What a douche.

Eh, it really just happens.

I think the best thing, rather than heap scorn on the perpetrator, would be to kindly suggest that the next time such a slip happens it is immediately followed by simple self-reproach, something like: "..Oh gosh, I obviously meant to say Osama. It is sad that such a small mistake could in any way negatively reflect on a man as honourable and patriotic as Sen. Obama, but I wanted to particularly apologize about this. A name does not make a man, the man makes the name." Etc., yada.

It was obvious Matthews felt really bad. The lady media person said something to be helpful

Greg, I bow respectfully in your general direction:'

(-.-)(_ _)(-.-)

This is very well done.

Yeah, I know exactly how he feels (I mix-up my co-workers Brian & Brianna all the time - mouth & brain don't always work at the same speed). However that doesn't change the fact that Matthews is a baffoon. This isn't the first time he has done this and if he thought more and talked less (instead of yammering just to hear himself talk) this wouldn't happen as much.

Americans need to be told that Usamah Bin Laden does not own the name Usamah, and there are lots of wonderful people named Usamah. It is just a classical Arabic word for "lion." It is given by Christian as well as Muslim families, and some of the physicians who heal us of serious maladies are named Usamah. Moreover, there is no "o" in Arabic. It is not Osama but Usamah. It does not rhyme with Obama and is not related in any way to it. Obama is an African (presumably Dholua or other West Nilotic) word, not a Semitic one.

LINK

Maybe he should change his name to Barry O'Hara and then Chris, and Pat and Barnicle can sit around tell more good old Irish Catholic boy stories.

The big problem with Chris Matthews tonight is that he had Margaret Carlson on.

to be fair, he DID almost slip and say 'McCain' before catching himself to say 'Bush', and in light of his time as a POW, I'd say that slip was much worse.

Meh, I'll admit it - I've caught myself accidentally writing "Obama" when I meant to write "Osama." It's not a crime to mix up too phonetically similar words; it's a problem when someone's trying to insinuate some deeper, false meaning from the phonetic similarity (ex: signs or pins that say "Osama...Obama...hmmm...").

I'm sorry, folks...it's not that difficult to get it right.

It's good that he recognized what happened immediately and I do think he wouldn't take as big of a hit if he showed bloggers some respect once in a while, but damn. Obama's been in the race for well over a year!

It's not that difficult!

I'm looking forward to when Olbermann does it. We have 5 more months before the election, and if Obama wins we'll have 49 months after that.

This isn't hard, but you have to be extremely disciplined. I worked with an editor once who told me one of her writers always wrote "pubic" instead of "public." :-)

Okay Greg, I am officially in awe of your new powers as superman of the internets. Keep up the good work.

/lurker/

I didn't see it but I did see him say earlier in the broadcast that Bill Clinton didn't seem "randy" to campaign for Obama. I don't know what goes on in Mathew's mind and I don't want to know. Why NBC keeps him on the air I'll never know. What's worse is he'll probably quit and run for the senate from PA. Can you imagine this emotional adolescent in the senate? Sheesh.

I think we should go the opposite direction. Let's all over-react. Wait... this ISN'T part of a vast right wing conspiracy? Can't we still over-react?

The problem is when some news organizations make a oint of referring to the head of Al Qaeda as Osama vs bin Laden, and take advantage of the similarity to make it easy to slip into the Osama (first name)/Obama (last name) error.
If a news organization had a rule "say bin Laden or lose your job" you can be sure that the frequency of this "innocent" error would drop.
When we excuse it for Matthews as an innocent error, we buy into the right-wing hate-machine framing of the whole discussion. When will we learn that they are no more qualified to determine the terms of debate than we are? When will we call them on these sophomoric tricks?
Note - the Three Stooges were sophomoric too, but they had a lot of fans. In the real world, a talking point goes a long way, and we continue to let the right wing perpetuate some really bad ones.

Y'know what... I've done it on accident too. The two names roll off the tongue so easily, and they're so similar - only one letter difference. I'd cut him some slack.

I've been for Obama since day one. Twice in the same conversation once (but only then) I said Osama when I meant Obama. It meant nothing except fatigue in that instance. I'm no fan of Matthews, but a motormouth like him is certain to make such innocent slips sometime. I consider devoting a whole story to this, as Greg has done, to be journalism in the Fox News mode. We have real issues facing us, and I consider it contemptible to make a big deal of this.

As for calling him "Bin Laden" instead: his name is Osama. Doesn't Bin Laden just mean "son of Laden"? We should not be embarrassed that his name happens to be close to that of Obama. We're not all snickering children here looking to catch people in Beavis and Butthead level gaffes.

It's a one-letter difference, and particularly in a phrase like "Obama headquarters" which they've probably rolled off their tongue a couple of hundred times. Hell, he probably misread the cue card.

But it's a single letter! Even if you get it right 99.9% of the time, it's still likely to be misstated a dozen times between now and election day.

A single letter. Like Iraq and Iran. Russia and Prussia. Iceland and Ireland.

I'm tired of excusing pundits for their purposeful Obama/Osama mishaps. I have never had this problem. I suspect most educated people haven't. And even if you excuse the first misstatement, there is NO EXCUSE for repeated misstatements.

Someone needs to tell all the main stream media that it is only appropiate to identify Osama bin Laden by his last name.

If they made this the practice then the mistakes will be fewer.

I for one do not believe it was a mistake. During the primary, Matthews stated he was a Democrat. However, since the primary, Matthews has fallen into the Republican party line of asking questions about how John McCain is going to beat Obama. He and others at MSNBC have continually harped on ways McCain can beat Obama. Their answer in all cases has been to discredit Obama, paint him as "unknown exotic", "young and inexperienced", and weak on terrorism. They have admitted that on all the issues Americans care about Obama beats McCain hands down and the only way to beat him is to demonize him.

Notice the MSM never asks how Obama is going to beat McCain. Notice the MSM is continually talking about weaknesses of Obama but not McCain weaknesses. Notice how the MSM will only show Obama quotes and in contrast show video of McCain attacks. This way America continually gets to see McCain but not Obama.

Matthews refers to Obama as a "kid", which to me is insulting, and is intended to put the meme "youth and inexperience" into his viewers minds. He has done this on several occasions. Obama should call him out on this, a man approching 50 is not a kid.

NO, Matthews did not make a mistake. He just showed his true colors.