The republic party is going to play the Muslim card on Hussein Osama.
Now, why would they do that?

This isn't "scrambling". He started to say the right thing, and deliberately switched to Obama. Get ready for the Obama-Osama express.

But isn't that detracting from the Hillary is Scary, or Hillary, the "vaginal American" theme? (which makes everyone else in the race penile Americans, I guess)

Juvenile and ugly. Which seems to be a winning combination for the Republicans.

It wasn't a gaffe.

It's almost as if the Democratic contenders for president are living in fantasyland. Their idea for jihad is to retreat, and their idea for the economy is to also retreat. And in my view, both efforts are wrongheaded."

He's pandering to the whisper campaign that Obama is a muslim.

Vintage Romney.

Romney told the crowd of more than 5,000. "In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow."

The seven year marriage is from an Orsen Scott Card science fiction concept. It does not now nor ever exist in France.

Why does he go on to talk about "Democratic candidates for president" if it was a slip-up to refer to Barack Obama?

The new response to Mitt should be, "I can think of something that rhymes with Mitt."

Yep, just an accident. Its not like Mitt's caught hell for this before.

He definitely did this on purpose. Not only did he change the name after getting it right, he tied in all the Democratic candidates. Dems should be asking why, if Romney was referring to the Osama video, he referred to the Democrats immediately afterwards. He's attacking more than just Obama here.

No doubt he was swept up by the excitement of Islamofascist Awareness Week

What a weak-ass response from Obama's camp.

You don't try to laugh it off when it's sticking like this. You point out the poster photo that Romney did, and you call him a stupid, lying racist. Attack his ass. Make a point of noting that someone who can't even remember the name of the biggest mass murderer in US history--someone still at large, at that--is trying to become President. Don't feed the flip-flopper narrative or try to parry this into an Iraq critique, for chrissakes. Hit him for pandering to racists and making idiotic statements, and hit him forcefully--then that becomes the story and you get to look like you're not afraid of throwing a punch, which is Obama's big problem.

This is amateur at best.

Actually, he's not the latest to mix them up. This morning, Thom Hartmann said "Obama" when he meant "Osama". They've even got the good guys doing it! But in Thom's case you can be sure it was unintentional.

Thanks, R Smith for that link.

Obama's response was sort of tepid. It should have been a straightforward comment like "If he's so clueless that he can't tell the difference between a candidate for President and a still-at-large criminal, perhaps the Presidency represents too much of a challenge for Mitt (Mitt rhymes with _______) Romney...."

Romney has been caught posing with "Osama/Obama" pictures before. This needs to be addressed.

"Their idea for jihad is to retreat, and their idea for the economy is to also retreat. And in my view, both efforts are wrongheaded."

So does that mean Mitt wants jihad to be on the offense?

It sounds to me, that Romney had a Dick Armey 'Barney Fag' moment. Was it intentional, I would like to hope not, but it is likely to have been a Freudian slip, with Romney saying out loud, something that he thought to himself, humorously. Oops. The Republican candidates are trying to out tough guy each other in an attempt to pander to the lowest common denominator of conservative Republican voters they think hold the key to their victory. It's really a pathetic performance.

Aside from his political leanings (and I know it's a BIG aside, but anyway), who would want such a bonehead to become our president? Perhaps the current schmuck in the white house so that he can look a little less dumb (an impossibility, I know).
Collectively, the Repugnant Party candidates offer NOTHING for the future of our country. And I really do mean nothing!

This whole "gaffe" intrigues me in terms of how damaging these kinds of remarks are to Obama and how to most effectively respond. At one of the spectrum are the (hopefully) small number of wackos who seem to be buying the idea that Barak is secretly Muslim with an anti-american agenda. The percentage of less crazy bigots that will still be swayed against Obama with these softer, repeated attacks is clearly larger, but how big? These types of quiet smears need much more exposure, so they work against the people that do them. The response from the Obama campaign seems insufficient, but a stronger reponse could backfire. The dems need more than Olberman on TV to comment on and combat these smears and I can't even think of who regularly takes that role in the MS press.

So let's see ,we have a guy (Romney) running for Prez of the USA who is unable to correctly distinguish between Obama & Osamma ?
I guess after the current Prez who has problems speaking his native language ,English,anything is possible.
It's no surprise, afterall we have someone who was selected to be prez(Bush)who is almost an ignoramous.
How far & fast we are sliding to the bottom is fascinating.