There was a kerfuffle a week ago when the Left pitched a fit over a claim that Charles Koch had equated Barack Obama with Saddam Hussein. As it turned out, Koch has said that the upcoming election would be “the mother of all battles,” “as Saddam Hussein [said]…” according to Verum Serum and Ben Smith at Politico noted.

Nevertheless, Barack Obama’s campaign rapidly moved to raise cash by asking supporters to oppose “gutter politics” and smears:

“If that offends you, it absolutely should,” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina wrote in an e-mail to supporters today. “But it should also motivate you, because you are the only thing that can stop them.”

“The Koch brothers and the front groups they fund have decided on the tone they want the election to take in the coming months — and we should expect these kinds of smears to only get worse. But we still have a say about the kind of race we want to run and the kind of political climate we want to create. Take a stand now to support it,” Messina wrote, asking supporters to make a donation of $15 or more.

But Mary Bruce of ABC News wondered why Obama seemed so outraged over Koch’s comments when Jimmy Hoffa introduced Obama the day before by calling on the President to use his union workers as an “army” to “take out those sons-of-bitches” in the Tea Party:

While the Obama campaign questions the tone set by Koch’s “gutter politics,” the Obama administration has come under fire in recent days for refusing to comment about the remarks of Teamster Union Leader James Hoffa, whocalled Tea Partyers  ”sons of bitches” when he spoke at a Labor Day event about 20 minutes before President Obama on Monday.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to acknowledge that Hoffa’s comments were contrary to the president’s call for increased civility in Washington.

Of course not!  Because it would be rilly hard to hold a fundraiser using Hoffa’s rhetoric.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!