On Friday, I encountered this provocative billboard not far from my home in southern Maine:
I received a picture of this billboard on my cell phone Friday afternoon and not surprisingly, I found myself standing in front of it a few hours later. I was not alone - a young man arrived a minute or two after I did, also drawn to this rather unique display of partisanship in an otherwise sleepy town. As it turned out, both of us had dead batteries in our cameras, and as we briefly commiserated about this, our host made his appearance.
Robert Horr appears to be a reasonably fit gentleman in his early to mid fifties, maybe six feet tall or so, with grizzled hair and mustache. He greeted us in faded pants, a black t-shirt bearing a military slogan and workboots. Mr. Horr declined to be photographed for this interview, recognizing that "this sign will bring hate," although apparently I had just missed a television crew from the local news station.
During our conversation, Mr. Horr declared himself a "Constitutionalist" ("it means what it says") and an "NRA member who votes" (per another sign prominently displayed in the yard). Although he has never served in the military, two of his sons have enlisted (although he declined to say where or in what branch they were serving). The sun was going down, and Mr. Horr bade us welcome even as he busied himself setting up industrial strength spotlights to illuminate the billboard for evening motorists. At length, he approached and I asked him if he had created the billboard himself. He did not - the billboard represents the work of a talented artist-for-hire. I then explained who I was (blogger, Obama supporter, etc) and hinted that he might be a McCain supporter. Mr. Horr shook his head vigorously.
"This sign is neutral," he insisted. "I'm just trying to get the facts out there about these two candidates. If something about this sign makes you nervous, perhaps you should reconsider your vote." Later, in response to a direct question from the young man who witnessed our conversation, Mr. Horr would refuse to divulge who he was voting for.
I assured him that the sign didn't make me nervous and questioned his claim of neutrality, pointing out that on the one hand, a young McCain was featured in military gear, which might be appropriate given that McCain had a rather complete career as a Navy pilot. On the other hand, the Obama rendering was drawn from a picture of Obama in traditional African garb during a visit to Kenya in 2006, an outfit that he wore maybe a day or two in his entire life. Why choose to display this particular image?
"That's his heritage," Mr. Horr explained. "Obama was born in Africa, you know." At some point during our interview, I asked him if Obama was a Muslim. Mr. Horr said that he didn't know, but wasn't ready to take me at my word when I told him that Obama was not an adherent of the Muslim faith. "I don't know what's in his heart . . . " he said with hands apologetically raised, adding for good measure that "we don't really know anything about Barack Obama." This last, despite the fact that Obama has been continually and ruthlessly vetted during the two years that he's been on the national campaign trail. I never did get around to asking Mr. Horr what's wrong with Muslims in general.
Mr. Horr also argued that the images on the billboard were not misleading images of the candidates because they are based on actual photos.
Some of you will recall that this picture first surfaced in late February, in advance of important primaries in Texas and Ohio. The Drudge Report broke the story, claiming that the photo had been released by the Clinton campaign, which didn't deny releasing it, but instead insisted that there was nothing misleading or provocative about it. By contrast, Obama's campaign characterized the photo as an attempt to paint Obama as an anti-American Muslim, Obama's campaign manager describing it as the "most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either side in this campaign." Obama himself told a Dallas radio station that "the notion that [the Clinton campaign] would try to use this to imply in some way that I'm foreign, I think is, you know, unfortunate."
Now, less than three weeks away from election day, this photo has resurfaced in my backyard, of all places.
I assurred Mr. Horr that Obama was not born in Africa, but in Hawaii. Mr. Horr continued to insist that not only was Obama born in Africa, but that he spent the first 12 years of his life there and went to "school" in Kenya. I again insisted that Obama spent most of his childhood in Hawaii, but Mr. Horr was having none of it.
Instructing me to "get the facts," Mr. Horr reminded me that Obama may not be qualified to be president of the United States, citing a pending lawsuit to get to the bottom of the Obama birth certificate situation. I presume that he was referring to the lawsuit filed in the federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporter Phillip J. Berg, Esq. who maintains that under the Constitution, Obama is not qualified to be president because he was: 1. born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and 2. that even if Obama was born in Hawaii, he renounced his American citizenship by moving to Indonesia with his mother as a child. The Obama campaign, together with the DNC has filed a motion to dismiss this complaint on the same grounds for which a similar complaint against McCain was dismissed a few months ago - that Mr. Berg lacks legal standing to maintain suit, as he has not alleged that he will be personally injured by Obama's candidacy in any legally cognizable fashion. No decision yet on the motion to dismiss, but you can view the entire case docket here.
In terms of Mr. Berg's qualifications as a lawyer, a brief internet search turned up this opinion by the Honorable Curtis Joyner of the very court in which Berg filed his controversial lawsuit. In this 2005 Order, the Court affirmed the imposition of sanctions against Mr. Berg, noting that Mr. Berg had filed a complaint "completely devoid of any basis in fact or law." Joyner wasn't finished with Berg, however:
Mr. Berg's conduct . . . is the reason [court rules imposing sanctions on lawyers for frivolous conduct] were implemented. Other attorneys should look to Mr. Berg's actions as a blueprint for what not to do when attempting to effectively and honorably perform the duties of the legal profession. This Court has grown weary of Mr. Berg's continuous and brazen disrespect towards this Court and his own clients. Mr. Berg's actions . . . serve to divert judicial resources from legitimate matters and this Court cannot, in good conscience, allow this conduct to go unpunished.
So much for Mr. Berg.
Mr. Horr went on to say that because Obama's parents were not American citizens at the time he was born, Obama cannot satisfy the qualifications for president set forth in Article II of the Constitution. Art II provides as follows:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
By his remarks, I presume that Mr. Horr is of the opinion that Obama is neither a "natural born Citizen" nor a "Citizen of the United States," as required by Article II. Certainly some rather convoluted arguments in support of this idea were making their way around the Internet last summer. However under the 14th Amendment ("Citizenship rights"), all persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the United States. Therefore, even if both of Obama's parents were non-citizens, Obama would still be a U.S. citizen by virtue of his birth in Hawaii.
With respect to the Ronald Reagan quote on his billboard, Mr. Horr could not identify the context in which Reagan made these remarks. With a minimal amount of digging around, I did find Mr. Horr's Biden and Reagan quotes cited a couple of lines away from each other in an article entitled "Comrade Barack Hussein Obama" on the Patriot Post website. For those of you that have not yet had the pleasure, the Post styles itself the "Internet Journal of the conservative revolution" and defines its "vision" as follows:
The Patriot Post believes that individual liberty, the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and the promotion of free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values can only be secured through the exercise of individual rights and responsibilities as ordained by God and established by our nation's Founders in our Declaration of Independence and its subordinate exposition, our Republic's Constitution.
Sounds about right to me - given the proximity of the quotes in the cited Post article and the content featured on this website, I'm guessing Mr. Horr found the text for his billboard here.
Returning to the context in which Reagan made the above-quoted statement, Governor Palin used it in her closing remarks at the VP debate, only to have the liberal media quickly point out that "Reagan was not warning about a general lack of vigilance about freedom, he was warning what would happen if Medicare was enacted." Looks like Palin, The Patriot Post and now Mr. Horr have all taken this quote out of context.
In all fairness to Mr. Horr, I should say that throughout our interview, he was reasonably friendly and polite, despite our profound disagreements re: the candidates, and he also declared his willingness to discuss his views openly with anyone who might seek him out, which is what American politics are supposed to be all about. I should also mention that at least three or four cars signaled their approval by some combination of honking their horns and/or giving Mr. Horr the thumbs-up as they drove by.
One final note - beware to those who would visit ill-will upon Mr. Horr and his sign. Mr. Horr made it clear to me that although he's not looking for trouble, he will "defend his property if necessary."
Please visit my website, The Systocrat Papers, to read all of my blog posts on the 2008 presidential election.