NEWPORT, S.C.,None — The sign is huge, about 4 feet by 6 feet, and three words scream out at drivers heading west on one of York County's busiest roads, S.C. 161 between Rock Hill and York.
The three words are "Obama," and "racist" and "idiot."
Not to see the sign is to drive blind. The sign works.
Obama is Barack Obama, America's first black president. The guy who owns the sign brought in the words "racist" and "idiot" to get people's attention.
The guy is white.
The words are next to another big sign, which says Obamacare gives you a headache and other ailments, on the chain-link fence of Bursey's Auto.
The full text of the sign says, "If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you weren't a racist, you'd better vote for someone else in 2012 to prove you're not an idiot!"
The sign had me. I pulled over, said I was with the newspaper, and asked to speak to the owner of the shop and sign, because surely this sign was a story.
"My name is Reggie Bursey and I paid for that sign, so I guess you talk to me," he said.
Co-owner Reggie Bursey, who calls himself "a proud conservative," put up the sign after he paid for it to be painted with the money he earns as a small businessman selling and fixing cars. Anybody who puts up a sign like this, and stops what he is doing to talk about why, is all right by me, even if the sign makes no sense.
Bursey sure seems like a decent guy, and he works hard for his money certainly. Bursey said this economy has hurt him, and to any who will listen, he blames Obama and Democrats.
Obama is "wrong for the country" because his politics and policies are bad, Bursey said, not because of his race.
"He said he was going to transform America, but in two years, we will be lucky to have a country left," Bursey said, talking about federal health care, out-of-control spending and other conservative stances that are used so much.
But why then put up the part about anyone voting for Obama to prove they were not racist?
Bursey, who has had many signs up in the past for Republicans and against John Spratt and other Democrats, said it is to get people to look at the sign, and think.
Think about what? That tens of thousands of York County people, including so many whites, had to prove they are not bigots by voting for Obama? Millions in America?
No, said Bursey, although that's exactly what the sign asks. Bursey said he can't imagine any reason anybody of any color would have voted for Obama before, or will again in 2012. Sounding just like TV and radio people who complain about Obama incessantly, Bursey said, "Anybody opposed to Obama is considered a racist. Don't you watch TV?"
There are plenty of people who don't like Obama who are not racists. But that sign is right there, and horns toot as cars go by, so this sign must mean something.
For Bursey, his problem is Democrats and liberals. Obama the black president is not a problem, he said. Obama the liberal president is.
"Why would they vote for him, if they knew his record in the Senate?" Bursey asked. "I am just asking people if they thought about it."
Bursey said he is not implying that anyone is a racist.
"I am asking if they voted for him, are they happy?" Bursey said.
At least once a day since the sign went up, and often more than that, drivers stop or call the shop about the sign, Bursey said. All but one have said they like the sign, said Bursey.
At the shop Wednesday, a black customer who had bought a car from Bursey, and had service work done by Bursey, said he had no problem with Bursey or the sign.
"This is America!" the guy said. "Freedom of speech."
The guy declined to give his name. Freedom not to speak, I guess.
Glenn McCall is chairman of the York County Republican Party, a big shot on South Carolina and national Republican committees. He votes Republican, and that means he votes against Obama and disagrees with Obama on almost everything.
And yes, McCall is a black man just like Obama.
The sign made McCall laugh because that sign is, to McCall, not why anybody voted for Obama.
[ Click here to read more stories from Channel 9's newspaper partner, the Rock Hill Herald. ]