Seaside Heights arcade withdraws Obama figure from ball toss game

The operators of a Seaside Heights, N.J., boardwalk ball-toss game that used a crude likeness of President Obama as a target have replaced the effigy with another character. Actually, two other characters.

Lucky Leo's Arcade Wednesday night had new figures representing George W. Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton, said Tom Whelan, who runs the business with his brother Steve.

So what was the reaction on the boardwalk to the former president and current secretary of state?

"A lot of people are disappointed that Obama is not there anymore," he said. The decision, he pointed out, was made by his brother.

On Tuesday, the Whalens put a bag over the head of the Obama figure as the media spotlight heated up in the seaside town that is home to MTV's Jersey Shore.

It was the second time in a week that the use of Obama's image in a carnival game caused a stir.

Players have been paying $5 for a bucket of balls to throw at plates held by the characters in the arcade's "Walkin' Charlie" game.

Other figures include likenesses of Osama bin Laden, Michael Jackson, a nameless Red Sox player, and Stewie from the animated TV series Family Guy.

Tom Whalen, 59, said he did not mean to offend anyone by adding Obama to the game a month ago. It's all for fun, he said.

"Heck, I voted for the son of a gun," he said. "But I'm not real happy with some of the things going on with the health-care issue."

Last week, a carnival operator in the Lehigh Valley removed a game in which players shot darts at an image of Obama.

Irvin Good Jr. received a complaint from a Massachusetts woman who attended a fair in Roseto, about 20 miles north of Bethlehem. Good said his company, Goodtime Amusements of Hellertown, would not offer the game again.

"It was just a big, big mistake in judgment, and I feel sorry about it," he said.

Tom Whalen said he had also commissioned a figure of 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and planned to include Snooki and The Situation from Jersey Shore.