The president is facing a mounting, if trifling PR crisis.

It’s not about foreign policy, nor is it a charge from the Romney campaign. Instead, the crisis stems from “Talk Like A Pirate Day.”

To mark the faux holiday on Wednesday, Obama campaign staffers tweeted a picture of the president meeting with a man dressed as a pirate. The tweet asked: “Arrr you in?”

It appears the Obama campaign is co-opting a common practice among brands on social media—that is, taking advantage of a wacky holiday for some light-hearted engagement (see: Oreo’s Daily Twist).

The fun didn’t last long though. Opponents seized on the photo, launching attacks such as this one from the blog Fox News Insider:

“The White House has said that the president is too busy to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but one pirate got a sit down in the Oval Office yesterday.”

Drudge Report also picked up on it, linking to a vague Yahoo News report about the photo.



Drudge has since removed the headline, but the image also landed on Fox News’s morning show “Fox and Friends.”



Thing is about that photo—it was taken three years ago. The Washington Examiner explains:

“The photo is actually from 2009, when Obama met with Cody Keenan, one of his speechwriters who dressed as a pirate for a funny photo-op.

“The image was used during Obama’s speech at to the White House Correspondents Association dinner May 9, 2009.”

Despite its origins, and a tweet from “Fox and Friends” after the segment aired indicating the photo is from 2009, the picture continues to gain traction on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the @BarackObama Twitter account, from which the tweet that started this mess originated, has not mentioned the photo again.

[RELATED: How Romney reacted on social media to ’47 percent’ remark]

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