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The Missouri State Fair is facing backlash over a rodeo clown modeled after President Obama.

The clown, clad in an Obama mask, appeared during a bull riding event; the announcer repeatedly asked the crowd whether “anyone would like to see Obama run down by a bull,” according to Show Me Progress, which says the audience was whipped “into a lather.” Another clown reportedly played with the lips of the Obama mask, and the clown eventually had to jump aside to avoid a bull. “I felt like I was at a Klan rally,” said one fair visitor, per the Raw Story.

Fair bosses released a statement calling the performance “inappropriate and disrespectful,” saying it “does not reflect the opinions or standards of the Missouri State Fair.” Politicians, including the state’s Democratic governor and Republican lieutenant governor, also slammed the show; Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill said it suggested to young people that it’s OK to “disrespect, taunt, and joke about harming the president of our great nation.”

One man was at the rodeo with his wife and a student they were hosting from Taiwan. He said they were having a good time until the end of the rodeo. “It was the usual until the very end at bull riding,” he said. “As they were bringing the bulls into the chute and prepping them … they bring out what looks like a dummy. The announcer says `Here’s our Obama dummy, or our dummy of Obama.

“They mentioned the president’s name, I don’t know, 100 times. It was sickening,” he said. “It was feeling like some kind of Klan rally you’d see on TV.”

FYI…The Obama clown pic is getting lots of attention online by a blog, Showmeprogress.com, which elicited a huge response Sunday on Twitter.

WTH!

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