Obama rodeo clown at Missouri state fair draws protest

"I felt like I was at a Klan rally,” Missouri State Fair goer Perry Beam told Raw Story, his outrage stoked by watching a rodeo crowd whoop and holler at a clown wearing an Obama mask while an announcer asked “Who wants to see Obama get trampled?” this weekend.

The fair – which is established by the Missouri Legislature – is formally a nonpartisan event. “This isn’t a Republican state fair,” Beam said. “I want to write the governor and the fair board, because I want my money back. This was shameful.”

A call to a spokesman for the fair has yet to be returned. The rodeo at the fair is produced by the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, which also has not yet returned a call seeking comment.

Beam said they brought out the clown like a statue, “and the announcer said, 'Look at our Obama dummy.'” As the announcer called for the “dummy” to get gored, the crowd began to cheer. Eventually, a bull approached the supposed statue, which jumped up and ran away to cheers, Beam said.

The problem with the performance comes from the partisan assumptions made about the audience, and the racial subtext about calling for violence against the president, Beam said.

“Is this what we want people to see of us?” asked Beam. “I’m a native of Missouri, I play country music for a living. Knuckleheads. They should know better.”

[Photo courtesy of Perry Beam]