Miss Me Yet?

[Mentors]

Missing George W. Bush yet?

 

Is it too soon for George Bush nostalgia? Not at all, say an anonymous group of Minnesota business people.

 

A little more than a year has passed since the Bush administration limped into the history books. The legacies of the Bush era include two wars, financial collapse, Guantanamo Bay, a nationwide housing market disaster and economic dysfunction. But memories are short – so let the revisionism begin, via an advertising billboard.

 

Next to a highway outside Minneapolis, a billboard appeared (pictured, above) with the familiar smiling features of America's 43rd president, and the headline: "Miss me yet?" Time passed without anyone owning up to funding the billboard's appearance, and the mystery deepened. For obvious reasons, many people thought it was a joke.

 

But Bob Collins of NPR's Minnesota Public Radio has discovered an answer of sorts:

Mary Teske, the general manager of Schubert & Hoey Outdoor Advertising reports, 'The Bush Miss Me Yet? billboard was paid for by a group of small business owners who feel like Washington is against them. They wish to remain anonymous. They thought it was a fun way of getting out their message.'

 

What a fun bunch they sound like. And in case anyone is wondering, the short answer to the question "Miss me yet?" is: no. Bush's works, like those of Shelley's Ozymandias, are all around us, boundless and bare. Reminding voters of George Bush can only help the Democrats.

 

Minnesota's City Pages staff have a series of alternative suggestions for the billboard. (Sample: "Mission accomplished".)

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/feb/11/george-bush-billboard