On Friday, Obama met with Democratic Governors in Chicago. It was a fairly straight forward meeting about economic manners, but there seems to be some people throwing a fit about the graphic that was placed on the head table in front of Obama.
The graphic is reminiscent of the Presidential Seal, with a bald eagle holding 13 arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. It seems rather insignificant, but some bloggers seem to be making a big deal about it. Many are insisting that his use of the seal is illegal.
This is the law that is being cited:
18 USC Sec. 713 ...
(a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States... or any facsimile thereof... for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
This seems rather farcical to me. The graphic, while having obvious similarities to the Presidential seal, is quite different. It is neither a likeness nor a facsimile of the Presidential Seal. The words "Barack for America" and his web address are quite obvious. And the color scheme is completely different. It this were a trademark or copyright case, it would be thrown of court. It ain't the same graphic.
But this meme is being echoed around the blogosphere with comments like this:
I guess the Obama campaign doesn't realize that there is a federal law against using any image of the likeness of the Presidential seal 18USC713. But then, what else do you expect from such an arrogant individual, who feel he is entitled to the Presidency!
My real question here is what do you think is the best way to respond to this? It seems obvious that it is not illegal, but simply pointing this out is unlikely to quiet the irrational Obama haters. They will still insist that the law makes it illegal to use eagles in graphics.
This was one of the better responses I saw:
The seal is a little graphic drawn up by some doodlers in the campaign. What is offensive is the bafoon hiding behind the real presidential seal and trashing the us constituion the past 7 yrs. If ya wanna talk about illegalities begin there.
This may be one of these things that will blow over quickly, since it's likely to be a one off use of that graphic. But then again, it might have some legs. It might be an image that the right uses again and again to show Obama playing "make-believe on the campaign trail" as McCain's spokesman Tucker Bounds said. We should be ready to swat it down wherever we see someone bring it up.