Uproar over Obama zombie image

A Republican group has been accused of going too far with a Halloween email featuring a zombie President Obama with a bullet hole in his head.

The email got the attention of the Secret Service after a Virginia GOP committee used it to create interest in Halloween political activities. The montage,a banner on a mass email to Loudoun Republicans,mingles seasonal images including a jack-o-lantern,a disfigured US Rep Nancy Pelosi and a throng of flesh-hungry zombie Obama supporters.

The image of a rotting,undead Obama with a bleeding,large-caliber hole an inch above his right eye prompted Democrats to cry foul and Virginias Republican governor to denounce it as shameful and offensive. This is a disgusting and violent portrayal of the president of the US, said Democratic Party of Virginia spokesman Brian Coy.

Governor Bob McDonnell,through spokesman J Tucker Martin,called on the Loudoun GOP to apologise for their actions,and to immediately ensure that such imagery is never used again.

Loudoun County GOP chairman Mark Sell told the the AP it was a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humour into the Halloween holiday.

Apparently,some individuals have interpreted an image of Barack Obama that appeared within the email as intending to portray the President as a victim of a violent crime, Sell wrote. Nothing could be further from the truth,and we deeply and sincerely apologise to the President and anyone who viewed the image if that was the impression that was left.

There was no reply from Sell to a follow-up email seeking an alternative explanation for the nickel-sized hole in Obamas forehead. The image was first reported in a post Monday on the conservative northern Virginia blog,Too Conservative.

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The posts author,identified as a Loudoun Insider, said hes no Obama fan,but putting up a photo of him as a zombie with a bullet hole in his head? Someone should send this to the US Secret Service, the blog post concluded. We are aware of the situation, said George Ogilvie,a Secret Service spokesman in Washington.

The picture by the Loudoun GOP is the red,white and blue image of Obama gazing upward that,emblazoned with the caption HOPE, became a ubiquitous Obama poster during his 2008 campaign.