This is a huge story right now:
A clown wearing a President Barack Obama mask appeared at a Missouri State Fair rodeo this weekend and the announcer asked the enthusiastic spectators if they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull."
The antics led the state's second highest-ranking official, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, to denounce the performance in a tweet Sunday. He said it was "disrespectful" to the president....
Here's a news story, via Ed Kilgore:
You're going to say I'm letting down the side, but I'm inclined to save my full outrage for other things.
In part, it's because I went to the Minnesota State Fair two years ago and saw several Michele Bachmann-bashing artworks in the seed art display (yes, art literally made with seeds and grains), as well as quite a few pro-Obama pieces.
The seed art at the Minnesota fair has leaned liberal over the years -- birther-bashing, gay marriage-supporting, Occupy-supporting, Paul Ryan-bashing, Bachmann-bashing (again), Cheney-bashing, etc., etc., etc.
("Norm" is Norm Coleman; that one came from 2008, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate against Al Franken.)
Admittedly, the seed art is in one display at a massive fair; it doesn't seem as central as Missouri's rodeo.
Oh, and very little of the seed art actually invokes violence (unless you count Norm Coleman being felled by a bowling ball). But I'm more inclined to get upset about invocations of violence against the president when they involve either realistic ways that presidents have been victimized (shooting) or realistic ways that black people have been victimized (e.g., hanging). Violence via rodeo bull is not likely to happen to Obama in the real world.
And I can't think of anything further from the usual anti-black stereotypes than this sort of rural violence.
I'm inclined to let this slide because getting upset about it only invites right-wingers to dredge up every time any liberal or Democrat has said or done anything even remotely comparable (already they're invoking the head on the pike in Game of Thrones that was modeled after George W. Bush).
So I think this is a distraction. Best to denounce it briefly and just move on.
