The funny part is the truth about the painting and what it represents.
As president, George W. Bush loves to talk to those who visit the Oval Office about the rug on the floor. (He claims to have tasked Laura Bush with helping come up with a design that communicated “optimistic person” to those who saw it.)
But as governor, Bush wasn’t excited about his carpet; he was excited about a painting: “A Charge to Keep.” In 1995, he issued a memo to his Texas staff, describing the painting, by W.H.D. Koerner in 1916, which he kept on his office wall. Bush told his aides:
“The reason I bring this up is that the painting is based upon the Charles Wesley hymn “A Charge to Keep I Have”. I am particularly impressed by the second verse of this hymn. The second verse goes like this: ‘To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill’
“This is our mission. This verse captures our spirit. […
“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 http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2109 depicted in the painting.
He liked all of this so much, Bush used the title for his autobiography (which he admittedly did not write). He even brought the picture with him to Washington upon taking office.
The funny part is the truth about the painting and what it represents.
In his new book, “The Bush Tragedy,” Jacob Weisberg explains:
“[Bush came to believe that the picture depicted the circuit-riders who spread Methodism across the Alleghenies in the nineteenth century. In other words, the cowboy who looked like Bush was a missionary of his own denomination.
“Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. 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. The story is 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 magazine, the illustration bears the caption: ‘Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.'”
Slate’s Tim Noah added: “The painting was subsequently recycled by the Saturday Evening Post to illustrate a nonfiction story. The caption that time was, ‘Bandits Move About From Town to Town, Pillaging Whatever They Can Find.’”
I couldn’t make this stuff up.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14358.html