GOP Pulls Obama Punching Bag from Indiana County Fair
First the Democrats were forced to pull ads mocking Ann Romney’s dancing horse, now the Republicans in Indiana have pulled the Obama punching bag from an Indiana county fair that showed President Obama as a boxer with a black eye.
The Obama punching bag, which apparently can be purchased on the Internet for $15 to $20, drew enough complaints from fair attendees that the county Republican Party decided to remove it. One of the complainees was a Republican state house candidate, according to the Muncie Star Press. Another was a military veteran who thought the bag was disrespectful to the nation’s commander-in-chief, Tom Bennington, a spokesman for the Delaware County Republican Party.
“Obama is somebody we want to defeat. It was all meant in fun,” Bennington told the Muncie newspaper.
Obama won Indiana and Delaware County in the 2008 presidential election, the first time a Democrat had won Indiana in 40 years.
Democrats were forced to pull a commercial using Ann Romney’s dancing horse as a prop for the message that Mitt Romney is trying to dance around the issue of releasing his tax records. While the voice over asked why he was dancing around his taxes, the screen showed the white horse prancing while goofy music played in the background. But when Ann Romney revealed that she uses the dancing horse as part of her treatment therapy for multiple sclerosis, and she went on Good Morning America to say that she was offended by the ad, the Democratic National Committee quickly yanked the ad and apologized to her.
Romney’s taxes have become a burning issue in the campaign, as he has begun to be pressured from the right and the left to release tax returns before 2010. But Romney still refuses, saying that the nature of his earnings should not be relevant to his campaign for the White House. As the chorus of criticism grows and Romney remains steadfast, many observers are beginning to ask what Romney is trying to hide about his $250 million fortune, much of which is stashed away in offshore bank accounts and tax shelters.