Nebraska governor asks state official to resign after racial comments

Nebraska Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts called on newly elected State Board of Education member Patrick McPherson to resign after a post on his blog referred to President Obama as a “half-breed.”

“While many Nebraskans disagree with our president on many issues, he is deserving of the same civility and respect we give one another,” Ricketts said in a statement. “There is no room for bigotry. I am deeply disappointed and unequivocally condemn these comments.”

On Monday, McPherson denied writing the post and said it was from a contributor. McPherson said in the new blog post that he is an active contributor, co-founder and co-editor to the blog, Objective Conservative, but he attributes his name to any pieces he writes. He also said that he doesn’t always have the time to read all submissions to the blog and will do so more diligently in the future.

“I strongly disavow the racist tones evident in the piece and again will take appropriate action to assure such inappropriate content is not posted in the future by that contributor or any other,” McPherson said in the post.

According to the The Dailynebraskan.com, the now-deleted blog post stated, “Now our great Black Leader (actually, if he were a Republican the liberals would call him what he is – a half-breed) in Washington wants to give everyone a free community college education.”

McPherson didn’t respond immediately to a call for comment.