Osama and Obama: What the name mix-up means

It's been a little over a week now since President Obama went on television to tell America and the world that Osama bin Laden had been killed. Since then how many times have you heard people mix up the names Osama and Obama. The first time it happened in our house we all laughed. How dumb. How could you do such a thing? Then it became pretty clear everyone was doing it. A quick scan of some websites show anchor people from D.C. to Canada tripping over Obama and Osama. One anchor guy said in an oh-so-somber voice. That Obama had been killed. Ouch. The Columbia Journalism Review and The Atlantic teamed up to find there's a reason for this. Something linguists call an anticipation error. The brain thinks it's taking a shortcut to a word and it makes us all look like idiots. I can proudly say I haven't done it - yet.

Just a minute. I'm Harry Smith, CBS News.