US student comes forward as creator of Obama-Joker

Firas Alkhateeb, 20, says he made the image this past winter and didn't intend to make a political statement.

The creator of an iconic anti-Obama image is no angry conservative frustrated at corporate bailouts and healthcare reform, but a student from the president's hometown who favoured an even more liberal presidential candidate.

The work depicting Barack Obama as Batman's archenemy the Joker, which appeared on street posters, T-shirts and bumper stickers across the country this summer, was fashioned on a lark by a bored Palestinian-American on break from university.

Firas Alkhateeb, 20, is far from one of the red-faced protesters who have shouted down Democratic politicians at constituent meetings, nor is he a smug young conservative standing against his Obama-enthralled peers.

More here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/18/obama-joker-image-creator?CMP=AFCYAH

...various reasons. However, it's the use the image was ultimately put to that's evil.

PB

... where it came from. It's just like in the UK where posters are regularly defaced with a Hitler moustache. It's a standard, meaningless piece of graffiti. Now, Rush Limbaugh dressed up as Mussolini? That would make a valid political point. Fat, bombastic and full of manure.