Geoge Bush's favorite painting - A charge to Keep

[grantcart]

In the Oval Office George Bush hangs his favorite painting - A Charge to Keep.

He tells visitors its about Methodist Ministers Circuit Riders keeping their charge to go out in the world and preach the Gospel.



It reminds him of this Hymn which is one of his favorites




It was originally commissioned by the Saturday Evening Post by artist W H D Koerner for a story "The Slipper Tongue" showing a horse thief escaping a lynch mob.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://thegreenman.net.au/mt/archives/001323.html&usg=__e4iFpZkWkreCiRl1ymP-PLrihlQ=&h=266&w=400&sz=72&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=osWJi5wMfeDLoM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Da%2Bcharge%2Bto%2Bkeep%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

He likes it because the identity projected through the Bush Administration's policies on issues from global warming to preemptive warfare, are based on the premise that Bush is a lone cowboy, rushing headlong to carry out a God-given charge.

His followers today tend to see in Bush what he sees in the painting: a brave, daring leader riding fearlessly into the unknown, striking out against unseen enemies, pulling his team behind him, seeking, in the words of Wesley's hymn, "to do my Master's will." They see him as a straight shooter and a straight talker. They take comfort in his religious faith and think he is leading us toward a mountaintop."Source

Of course the truth of the painting is somewhat different from the the romantic ideal that GWB sees. The painting is really called “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”. It is of a horse thief fleeing a lynch mob carelessly ignoring the wellbeing of his stolen charge as he rides recklessly across the landscape.

The artist later resold the illustration about the Mexican revolution showing bandits moving from town to town pillaging the peasants and resold it again about a story against robber barons denuding the NorthWest forrests.


Here is the picture

“Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught

How does any intelligent human being think that this is about Methodist Ministers?

And we let a man who thinks this picture is about Methodist Ministers preaching the Gospel have nuclear launch codes.

56 Days 21 Hrs 56 minutes 24 seconds and counting. http://www.backwardsbush.com/

Hope he doesn't completely lose his hold on reality before that.



You can find the details on the story from Slate's editor here http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1437076187



edited to add the title - another bizzare twist for a President pondering legal action in retirement also adding this clip showing him making the bizzare explanation http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/life/video/index.html

He talks about the painting at 2:05 The painting reflects his "nature" http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/life/video/index.html

[MarkInCA]

1. Another indication

of the fantasy world which he lives in.

At the end of the Reagan administration I remember thinking "God, he is clueless." At least Reagan could blame it on a disease toward the end. I think * is just plain ignorant.

[av8rdave]

2. And all this time I thought he was talking about keeping his pickup battey on trickle charge

while he's in Washington!

[Sinti]

3. Speaks volumes IMO - absolutely fitting for the * Crime Family

I don't believe for a minute he thinks this picture is about Methodist Ministers. I think that's just his story. He probably smirks at the fact others are stupid enough to believe him - or at least haven't the temerity to call him on it.

[grantcart]

6. To show how really fucked up this administration is . . .

I find your wild explanation very reassuring and hope that it is in fact.


Atleast it would mean that he is not dillussional and has a snarky sense of humor.

[Bucky]

4. "And, oh, thy servant, Lord, prepare a strict account to give"

Lord, please.

[cliffordu]

5. Ah, well, it's ok with me if he blows it up.....

I never like it here anyway.....


:rofl:

[grantcart]

7. Sinti replying upthread thinks its all an elaborate Bush prank

He punk'd the country and now he punks the pious that come to the Oval office.


Just like the good ole days at delta zelta fuckem

[cliffordu]

8. Bush annoys me soooooo much I cannot listen to him speak any more.

He's an insult to all things good or intelligent.

[randr]

9. Fantasy is an integral part of Republican thinking

They rely on fake imagery to support some illusionary sense of righteousness.
Joe the plumber is neither named Joe or a plumber.
The moral majority is neither moral or a majority.
etc., etc., etc.-----

[Ozma]

10. Very true! That's really right on target! n/t

[ginnyinWI]

22. and now they have a fake Obama to hate.

They convinced themselves that the straw man they set up during the campaign is the real Obama, and now they are shaking in their boots in dismay for the country. Of course they would, given the monster they created and who they think is going to be the leader of the free world! That's what you get for spinning: you start to believe it yourself.

[grantcart]

23. excellent point and they believe Sarah Palin is a serious thinker with established

credentials lol


something about sowing and reaping

[grantcart]

24. Oddly also very similar to the Bolsheviks (majority part) who were a small

percentage of the Communist Movement but stole the moniker from the much larger Mensheviks (minority party).

[bdamomma]

11. the cowboy is a criminal of course george likes it.

that cowboy is trying to get away from those who want to capture him.

[TexasObserver]

12. Of course, George Bush is terrified of horses.

That makes it all the funnier.

You've never seen a single horse on the Bush "ranch."

Hey, it ain't a ranch if it has no horses. It's a piece of land with nothing but a house on it. THAT is the real Bush Ranch, a marketing backdrop, and nothing more.

[TrogL]

13. What a horrible tune

I've banned stuff like that from my church.

[grantcart]

17. bad tune bad picture all of it incredibly bad taste

[Ozma]

14. Does George even know how to ride a horse??

He's as dumb as a box of rocks.

[Poiuyt]

15. Was that painted on black velvet?

It looks like something that would be hanging in a little boys room.

[grantcart]

16. lol

[galaxy21]

18. "It is of a horse thief fleeing a lynch mob carelessly ignoring the wellbeing of his stolen charge"

as he rides recklessly across the landscape."


That is an extremely good metaphor for Bush.

[Enrique]

19. one of Bush's most bizarre ramblings was about that painting

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44256-2004Jul12.html

"Q Thank you -- I was wondering, there's a lot of talk right now about memoirs being written with the former President. After you are elected in 2004, what will your memoirs say about you, what will the title be, and what will the main theme say?

"THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. (Laughter.) There is a painting on my wall in the Oval -- first of all, I don't know. I'm just speculating now. I really haven't thought about writing a book. My life is too complicated right now trying to do my job. (Laughter.) But if -- there's a painting on the wall in the Oval Office that shows a horseman charging up a steep cliff, and there are at least two other horsemen following. It's a Western scene by a guy named W.H.S. Koerner called 'A Charge to Keep.' It's on loan, by the way, from a guy named Joe O'Neill in Midland, Texas. He was the person, he and his wife Jan, introduced -- reintroduced me and Laura in his backyard in July of 1977. Four months later, we were married. So he's got a -- I'm a decision-maker and I can make good decisions. (Applause.)

"And so we sang this hymn -- this is a long story trying to get to your answer. (Laughter.) This is not a filibuster. (Laughter.) That's a Senate term -- particularly on good judges. (Applause.) The hymn was sung at my first inaugural church service as governor. Laura and I are Methodists. One of the Wesley boys wrote the hymn. The painting is based upon the hymn called, 'A Charge to Keep.' I have. The hymn talks about serving something greater than yourself in life. I -- which I try to do, as best as I possibly can. (Applause.)

"The book -- I guess one way, one thing to think about it is -- one of the themes would be, I was given a charge to keep. And I gave it all my heart, all my energy, based upon principles that did not change once I got into the Oval Office. (Applause.)"

Now that's a rambling response.

And I have to wonder: Did he forget that he already has a memoir called "A Charge to Keep"?

That was the name of his "autobiography" -- ghost-written by adviser Karen Hughes in 1999.

[Starry Messenger]

20. Sociopaths have very weird taste in art.

He doesn't even like horses. What a freak. Get out of our house, Jr.

[old mark]

21. Very interesting. Bush looks at this painting and finds

the opposite of what has been intended, and warps that impression into a religious epic with himself as the hero.

He is crazier than I thought.

mark

[BobTheSubgenius]

25. I'd be willing to bet that he still thinks they are "lunch codes".