Anti-Obama Buttons Attract Attention at Republican Watch Party

The buttons read “Obama…OY VEY!”, and the minute Largo couple Jerry and Doris Siddell saw them, they knew they had to have one.

As volunteers at the Sheraton Sand Key hotel during the Republican National Convention, they encountered a group of ladies who asked if they could put their buttons on a table in the lobby. 

Doris, a staunch Republican, was reluctant to allow her to leave the buttons at first. But when she was told to take a closer look, she was overjoyed. 

“First I saw the word ‘Obama’ and I said we can’t accept those,” she recalled. “But they said, 'Read it closely,' and then I took one for me and a few for my friends.” 

“They were gone almost immediately,” Jerry added.

Turns out the buttons were the product of a Republican support group from Indiana called the Republican Jewish Coalition.

And when the Sliddells came to Fat Cat Tavern in Clearwater for a Republican Party-sponsored watch party for the presidential debate Wednesday night, they knew they had to wear them. 

According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, the phrase 'oy vey' is Yiddish and translates to “oh God” or “oh my.”

And despite not being Jewish, the Largo couple took to the campaign novelties right away. 

“I’m Catholic but I went to a Jewish middle school, so I had an idea what the phrase meant,” Doris said. “And I knew it summed up my feelings about Obama.”

And she hoped by sporting the buttons, it would help spur her candidate, Mitt Romney, to victory in the debate.

"My only concern is he might be too nice. But after hearing of a few minutes of the empty suit talk, he'll hold his own."