Newbie

Not exacly but the silhouette is designed looking at that pic.
Head and shoulders proportions are slightly different.The pose is the same.

honestly IF I was the photographer of that Obama photo,....and I saw that I would get a consultation with a lawyer.
God help the poor soul who tries to resell one of my clips on istock in a cartoon format.

"IF" it's an official picture of the USA government, then it's in the public domain, since such works cannot be copyrighted based on american law, being funded by taxpayers: I find this very democratic;

of course it's a different thing in case it's a picture from a private photographer

In this case, that picture was taken by a private photographer for the Obama campaign and not paid for with tax dollars.

The file was deleted almost immediately to avoid any problem.
But I don't really know who is right or wrong because every drawing representing a person could infringe some copyright 'cause everyone can find it looks like someone represented in some photo.
The silhouette represented a smiling man with his arms folded and I don't think a pose can be copyrighted even if you use a photo as a model to copy your drawing.Or do u pay some royalties to Obama's photographer when you smile with your arms folded?

It was simply TOO close to the picture. Fatten up the person in the silhouette, change the post slightly and add some hair.