Digital Journal reports the image was sent in a Halloween-themed email and included a jack-o-lantern, a distorted image of U.S. Nancy Pelosi, a crowd of Obama supporters represented as clamoring zombies.
The Root reports the message which accompanied the image said, "we are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy."
The picture in dull red, white and blue colors, showed Obama looking ahead and upward with a gaping bullet hole dripping blood over his right eye.
Daily Mail reports it was created from a copyrighted AP photo taken in 2006 when Obama, then a U.S. senator, was at the National Press Club in Washington.
The image raised strong objections from Democrats. The spokesman of the Democratic Part of Virginia said:
"This is a disgusting and violent portrayal of the president of the United States."
In the apology, Loudoun County GOP chairman Mark Sells, said:
"The Loudoun County Republican Committee yesterday sent an email to its members that represented a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor 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. Nothing could be further from the truth, and we deeply and sincerely apologize to the president and anyone who viewed the image if that was the impression that was left."
The Loudoun County Republicans were forced to apologize after Governor Bob McDonnell, through his spokesman J.Tucker Martin, called for an apology and told Loudoun County officials to "immediately ensure that such imagery is never used again."
NBC Washington reports Loudoun County Republican Committee's communications director Robert Jesionowski, has taken responsibility for the email image and resigned his position. In his letter of resignation to LCRC Chairman Mark Sell, Mr. Jesionowski said:
“I will not excuse my missing the connotation of the zombie pic of the president...This was in bad taste, does not reflect my own principles nor those of any political activist or candidate I know in either party, and if I had reflected a little longer I would have caught it. A different pic ought to have gone out.”
NBC Washington reports Jesionowski found the image by searching on Google for "Obama Zombie." The linking of Obama with zombies was meant to reflect the "Thriller" theme for the Republican Halloween parade.
Daily Mail reports the image was first reported on Monday, on a northern Virginia blog " Too Conservative." The writer of the post on the blog who said he is "no Obama fan" commented: "...putting up a photo of [the president] as a zombie with a bullet hole in his head?...Someone should send this to the US Secret Service."
The Root comments on the nature of political atmosphere in which such image of the president could be used to promote a party parade:
"This type of so-called high-tech lynching, to borrow a phrase from GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain, is only the beginning of a nasty political season. The good news is that even some people within the Republican Party see the ruthless nature of some of these attacks and have begun to push back in the strongest-possible way."
