DALLAS - Polls show Barack Obama about even with Hillary Clinton in Texas. The gap between the two also appears to be closing in Ohio.

Now, Clinton is searching for an issue that will give voters second thoughts about Obama. In a foreign policy speech in an exclusive intervew Monday with News 8, Clinton compared Obama's experience to hers regarding who would make a better commander in chief. However, a picture muddled the message.

As her campaign begins to question how Obama might handle a crisis, a picture of Obama wearing native dress during a 2006 U.S. Senate visit to Kenya has popped up on the DrudgeReport Internet site, which states "Clinton staffers circulate 'dressed' Obama."

"Look, I know nothing about it," Clinton said when asked if she put out the picture of Obama. "This is in the public domain. I don't know where it came from."

File / AP

Sen. Barack Obama, right, is dressed as a Somali Elder by Sheikh Mahmed Hassan during his visit to Wajir on Aug. 27, 2006.

The Obama campaign called it "shameless fear mongering."

But Clinton pointed out that she has also wore native dress during foreign visits, and called the Obama response a diversion.

"I find this really laughable," she said. "You know, every time I travelled to foreign countries, I wore the costume of that country. You can find dozens of pictures of me in different parts of the world. You know, this is one more attempt by my opponent's campaign to change the subject from his health care plan that won't cover everybody, from an economic plan that won't produce jobs and from a record that's pretty thin when it comes to national security and standing up for our country around the world."

The picture surfaced on a day Clinton stressed that she would make a stronger commander in chief.

"You've got to ask yourself who do you want answering that phone at 3 a.m. in the White House when some crisis breaks out somewhere in the world," she said. "And if I think people ask themselves that question, I'm going to do well in Texas."

She has just seven days left to make that stick in voters minds.