The Ralph Smeed Foundation erects billboard comparing President Obama to Aurora shooter James Holmes. It is reprehensible and goes too far, but plays into the right wing’s scare tactics to get voters nervous enough to vote for Mitt Romney. The group said the billboard, which is located on Franklin Road, is meant to draw attention to military men and women dying overseas, KBOI2 reports.

Um, sorry, but this is way over the line. If you want to draw people’s attention to military men and women dying overseas, you don’t use the picture of the man who singlehandedly carried out the worst shooting massacre in this country’s history and compare the President to him. In fact, more soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan after former president George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, saying “mission accomplished.”

Equating President Obama’s foreign policies, which have largely been successful, to the reprehensible and despicable acts of James Holmes is an affront to the 12 people who were killed and the 58 wounded, as well as their families. Using one of the worst tragedies in American history to take a jab at President Obama is just despicable.

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.