Rodeo clown who mocked Obama at Missouri State Fair speaks out

[Sherman A1]

(KMOV) -- The Missouri Rodeo clown at the center of the President Obama mask controversy has spoken publicly for the first time.

Tuffy Gessling said he decided to speak out because of the hateful response and death threats he’s received.

The controversy erupted when Gessling wore a mask of Obama and asked the spectators if they wanted to see “Obama run down by a bull” during the fair on August 10. Many in the audience responded enthusiastically, but the act at the fair in Sedalia was criticized by both Democratic and Republican officials in Missouri as disrespectful of Obama.

A couple days later Gessling was permanently barred from ever performing at the fair again.

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Rodeo-clown-who-mocked-Obama-at-Missouri-State-Fair-speaks-out-221187211.html

[shenmue]

1. He's surprised that people think he's a douchebag?

Oh my stars!

[pscot]

2. If he actually did the same thing to Bush and Clinton

that throws a different light on it.

[Shrike47]

3. As far as I'm concerned, the broom made it unconscionable.

He can rot in hell and be anally sodomized with a broomstick all day.

[TM99]

4. Looks like it became a witch hunt.

“I didn’t think anything more of it than what we’ve done 15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, when we’ve done it with Bush, Clinton and Ronald Reagan,” said Gessling.

If he has done it with all of these Presidents, he was acting no differently than a comic sarcastically attacking a sitting president in a routine. In other words, this was a form of protected speech, and he should not have been fired for it.