Dems Decry Nebraska Parade’s ‘Obama Presidential Library’ Outhouse Float

President Barack Obama speaks about the situation in Iraq, Thursday, June 19, 2014, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Obama said the US will send up to 300 military advisers to Iraq, ... President Barack Obama speaks about the situation in Iraq, Thursday, June 19, 2014, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Obama said the US will send up to 300 military advisers to Iraq, set up joint operation centers. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

During the Norfolk, Neb. Independence Day parade on Friday, one float depicted President Obama’s presidential library as an outhouse, spurring state Democrats to denounce the float and the message it sent.

The float featured a wooden outhouse on the back of a flatbed truck, with signs reading, “Obama Presidential Library.” A dummy in overalls was attached to the float.

The sponsor of the float is unknown, and the Norfolk parade committee member Rick Konopasek said there were few restrictions on what floats could enter the parade.

“We don’t feel its right to tell someone what they can and can’t express,” he told the Journal Star. “This was political satire. If we start saying no to certain floats, we might as well not have a parade at all.”

However, residents and state Democrats were offended by the float.

“You see people laughing, pointing at it, smiling, looking positive about it. I immediately felt sick to my stomach,” Norfolk resident Glory Kathurima told KMTV. “I knew what that meant and I knew there was no sort of political statement being made by an image like that.”

Norfolk City Councilman Dick Pfeil made it clear that the town didn’t support the float’s message.

“The City of Norfolk doesn’t condone that,” he told the World-Herald.

The Nebraska State Democratic Party condemned the float, calling it one of the “worst shows of racism and disrespect for the office of the presidency that Nebraska has ever seen,” according to the World-Herald.

[H/t Huffington Post]

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Would this kind of insult to any President before this one have been tolerated? I wonder how he’s different.

    Don’t worry, they’ll be even more crass when Hillary is President. Republicans will make “jokes” about Hillary that ignore “family values”; jokes that we would blush to hear in mixed company.

  2. Next parade, why don’t they have a float of tombstones and call it “Bush’s Legacy”. Something tells me they wouldn’t be so free speechy then.

  3. Avatar for quin quin says:

    There’s the level of brains that the GOP represents today.

  4. My understanding is that the George W. Bush Presidential Library is full of comic books, editions of Mad Magazine, back issues of Penthouse, books with lots of pictures and the books that Dick Cheney read to Dubya.

  5. These back waters really should not have 2 members of the united states senate. if you remove the racists and militia types you have maybe 34 voters. why not give Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho one senate seat for all five states and save on the air fare costs to the tax payers?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

65 more replies

Participants

Avatar for xpurg8d Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for pearlywhite Avatar for lochsabill Avatar for wildwilly1111 Avatar for marby Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for leftflank Avatar for thunderhawk Avatar for terrymahoney Avatar for debbie Avatar for harposnarx Avatar for sylhines Avatar for ericmpls Avatar for frankly_my_dear Avatar for jasper Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for quin Avatar for magical_panda Avatar for maxaroo Avatar for tomj Avatar for jolieblanc Avatar for lisztman Avatar for TAm

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: