Oops: “Barack Osama” on the ballot

[red states rule]

A Freudian slip?



Big ballot boo-boo: Osama for president?
Rensselaer County gaffe makes national news after absentee ballots misspell Barack Obama's name

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer
First published in print: Saturday, October 11, 2008

TROY — It could have been Ovama or Ofama. Or even Olama.

But with one "s" the Rensselaer County Board of Elections turned a single wrong letter into a national embarrassment Friday.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled "Osama" on some 300 absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County hilltowns.

Is it a Freudian slip, intentional gaffe or a mistake? Voters are sure to have opinions, and one politician pointed out that the letters "s" and "b" are not exactly keyboard neighbors.

"Of all the letters to hit by mistake," County Democratic Chairman Tom Wade said. "Unfortunately it is a mistake which negatively impacts our Democratic candidate for president."

The typo was first reported Friday on timesunion.com, and quickly grabbed national attention.

"It was crazy, everybody across the country called," said Edward McDonough, the county's Democratic elections commissioner. He said calls came in from The New York Times, the New York Post, Daily News, Wall Street Journal and Court TV.

McDonough said he was one of the people who received a misspelled absentee ballot at home, and he didn't even notice it.


http://timesunion.com/AspStories/sto...storyID=728326

[mundame]

Everybody spells it that way from time to time; I have myself.

[KitchenKitten99]

Everybody spells it that way from time to time; I have myself.

MS Word does it in Spellcheck...

[red states rule]

[GW in Ohio]

These are tough times for white guys with racial prejudices.

We're about to elect a black guy as president. I realize this is traumatic for you.

I also realize that with these tough economic times, what with Tastee-Freez and Wal-Mart laying people off, that you may be out of work and can't afford those therapy sessions and the medications that have been controlling your murderous impulses.

But there's always Doctor Rush. He's free, and he will soothe your wounded right-wing psyches.