Pat Dollard

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Des Moines Register:

The message of a controversial billboard in Mason City comparing President Obama with Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin probably got lost in its visuals, a co-founder of the Tea Party group that paid for the sign said today.

But he says the underlying message remains: That the country is headed in the wrong direction.

He insists the billboard that links Obama with Nazi or communist tyrants – including one that led to the murder of 6 million Jewish people – is not disrespectful to President Obama.

“It is not disrespectful to Mr. Obama. It’s a statement on his policy,” said Bob Johnson, co-founder of the North Iowa Tea Party. “It’s a statement on his policies.”

Johnson said he was not part of a billboard committee that approved the advertisement. He said he doesn’t know how much the billboard cost but said it would remain up for a month.

The billboard includes a pictures with the words “Radical leaders prey on the fearful & Naïve.”

Johnson said the picture of Hitler next to Obama’s picture probably detracts from the underlying message.

The North Iowa Tea Party paid for the sign through donations, mostly from its members.

The group previously had a sign in November that said socialism is not a price society can afford, Johnson said.

Ryan Rhodes, organizer for the Iowa Tea Party, criticized the North Iowa Tea Party’s actions and noted that neither he nor members in central Iowa had anything to do with the billboard.

“I don’t believe it’s productive in what we’re trying to do,” Rhodes said. “You have little pocket groups all over the place and they can choose to do what they will do and, based on that, sometimes different groups have to differentiate themselves a little more from them.”

A group known as “Concerned Citizens” earlier this year sponsored several billboards. One in Mason City included a hammer and sickle and the saying “Socialism – A system of social organization that advocates the ownership and control of industry, capital, land, etc. OBAMA-NATION. Live free or die.”

Mark Tlusty, a member of the group and a district chairman of the Floyd County Republican Party, defended a billboard earlier this year that included a definition of socialism along with the phrase “Obama-nation.” He noted his fears with health care reform.

“Why would I want someone to take one-sixth of the economy over and just ram it down so many people if they don’t want it to begin with?” Tlusty asked.

The White House declined to comment, according to a story from the Associated Press, below.

Reporter Reid Forgrave contributed to this story.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A billboard created by an Iowa tea party group that compares President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is drawing sharp criticism — even from fellow tea party activists who have condemned it as offensive and a waste of money.

The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the billboard in downtown Mason City last week. The sign shows large photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels “Democratic Socialism,” “National Socialism,” and “Marxist Socialism.”

Beneath the photos is the phrase, “Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive.”

The co-founder of the roughly 200-person group said the billboard was intended to send an anti-socialist message. But Bob Johnson admitted Tuesday that the message may have gotten lost amid the images of fascist and communist leaders.

“The purpose of the billboard was to draw attention to the socialism. It seems to have been lost in the visuals,” Johnson said. “The pictures overwhelmed the message. The message is socialism.” He said he didn’t know of any plans to remove the sign.

But others in the tea party movement criticized the sign.

“That’s just a waste of money, time, resources and it’s not going to further our cause,” said Shelby Blakely, a leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, a national group. “It’s not going to help our cause. It’s going to make people think that the tea party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that’s not true.”

Blakely also expressed outrage at linking Obama to Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany who oversaw the killing of 6 million Jews and whose invasions of neighboring countries led to World War II.

“When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule,” Blakely said.

John White, an Iowa coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, said that he can understand the North Iowa group’s perception that Obama is “Hitler-esque,” but he thinks the billboard is offensive and unproductive. White said that he planned to discuss the matter with national tea party officials.

“I fear they may end up in some kind of trouble over it, because it’s basically slanderous,” White said. “I don’t know that it’s the message we want to send. I’d much rather see billboards that say ‘Remember in November. Get Out and Vote.’”

The billboard is owned by Waitt Outdoor of Omaha, Neb. Waitt general manager, Kent Beatty, said the company didn’t have a problem with the message.

“We believe in freedom of speech,” Beatty said. “It doesn’t reflect our views, necessarily.”

The White House declined to comment on the sign.

One person who welcomed the billboard was Dean Genth, a Democratic activist from Mason City, a city of 30,000 people just south of the Minnesota border, who said he thinks the sign lays bare the views of tea party supporters.

“I welcome them to continue to spew that kind of stuff because I think it’s going to do a lot of good for the good Democrats around the state,” Genth said.