So Bush’s description of “A Charge to Keep” struck me as very strange. In fact, I’d say highly improbable. Now, however, Jacob Weisberg has solved the mystery. He invested the time to track down the commission behind the art work and he gives us the full story in his forthcoming book on Bush, The Bush Tragedy:
[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.”
So Bush’s inspiring, prosyletizing Methodist is in fact a silver-tongued horse thief fleeing from a lynch mob. It seems a fitting marker for the Bush presidency. Bush has consistently exhibited what psychologists call the “Tolstoy syndrome.” That is, 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.
The provenance of the painting was discussed last year by Sidney Blumenthal in a piece for Salon, who points out that the painting was later published to accompany a different story called, indeed, “A Charge to Keep.” Blumenthal, however, apparently did not read, “The Slipper Tongue,” and did not report the crucial horse thieving detail. In any event, I missed his piece.
But you omit a detail…
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p>From Blumenthal’s Salon.com article
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p>You make Bush sound even dumber than he is (possible) by omitting this. It’s not like Bush made up the title or the story. It’s that this painting was used for two different stories with two different titles many years ago.
And, in fact, I attributed the point to Blumenthal, in the last line of my post.
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p>I think someone owes someone else a little apology here đŸ˜‰
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p>As to Bush, it seems to me that the first publication established the title of the painting. The second publication just reprinted it. But this is a technicality. The basic point is that the illustration shows a horse thief, not a missionary.
Next time I’ll actually read before commenting.
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p>Well, probably not, but it seems like a good pledge to make.
That would take all of the fun out of the blogosphere.
I withdraw my pledge. I’m going with: No New Taxes!
The President would be proud of you!
thank you, bob, for this liza minelli moment.
I know Mike Huckabee pretty well as we served as national co-chairs of a state government organization together several years ago. He tells a funny story about how it depends on how you say things as a politician. He would say that his wife was going through the family photo album one day and saw a picture of one of his relatives. She remarked that he had never told him about this guy before and asked about him. Well, that was Great-Uncle Cletis, who was hanged by the people of Arkansas as a notorious horse thief. But he didn’t want to tell his wife that, so he said that this was Uncle Cletis, a farmer who was widely known for his keen eye at acquiring equestrian talent. He was quite famous for it and people clamored for Uncle Cletis. Unfortunately, he passed away at an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing suddenly collapsed!
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p>I have heard this story related to others, and have even been told seriously by someone that Al Gore’s grandfather was a horse thief, but I actually heard Huckabee tell the story. Nothing to do with Bush, but funny nonetheless
but that makes it all the more tragic to know that he understands the impact of all the dominionist crap coming out of his mouth.