Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday confused the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks with the junior senator from Illinois, the New York Times' Caucus blog reports. During a speech on global trade in Greenwood, SC, Romney said, “look at what Osam—uh—Barack Obama, said just yesterday. Barack Obama calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq.”
The allusion was to Monday’s recording of bin Laden urging followers of Islam to unite in their anti-Western cause in Iraq. Romney’s spokesman said he “simply misspoke,” while Obama's camp took the opportunity to pounce: "Mitt Romney can switch names just as casually as he switches positions." (More Mitt Romney stories.)