(Hat-tip Harper's, via ms_daisy_cutter)
George W. Bush is famous for his attachment to a painting which he acquired after becoming a “born again Christian.” It’s by W.H.D. Koerner and is entitled “A Charge to Keep.” Bush was so taken by it, that he took the painting’s name for his own official autobiography. And here’s what he says about it:

I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves.

In other words, Bush believes that the picture depicts the 19th-century circuit-riders who spread Methodism across the Alleghenies, and that the cowboy (who, coincidentally, looks a little like Bush himself) was a missionary of his own denomination.

Just one, minor problem. That's not the title - nor the meaning - of the painting. According to Jacob Weisberg, author of The Bush Tragedy:

The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916 - a story about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the original magazine, the illustration bears the caption: “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”

So Bush’s inspiring, prosyletizing "Methodist" is in fact a silver-tongued horse thief fleeing from a lynch mob. What a very, very fitting marker for his presidency.

Bush has consistently exhibited what psychologists call the “Tolstoy syndrome,” i.e. he is completely convinced he knows what things are, so he shuts down all avenues of inquiry about them and disregards the information that is offered to him. This is the hallmark of a tragically bad executive. But in this case, it couldn’t be more precious. The president of the United States has identified closely with a man he sees as a mythic, heroic figure. But in fact he’s a wily criminal one step out in front of justice. It perfectly reflects Bush the man... and Bush the president.

Tags: bush, bush legacy, disgrace, worst president ever
From: Chicago
Mood: Amused
Now Playing: 'When The President Talks to God' - Bright Eyes