Broward GOP chairman has poster in McCain's campaign office comparing Obama with Hitler. Picture.

Al Austin, a longtime, high-level Republican fundraiser from Tampa, today sent to his list of political contacts an e-mail containing a joke that refers to the assassination of Barack Obama. When asked about the e-mail, Austin said it was a mistake and apologized and that he wouldn’t knowingly have circulated it. He said he planned to send an apology and retraction to the same e-mail list.

The joke concerns a group of schoolchildren discussing the definition of “tragedy” as opposed to “great loss” or “accident.” The punch line comes when one child says that if an airplane carrying Obama and his wife, Michelle, “was struck by a ‘friendly fire’ missile and blown to smithereens,” the event might be a tragedy “because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss, and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

Austin acknowledged sending the e-mail to his list of political contacts but said he forwarded it without fully reading it and didn’t know what it said. That list included at least two reporters.

Among the images that greeted visitors to the John McCain campaign office in Pompano Beach this week was a sign headlined "Barrack Hussein Obama” that compared the Democratic presidential candidate to Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro.

Shown a picture of the sign Thursday night, Broward Republican Chairman Chip LaMarca said he was "disgusted" by it and would immediately go to the office and remove it.

"I'm speechless at the ignorance," LaMarca said. "It's not something we can condone.

"We're trying to promote positive messages for our candidates. I understand people want their candidate to win. It's ridiculous. I'll find out who put it up there, and maybe they'll volunteer somewhere else."

The sign on an 8 1/2 by 14 inch sheet of paper looks as if it was printed from a personal computer. It's part of a gallery of posters and signs on the wall immediately inside the front door of the Pompano office, near the intersection of Sample Road and U.S. 1.

Others signs on the wall include a portrait of McCain and his wife, Cindy, Republican elephants, patriotic sayings, and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin holding a large hunting rifle.