Oh, my. Liberals are up in arms over reports that a rodeo clown at the Missouri State Fair wore an Obama mask.

It's the end of the world, I tell ya:

The taxpayer-supported Missouri State Fair got a lot of negative publicity Sunday following a report of a shameful stunt that occurred Saturday night in Sedalia.

The story by an eyewitness, Perry Beam, is posted to Daily Kos and Show Me Progress.

Fortunately, by late Sunday evening, The Star reported that many top officials -- from Gov. Jay Nixon to leading Republicans -- were denouncing the incident.

Basically, a clown wearing a mask of President Barack Obama came out during the bull riding event at the fair. The crowd was asked if it wanted to see Obama "run down by a bull." (UPDATE: 6:55 p.m.: Here are two short videos of part of the incident: "We're going to smoke Obama, man," says announcer.)

Things got worse from there, which doesn't surprise me, given the anti-Obama feeling among many fairgoers from rural Missouri, where Obama lost to Mitt Romney (at least 60-40 percent in much of outlying parts of state) in 2012 election.

Egged on by the crowd and the announcer, "One of the clowns ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy. Finally, a bull came close enough to him that he had to move, so he jumped up and ran away to the delight of the onlookers hooting and hollering from the stands."

Obviously this is a horrible show of respect for the President of the United States at a public event at the state fair-- which got more than $400,000 from Missouri state taxpayers this year.

It's also borderline illegal; the U.S. Secret Service takes threats against the president seriously. While the president himself was in no danger here, it's the kind of stupid activity that could give nuts ideas about harming the president.

(UPDATE 5:40 p.m: Here is the apology from state fair officials for the "disrespectful" smear of Obama.)

This stunt is the kind of thing that will give Missouri -- especially the rural parts -- the wrong kind of attention.

Americans understand (but don't have to like) the fact that there's plenty of the verbal jousting that takes place in much of political discourse these days.

But when you make fun of the president at a taxpayer-backed event that's supposed to be appropriate for people of all ages, you've crossed the line.

Liberals are so upset about Obama the Clown that they forgot to protest the mistreatment of animals at the rodeo where the clown appeared.

As for misuse of taxpayer dollars, is he serious? Clowning is a performance art and the last I looked, free expression was still part of the Constitution. After all, the taxpayers funded "Piss Christ" some years ago and I don't recall the argument being in widespread use on the left that Robert Maplethorpe's execrable piece of "art" shouldn't have been protected just because the taxpayers footed the bill.

One can argue if the performance of the clown was in good taste. It wasn't. It was horrible. But I find it laughable that liberals are complaining about how Obama is portrayed as a clown when his predecessor was often depicted with clown make-up (a few examples here).

And no, it wasn't "borderline illegal" either. That's nonsense. Any criticism of Obama could give the mentally unstable ideas. Jay Leno gives nuts ideas of harming the president. Should he be arrested too?

This is a big deal because liberals and the press pressured Republicans to denounce it. More evidence that free speech is under attack in America and that any criticism of the president can be twisted and construed to mean anything.

Update from Thomas Lifson. The great Iowahawk tweets:

People who cheered on Bush assassination fantasy movies suddenly outraged by Rodeo clown in Obama mask http://t.co/3mgeHEqUwK

-- David Burge (@iowahawkblog) August 12, 2013