A billboard in Mason City, Iowa, created by a conservative Tea Party group comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin has been removed.
Kent Beatty, the general manager of the company that owns the downtown billboard, says a North Iowa Tea Party representative called Tuesday night and asked that the sign be covered over. Beatty says his company replaced the sign Wednesday morning with a public service announcement.
The original sign showed photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism", "National Socialism", and "Marxist Socialism."
Some Tea Party members criticized the sign, and North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson acknowledged that the pictures overwhelmed the intended message of anti-socialism.
The sign only went up last week, but quickly drew attention in the news media and on the Internet. It is the latest in a series of anti-Obama billboards that have popped up around the nation in recent months.
Others included a sign in Minnesota that featured a photo of former President George W. Bush and the question "Miss Me Yet?" Also in Minnesota, a sign reading "Remember real home and change?" had an image of former President Ronald Reagan. In Dallas, former President Jimmy Carter's face appeared with a "Miss Me Yet?" billboard.
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