Inventor of the Chia Obama meant it as a 'tribute', Jesse Jackson agrees

[Elmore Furth]

OK, since green is an Islamic good luck color, let's see them sell a Chia Mohammed. Then I'll consider that this is a tribute.

Anyone for a Chia Jesus?



Young Mohammed:

The staggering truth: Chia Obama is a real product, and its creator -- 77-year-old San Francisco ad man and Chia Pet magnate Joseph Pedott, a lifelong Republican -- means it to be a sincere tribute to Obama, who he says has inherited "the biggest can of worms ever put on a president."

Pedott has made a tidy living off the Chia Pet, a business he bought in the 1960s. If not an American "icon," they are certainly familiar: little terra cotta sculptures (turtles, sheep, etc.) onto which you spread handfuls of moistened chia seeds. In a few days, the Chia Pet blooms in a nimbus of bright-green leaves, kind of like alfalfa sprouts.

"All I tried to do was something positive," he says. "I never even thought about the hair."

The Chia Obama has subsequently been endorsed by such arbiters of political correctness as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and in May, Pedott personally gave the president a Chia Obama. "I've got green hair!" Obama laughed.

Chia Obama's hairy question: Is it racist scorn or sincere tribute?