School Supplies with Obama Campaign Advertisement Logo Causes Controversy in Columbia, Mo., School

"Change we can believe in" school supplies spark controversy at Missouri elementary school.

Pencils and notebooks resembling President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign ads have been sold in at least one Columbia, Mo., school and other public schools by Pencil Wholesale, which distributes supplies to six Columbia schools: Parkade Elementary, Cedar Ridge Elementary, Paxton Keeley Elementary, Mill Creek Elementary, Smithton Middle School and Hickman High School. At Mill Creek, at least one pencil and one notebook with similar designs to the president's campaign ads have been sold out of a supply machine. Two families have complained about the items.

The bound three-ring notebook bears a photo of literal change — pennies, quarters, dimes and nickels stacked into piles. Above the photo, white text reads “CHANGE” over a navy background. Below the photo, “WE CAN BELIEVE IN” sits above a logo similar to Obama’s campaign image — three red stripes separated by white stripes in front of a white circle with a blue background arching over the circle.

The supplies were designed by the art department of Harcourt Pencil Co., based in Milroy, Ind., Greg Jones, sales representative with Pencil Wholesale said. “The art department was trying to be cutesy,” he said. Source: Columbia Daily Tribune

Jones reportedly delivers the supplies to about 800 schools. He said remembers seeing the Obama-esque notebook when it was first designed, but “I didn’t think one thing about it,” he said. Really? He should not have put them into circulation in the school supply machines. He had ample time to stave off this controversy. To all those right wingers who see this as another indoctrination move, I am pretty sure President Obama didn't have anything to do with this.

Photo credit: Change we can believe in, Columbia Daily Tribune