Obama-Hitler Billboard Divides Tea Party

An Iowa billboard comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler is causing a tempest in the Tea Party ranks, reports the Telegraph.The Mason City ad also compares the president to Soviet leader VI Lenin, and declares: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful and naive." The billboard clearly highlights Obama's pro-socialism stance, said a pleased North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson.

But Shelby Blakely, a spokesman for the national Tea Party Patriots, said the sign was not appropriate, and that her group opposes any such comparisons.The schism underlines the continuing battle for the soul of the Tea Party as some factions fight to nudge the movement into the mainstream where it can win a bigger chunk of the political pie. The White House had no comment. (More Barack Obama stories.)