David Edwards and Muriel Kane
July 15, 2008
RawStory.com
A political billboard in St. Cloud, Florida reads “Please Don’t Vote for
a Democrat” over an image of the burning World Trade Center.
Businessman Mike Meehan, who paid for the ad, says he’s "only trying to
help Republicans." The billboard also carries a link for Meehan’s website,
TheRepublicanSong.com, at which he says, “I claim to be a man of God”
and promotes his political song and video.
Meehan’s song, which appears to have racist overtones, begins, “The Democrat
secular progressive move, political correctness is killing us too. They want
to take the money from the hard working man, and give it to the lazy folks that
don’t give a damn.”
Even Republicans have found the billboard “inappropriate,” and many
residents want it to come down. “I’m thinking about the Twin Towers, all
the families that were killed there,” one woman told local TV affiliate
WFTV.
Another local was more accepting, saying, “They can have their opinion.
It’s a free country, you want to pay for the ad.”
However, the posters at right-wing site Lucianne.com were enthusiastic about the billboard. “Why isn’t Mike Meehan the Republican presidential candidate?”
asked one. “Liberals get abjectly hysterical whenever the truth about them
is pointed out,” wrote another. “People who refer to the terrorist
attack as a tragedy are morons,” added a third.
The company which owns the billboard says it’s a free speech issue and has
no plans to take Meehan’s ad down before the election.
The full story can be read here.
This video is from CNN’s American Morning, broadcast July 15, 2008.