Tis the season to ... apologize to Barack Obama. Again.

This time the apology comes from former U.S. Senator from Nebraska and current New School President Bob Kerrey. Earlier this week Kerrey endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, but he also had a few "kind words" for Obama:

"I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim," Kerrey told The Washington Post.

"There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal." (NY Post)

Uh, gee, thanks Bob. I think. Real subtle.

While he didn't go on to point out how Obama rhymes with Osama and gosh isn't it funny how people keep getting those two mixed up, he might as well have.

Why is this a big deal?

Kerrey's mention of Obama's middle name and his Muslim roots raised eyebrows because they are also used as part of a smear campaign on the Internet that falsely suggests Obama is a Muslim who wants to bring jihad to the United States.

Obama is a Christian. (Yahoo! News)

So has Kerrey signed on as part of the Hillary smear machine ... or is he just a dunce?

Today Kerrey apologizes to Obama via letter and email:

"I answered a question about your qualifications to be president in a way that has been interpreted as a backhanded insult of you. I assure you I meant to do just the opposite," Kerrey wrote. ( Yahoo! News)

adding:

"After you and I met during your primary campaign for the Senate, I wrote a public letter in which I said that that you were among the two or three most talented people I have ever met in politics. Nothing in your performance in the Senate or your campaign for the Presidency has altered that view....

With the benefit of my computer's capacity to make certain that my words reflect my belief let me answer that question in this letter which you are free to use anyway you choose.

You are exceptionally qualified by experience and judgment to be President of the United States. I do not doubt that you would use the power of the Presidency to bring peace and prosperity to as many people as possible on our fragile planet. You inspire my highest hopes for that office?s potential: That it be used as a force for good in America and the world.

It is your capacity to inspire hope that is your greatest God given talent. Without spending a dime of tax payer?s money or changing a single law your presence in the Oval Office will send a clear and compelling message to four groups of people who will be altered for good as a consequence. That was what I was trying to say on Sunday and what I hope I said more clearly in this letter." (Quoted at LeftWord)

Well, that is a sweet apology. Practically an endorsement. But, as many observers note, the damage is done and the "Obama may be a Muslim sleeper agent" meme gets another lift. Even the apology perpetuate exposure to that idea in the infosphere.

So was Kerrey's initial statement a compliment gone horribly wrong and his apology sincere?

Many are skeptical:

The Moderate Voice:

To some voters, the image of the Clintons as political victims is being replaced by the image of the Clintons as political predators.

If there’s another “mistake” by a major Clinton supporter, it will mean there is a clear-cut strategy to hit hot-button issues and drive up Obama’s negatives no matter what the risk is to the campaign.

(And see reader comments)

Ann Althouse:

Do you need one more "mistake" to convince you that it's a Clinton campaign strategy?

(And see reader comments)

Comments from Left Field:

The really clever part of the Mea Culpa phase of the pattern is that it reinvigorates the original attack against Obama, and then puts Clinton’s face right there as condemning the attack.  It’s the best of both worlds, you get the negative out about your opponent, and you look like the good guy taking the higher road.

Here’s the only problem; I don’t think anyone’s really buying it.

Michelle Malkin:

He never meant to harm his candidacy? He “meant no disrespect at all?”

He used the phrase “Islamic Manchurian candidate” and he “meant no disrespect?

What a tool.

And see reader comments at The Swamp, where commenter "Frank" makes a nice point that ties into our recent observation of the unapologetic demeanor of the Republican candidates:

If he gets the nomination, he better get used to these attacks without any subsequent "I'm sorry" from the Republicans.

That, we can pretty much count on.