GOP, Dems denounce anti-Obama billboard

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A billboard in western Colorado that uses caricatures to depict President Barack Obama as a terrorist, gangster, Mexican bandit and a gay man has drawn bipartisan scorn from political officials.

The billboard along an Interstate 70 business loop in Grand Junction shows the four figures around a table playing cards and rats below.

The sign reads "Vote DemocRAT. Join the game" at the top.

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Mesa County Democratic Party Chairwoman Martelle Daniels calls the billboard racist and homophobic. Her GOP counterpart, Chuck Pabst, describes it as "juvenile" and "reprehensible."

Paul Snover, the artist of the controversial billboard, said he was not allowed to say who paid for it. He told The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction that it was designed to be an editorial cartoon, writ large.

"It's not that Obama is a terrorist or a gangster, it's that mentality that seems to come across from him and his administration," Snover told the newspaper on Thursday. "The Mexican drug smuggler, it’s the border issue in Arizona and him not willing to take it on and handle the situation. And with the gay problem, it’s the social justice issues and trying to manipulate things with that."

The artist has reportedly received his fair share of hate mail since the controversial billboard first went up earlier this week.

He nevertheless stands behind his work, telling The Daily Sentinel he believes the billboard will not come down until after the Nov. 2 midterm elections — adding that there's "still another good two years of life in it."