Department of Corrections: Barack Obama on Annie Oakley and Hillary Clinton

In his latest round of ad feminam slurs, Senator Barack Obama has denigrated Senator Hillary Clinton and her position on gun regulation by likening her to Annie Oakley. But once again, Obama has shot himself in the foot.

Annie Oakley was one of the first great female superstars in American history. Born in poverty in western Ohio, she began hunting when she was nine years old, and sold hunting game to locals in order to support her siblings and widowed mother. Her sharpshooting abilities eventually led her to become the star act in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Obama appears to think Oakley was some kind of wild shoot-'em-up desperado. But she was strictly an entertainer -- and an enormously successful one. In addition to adoring crowds around the country, she performed before Queen Victoria and other crowned heads of state. Her aim was so true that, at the request of the Prince of Prussia, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, she shot the ashes off of a cigarette he held in his hand.

Later in life, Oakley faced smears from the yellow press accusing her of moral laxity and drug abuse. She successfully sued dozens of her accusers, including the newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, who paid $15,000 (about $300,000 in today's money) in legal judgments. She then supported numerous philanthropic causes, including the women's rights movement.

Annie Oakley was one of the heroines of American history. Any woman would be proud to be linked to her memory

Senator Obama, in trying to sneer his way out of his latest mess, merely shows, once again, that he just doesn't get it -- whether it's the courage and decency of ordinary working people or the proud heritage of American women.