Obama- sand sculpture Mount Rushmore imitation

This one takes the cake.

At the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, they will have pictures of such American icons as the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore.

Apparently President Obama has such a high opinion of himself that there is also a sand sculpture of him, erected at the DNC at the EpiCentre entertainment complex, seemingly in imitation of  Mount Rushmore. It consists of 15 tons of sand trucked in from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Credit QCity Metro

This raises interesting questions, such as how much must this have cost?  What was the effect on the beach, environmentally?  And how big an ego do you have to have to try to imitate Mount Rushmore while you are still a sitting president?

Let the jokes begin! Shovel ready job, house built on sand, no graven images, etc…

Update: Looks like we raised a good question about the sand removal.  The Morning Spew reports that back in 1998 the Army Corp of Engineers spent $60 million of public money to put sand back into the beach! 

I would want to know how 15 tons of South Carolina beach ended up at the DNC Convention in Charlotte, NC.  It’s also puzzling that Democrats, who consider themselves bastions of environmental policy, would actually think that digging up a beach for this purpose was a good idea, especially when beaches remain a fragile habitat for many types of endangered wildlife.

Since the original 1998 replenishment, the beach was replenished in 2009 as well in order to protect people and property from storm damage along the shore. According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, it is scheduled to continue to be replenished with Federal, state and local money through 2046.  

We will let you know when we track down exactly where the sand came from in Myrtle Beach.

Update: 

We earlier noted that there was a report the sculpture was being taken down. From what we can ascertain at this point, there was a sculpture  being built in front of the Ritz Carlton around the corner from where it is now. They had been working on it for weeks.  A couple of days ago, they decided it needed to be taken down for “security reasons”.  That is a different one than this one (perhaps even more sand!).  So as far as we know at this point, this one  is in fact still up. Thank you, Sister Toldjah!

Update:

Just couldn’t resist posting, courtesy of Lyby, a commenter over at Free Republic.

Don’t build your house on the sandy land
Don’t build it too near the shore
Oh it might be kind of nice
But you’ll have to do it twice
And you’ll have to build your house once more
You better build your house upon the rock
And put a sure foundation on the solid spot
And though the storms may come and go
Peace of God you’ll know.

Update:

The finished creation!  They added the chair today. Seriously. #Eastwooding.

@andrew_dunn @theobserver http://t.co/GCUcmQF6 is hosting a little meet & greet for @InvisibleObama & @SandObama 🙂 pic.twitter.com/JsWmJy5u

— DNC Myrtle Beach (@DNCMyrtleBeach) September 1, 2012

Update:

Again, can’t make these things up! Sand Obama is no more! A torrential downpour hit Charlotte this afternoon and washed it away, according to the Washington Times. No joke, apparently.

We should note that apparently this sculpture was sponsored by Myrtle Beach, obviously with the hope of improving tourism. The team that put the sculpture together was reportedly Team Sandtastic. We are sad for Myrtle Beach that this happened, and hopefully, they have another option to advertise.   Hopefully, also, that means that someone had some sense about where the sand came from.

Update 65 in the continuing saga of Sand Obama:

Reports of Sand Obama being washed away were somewhat exaggerated. He is damaged, but still lives, dented and in need of repair. Kind of like the President himself.

Update:

Nope, not messianic at all. PR photo below:

Update:

For those who think there wasn’t DNC involvement in this, think again.

https://twitter.com/sarahremartin/status/242279989934968832