'Hang Obama' Sign Creator Thomas Savka Says It's Pro-President

A man who posted a sign with the words “hang” and “Obama” along with a noose on a Wisconsin highway insists the shocking poster is in support of President Barack Obama.

The yellow sign featured red letters with the words “Hang” and “Obama” with smaller blue text reading “In There” in between the larger words. To the left is a noose.

"It's my attitude for it. Everybody's picking on Obama. It's the attitude of 'hang in there, buddy!' It isn't over ‘til you're done kicking,” Thomas Savka of Redgranite, Wis., told Fox 11 Online, which has a photo of the sign on its webstie.

Others aren’t buying Savka’s explanation, including the Obama campaign.

“This type of imagery is inappropriate, and has no place in public discourse around elections,” an Obama campaign spokesman told Fox 11.

Residents in and around Redgranite told the station they weren't pleased.

"A lot of people find it offensive,” said Rachel Kern, who lives across the street. "It’s definitely a very big eyecatch to people driving past."

Kern also found the sign confusing.

"I’m not really sure if it's supposed to be for Obama or against him. Because if you actually read it, it's like, ‘keep up the fight.’ But with the noose, it doesn't exactly say, ‘keep up the fight,’ at the same time,” she told Fox 11.

She said the addition of the noose makes the sign offensive.

"He could have just put it on there without the noose,” Kern said.

Savka claimed he put the noose there to raise its visibility.

"That got your attention. It got you to look at the sign,” he said.

The Redgranite resident said the noose was not a racist symbol, although the image is closely tied to lynchings.

"This has nothing to do with color. It's to get people's attention. If they're taking that direction from it, they're not reading the sign,” Savka said.