Anti-Obama Billboard Depicting President as 'Cry Baby Socialist' Sparks Outrage
A new series of anti-Obama billboards have sprung up in New Orleans in the latest outdoor advertising campaign to paint the president as an "anti-Christian socialist" who blames former President George W. Bush for everything negative that has happened in the U.S since he took office.
The new billboard campaign created by Timothy Reilly is displayed from his own property and depicts President Barack Obama as a dunce, a puppet, and a crying baby. Needless to say, such a colorful expression of Reilly's opinions of the president has caused outrage among some local residents, who call the signs "disrespectful" and "racist" New Orleans' WWL-TV, reported.
In the "crying baby" billboard, which depicts the president wearing a diaper, a headline reads "It’s Not My Fault!" as Obama is bubble-quoted pointing blamed to everything, from the Republican Congress and Bush's polices to the Japanese tsunami.
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In the "puppet" billboard, Reilly shows Obama as being under the control of "puppet master" George Soros, who is depicted as a communist and an antichrist. Obama is as also listed as a "socialist" and incompetent economy wrecker in the controversial sign.
In a third billboard, painting the president as a "dunce," Reilly shows a "translation" of "Obamaspeak," listing several definitions. According Reilly's billboard, "balanced approach" is "Obamaspeak" for "tax the rich." "Let me be clear" supposedly means "let me lie to you."
Dozens of protesters visited Reilly's home to demand he remove the signs.
"He wouldn't do that to [President] Bush, I'm sure. It's just insulting. It's insulting," said C.C. Campbell-Rock. "He's going to have to take them down."
"This is nothing put pure racism," said Raymond Rock. "This is a disgrace."
Even New Orleans's former mayor, Ray Nagin came by to try to convince Reilly to take down the signs.
However, Reilly, who would not talk to reporters, has refused.
Not all residents were as outraged as the protestors, as they insisted that freedom of speech allows one to say what one believes.
"He can put up a sign if he wants to. It doesn't bother me," said Harold Gagnet, a neighbor.
"I think it's fine. It's on his property," said Katherine deMontluzin. "He can say whatever he wants."
(Image: The Christian Post via WWLTV.com)
Anti-Obama billboards are nothing new. Last year, ThinkProgress reported on a group called "Billboards Against Obama" that put up several signs throughout Atlanta that carried critical messages of the president, including: "Stop Obama's Socialism!," and "If You're Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention!," among others.
Those billboards were mild critiques of the president compared to one sign that was placed near Notre Dame University when the school awarded Obama with an honorary degree. The sign, paid for by the Pro-Life Action League (PLAL), said: "Obama is pro-abortion choice. How dare you honor him."
The PLAL originally wanted the sign to read: "Obama is pro-abortion. How dare you honor him." But the the sign company refused to say that Obama is pro-abortion, pro-life blogger Jill Stanek reported.
Earlier this month, a billboard in Colorado combined several stereotypes in one when it provided four cartoon caricatures of Obama sitting at a card table that depict him as a terrorist, a gangster, a bandito, and a gay man, while gambling with the Bible, the Constitution and Uncle Sam, KJCT reported.
The man who paid for the Colo. billboard wanted to remain anonymous, but Paul Snover, the artist who was paid to create the image, explained, "He was wanting to represent the influences he saw the president as having in his administration."
Controversial Obama billboards have not been limited to the U.S.
In Berlin, what was intended to be a joke, Martin Sonneborn, a German comedian who is the leader of a "satirical" political party created a billboard of himself in blackface with the words: "Ich bin ein Obama (I am an Obama)," which is a play on the words of John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, German news site, The Local, reported.
When told of the racist connotations of blackface in the U.S., Sonneborn said he was not aware of the history. However, it did not change his opinion about his billboard.
"If Americans associate it with that, then I’m sorry," he said. "But I’m not going to take it down."
