell on gun control by the NRA's chief lobbyist.

The gun dealer in Politico's story throws in a factoid that feeds into another narrative that the Clinton campaign has tried to use against Senator Obama, the "elitism" argument.

"It's a $2,200 German import - it's hardly typical of what the average workingman in Indiana uses," he said.

A reader posited that the photo was not an error, that to use a photo of a real gun would have posed some sort of legal difficulty. I obtained this photo of real guns from Getty Images, the same company that sold the Clinton campaign the footage for the "3 am" ad. It did take a few seconds to download, but I am in no legal jeopardy.