Oops! Barack Obama says 'my Muslim faith' in interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos
He was discussing false rumors when he slipped up
A verbal slip by Barack Obama, in which he made a reference to "my Muslim faith," unleashed a barrage of Internet attacks Sunday.
The Democratic presidential candidate appeared on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, which aired Sunday morning.
Obama was -- ironically -- addressing the false rumors that he is Muslim. He suggested that Republican rival John McCain was behind them, according to ABC News.
Obama was reminded that McCain denied spreading the rumors.
"You're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith," Obama said, before being corrected by Stephanopoulos.
Obama pointed the finger at "the Republican camp."
The quote became a magnet for comments on the YouTube.com video site and by bloggers as the day went on. Some seized on it as confirmation of their suspicions and some ridiculed it as a gaffe.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton bristled. "Printing a blogger suspecting that Obama is a Muslim is pretty irresponsible and below the standards that we're used to out of the Sun-Times," he wrote in an e-mail.
Matthew Nickerson