Is Romney campaign defending Osama, Obama sign?
Some right-wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh have been making hay for a few years out of the chance similarity between the last name of Senator Barack Obama and the first name of Osama bin Laden, but the attempt to associate the two in public awareness has become increasingly insistent since Obama emerged last winter as a leading presidential candidate. At the same time, some media outlets have come under fire for mixing up the two, whether purposely or accidentally.
Earlier this year, CNN mixed up the names in a graphic that asked, "Where's Obama?" instead of the intended "Where's Osama?" A spokesman for Obama told RAW STORY at the time that he thought there was "no malicious intent" behind the CNN graphic, and CNN host Wolf Blitzer even offered a personal apology to Obama for the error. Also, as Media Matters noted, Newsradio 850 KOA host Mike Rosen referred to "Barack Osama" three times in a segment, and "later claimed that he had made a mistake, explaining that 'because of the mindset we have where we're familiar with Osama bin Laden,' it is 'easy' to say 'Osama' instead of 'Obama.'"
But now a leading Republican presidential contender has entered the fray.
On Saturday, a gossip website posted photographs of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney posing with and holding a supporter's sign that reads "No to Obama Osama and Chelsea's Moma [sic]."
"This kind of smallness is what makes Americans so tired of politics and points precisely to what they want to change in Washington," Obama spokesman Bill Burton told ABC's Political Punch blog.
So far, Romney has refused to apologize or to criticize the sign's association of a Democratic candidate with a terrorist leader. Almost seeming to defend the sign, Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden told Talking Points Memo's Election Central blog that it was just "an alliterative play on words" and claimed "I don't think it was equating or comparing anyone."
At the popular community blog Daily Kos, a user named "wordene" writes, "This is spin, pure and simple, and rather poor spin at that. Mr. Madden's spin on this doesn't hold water, especially with one of the pictures showing him actually holding the sign in his hands. Since Mr. Romney has been a politician for quite some time now, he or his handlers would have been sensitive to anyone carrying signs with which they had problems."
"Alliteration is rooted in the repetition of consonants, not of vowels or syallables," complains a user named "rocknation" in a Democratic Underground forum. "'Osama Obama Mama' is a RHYMING play on words. 'Mitt's Macaca Moment'--now, THAT'S alliteration!"
Questioned about the photograph at a town hall event in New Hampshire, the former Massachusetts governor pleaded ignorance. "I don't really spend all that much time looking at the signs and the T-shirts and the buttons," Romney told a questioner from Buckeye State Blog. He then admonished him to "lighten up" when the blogger continued to yell about the sign. "There are a lot of jokes out there," he said. "I'm not responsible for all the signs I see."
The Romney campaign did not return a call or e-mail from RAW STORY seeking further comment.
In addition to Rush Limbaugh's frequent use of the "Osama Obama" phrase, and CNN's apparent goof, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes also made a similar comparison in a speech this March to the Radio & TV News Directors Foundation. "And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move," Ailes said. "I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?'"
Nevada Democrats said the joke crossed the line, and cited it as the reason the state party decided to pull out of an agreement with Fox News to co-host a debate among Democratic presidential candidates.
Obama's campaign did not respond to RAW STORY's request for comment on the Romney photo.
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