At some Tea Celebration protests, posters of President Barack Obama with a Hitler mustache have occasionally been spotted.
Taking that theme to another level, some Tea Celebration protesters have paid for a billboard in Mason City, Iowa that compares Obama to not just Hitler but the defunct Soviet Union’s seminal leader Vladimir Lenin.
With an Obama photo sandwiched between photos of Hitler and Lenin, the billboard has the words, “National Socialism” over the infamous German dictator, “Marxist Socialism” over Lenin and “Democrat Socialism” over Obama.
The message under the photos is an equally provocative kicker:
“Radical leaders prey on the fearful and naive.”
An interesting reaction towards the ad is the split it’s caused in between some Tea Party members.
The diametrically opposed reactions to the billboard within the Tea Party itself seems like much more evidence that those who identify themselves as members shouldn’t all be viewed as monolithic.
Steve Critchfield and Bob Huels are a couple of conservative guys struggling to make a living within the Ozarks under what they view, as a “quasi-socialistic” federal government that’s led by an “anti-business, anti-capitalism president.” And worse, after the near 
collapse of our economy two-years ago, this socialistic President Obama championed and signed a Wall Street reform bill into law, to ensure that greedy Wall Road profiteers would never again, gamble away the life savings of Americans. Nicely that was the last straw for Critchfield and Huels. They view Wall Road reform as a “governmental takeover” and an “Orwellian attack” on their freedoms. Do you socialists see the words Wall Street reform anywhere within the Constitution? Well, do you? What about the word ObamaCare?
Nicely, these two patriots weren’t about to take this Communism stuff lying down. So, they put up a giant, massive anti-Obama billboard on Highway 65. It’s what all the cool right-wing kids do now.
The billboard looms more than Highway 65 South of Ozark, MO. It shows a head shot of President Obama, accompanied with the questions:
Voted Obama? Embarrassed However?
Local station KY3 aired a story on the signal that was erected the beginning of August and paid for by Critchield and Huels. The two men say they have received death threats and have been called racists, since the billboard went up. They are shocked by the negative response, claiming their intent was to start a conversation.
When it comes to politics, there may be as several opinions as cars cruising down U.S. 65. So, naturally, you will find different reactions to a billboard south of Ozark that says “Voted Obama? Embarrassed however?”
“I know the president didn’t win down right here, but there were a lot of people down right here that voted for him, and I believe I can speak for them and say we are not embarrassed yet,” Matthew Patterson, executive director of the Greene County Democratic Central Committee, said in a telephone interview on Sunday.
“My partner and I felt lots of frustration right here lately, and we liked that sign and we thought that was a reasonable question to ask,” Steve Critchfield stated in a telephone interview on Monday.
Critchfield and his company partner from Commercial One Brokers, a real estate firm in Branson, saw a similar signal on the web, bought it, and brought it to the Ozarks.
“I’ve definitely voted for individuals I’m embarrassed to say I’ve voted for,” he said. “We’re not naïve enough to think that we wouldn’t get someone to be upset. I’m just surprised how upset individuals are.”
Critchfield says he’s received death threats due to the sign; people accuse him of hate speech and racism. He insists the billboard was for some thing much more American in the name of discourse, conversation, and old-fashioned debate.
“If everybody thinks President Obama’s carried out a excellent job and they’re extremely happy,” he stated, “then I guess they’d be buying billboards saying ‘I’m proud to have voted for him.’ That’s what makes America great, isn’t it?”
