"Miss me yet??"

gimmesometruth27

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1122

Mystery swirls around George W. Bush 'Miss me yet?' billboard

For all of the wonderful things life in the Internet age provides us, there are some notable drawbacks. One of them is that email and popular social media tools like Twitter and Facebook provide powerful launching pads for unchecked rumors and popular myths. Often these rumors and myths are proven false by websites like Snopes.com and FactCheck.org, but not this time.


The Internet has been abuzz with rumors that if you drive down Interstate 35 near the town of Wyoming, Minnesota, you'll see a billboard bearing the image of a smiling George W. Bush accompanied by the question "Miss me yet?" The online rumors were confirmed by this image:

Many initially thought the picture was a hoax created through Photoshop. But now multiple people have confirmed its existence. The mystery surrounding the billboard quickly morphed from a "Fact or Fiction?" story into a genuine "Whodunit?" Who paid for the ad, and what was their motivation? Are they Obama supporters sarcastically hoping to remind disgruntled liberals about how things were under Bush, or are they Bush supporters sincerely hoping to remind voters of the past administration?

To get some answers, Yahoo! News tracked down Mary McNamara, the general manager at the Minneapolis office of Schubert & Hoey Outdoor Advertising, the company which owns and leases out the billboard space.


"The ad was purchased by a group of small business owners who wish to remain anonymous," McNamara said. However, McNamara did offer this political bombshell: "Some of the people in the group who paid for this were Obama supporters."

McNamara told us that the message the group hoped to convey was one of "Hope and change, where is it?" She went on to say that she has yet to receive any negative feedback about the ad, which has been up for about a month, and added that some have even contacted her office offering to donate money to keep it up.

However, not everyone is buying McNamara's portrayal of the group's ideological makeup. Cindy Erickson, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Chisago County, where the billboard is located, suspects the ad's funders are conservative activists posing as Obama supporters.

"I don't have any idea who did it, but my thought was that they're Tea Party people," she said. "Regardless, it's been the subject of many conversations around here."

While Minnesota has long been a blue state, Chisago is part of a Republican-leaning string of suburban counties surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul, and Obama lost the 2008 vote in Chisago by 10%. But Erickson argued that local Democrats who voted for him are content with the job the president is doing. She added that if the intent of the ad was to reflect poorly on Obama, then it's failed to deliver its message.


"I think most people have interpreted their message to be 'If you think it's bad now, don't forget how bad it used to be,'" she said. "It's just a goofy photo of him. It's goofy."


Yahoo! News' attempts to get a comment on the billboard from George W. Bush's representatives were unsuccessful.

-- Brett Michael Dykes is a contributor to the Yahoo! News blog



its amazing to me what people will waste money on...and the speculation that obama supporters paid for this to say things could be worse :roll: don't get me wrong, but i woul be willing to bet that most obama supporters lack the disposable funds to donate to such a stupid statement. and why would they put up a billboard of the man that they view as the cause of all of the problems we face now??

mysticweed

Hell no I do not miss gw. Obama knockers have forgotten just what a fucking mess he inherited. It will take longer than a year to undo the eight years of bushshit that was left for him.

blackredyellow

nope lol... and while I'm not exactly impressed with what obama has accomplished in a year, he's been better than W.

avocadogirl79

lettinggo wrote:

Hell no I do not miss gw. Obama knockers have forgotten just what a fucking mess he inherited. It will take longer than a year to undo the eight years of bushshit that was left for him.

thank you. my thoughts exactly. people have such selective memories, esp when it comes to politics. it could take a generation to repair all the damage gwb did. and it will take that long, if the repug knuckle-walkers continue to be the party of "NO" no matter what the actual issue at hand is.

markin ball

It is easy to think about some disappointments we've had with Obama but it really is a lot better to have him in office than Bush. Although imperfect, at least Obama is trying to do some things Bush never would have like some sort of health care reform and repealing "don't ask don't tell", etc. We wouldn't have any of this with Bush. If Repubs put up that billboard, their point backfired big time on me and I did not even vote for Obama.

gimmesometruth27

i miss the sense of embarrassment i felt every time bush strolled in front of a camera to stumble over the words that a 3rd grader could pronounce....other than that i don't miss much else...

cajunkiwi

Bush was a "nucular" embarrassment. All of the people who bash Obama for not pulling the Mustang out of the river fast enough seem to have forgotten who drove it in there in the first place...

Godfather.

I LOVE IT !!!! that is so freakin cool !.


Godfather.

badbrains

When did he leave office??????? Shit I thought he's still in there..couldve fooled me...

KDH12

And I sure glad we do not have McCain either....

this made me laugh today, listen to the whole thing it is worth it

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =123240222

but if not here is the McCain section for you

From Henry Paulson: 'Mr. McCain Comes To Washington'

In the Wall Street Journal on Feb. 6, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson published an exerpt from his new book, On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System. It describes the scene at the White House in September 2008, after Sen. John McCain dramatically suspended his presidential campaign and flew back to Washington, calling on all political hands to join him in rescuing the collapsing U.S. economy.

"It really was, I thought, a riveting account," Brown says. "There is a great scene in here, where McCain finally gets this meeting that he's summoned. And then what Paulson gives is an account of how, in the meeting with the president, with all the players assembled including [then-candidate] Obama, McCain had absolutely nothing to say. It was like, 'I'm here to stop the fire! Uhhhhh, yeah: Well, maybe I'll just stand here and wait for a pail.' And finally Obama says loudly ... 'I'd like to hear what Sen. McCain has to say, since we haven't heard from him yet.' "

Writes Paulson:

As [McCain] spoke, I could see Obama chuckling. McCain's comments were anticlimactic, to say the least. His return to Washington was impulsive and risky, and I don't think he had a plan in mind. If anything, his gambit only came back to hurt him, as he was pilloried in the press afterward, and in the end, I don't believe his maneuver significantly influenced the TARP legislative process.

It's a revealing look, Brown says, at an "amazing moment in politics, completely subsuming any real care for this crisis that the country was in at the time." Better yet, it's a startlingly direct-seeming bit of reportage — in a partisan era, from a Republican-appointed Treasury secretary — on an incident that left a Republican presidential candidate looking less than presidential.

"I think that, to me, is what's authentic about it," Brown says. "It did feel like a real piece of reporting, which I didn't expect."

Godfather.

badbrains wrote:

When did he leave office??????? Shit I thought he's still in there..couldve fooled me...

"WE WONT GET FOOLED AGAIN"

Godfather.

Godfather.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35271033/ns/politics/

I really think he wants to do what is right but I'm not sure he knows what it is or how to get it done,
I don't mean that as a kick in the nutz,looking at the recent photographs of him the strain in his face
is a tell all of what he is up against.

Godfather.

Drowned Out

Someone needs to tell the idiots that paid for this that vague, viral marketing works well to build interest in a product as part of a promo campaign....not so well when trying to convey a political message :roll:

musicismylife78

i am a radical left winger, and I think the message is right on. as aaron mcgruder said, "Isn't it SO much better being sent to a dumb war by a smart president??"

i am so SICK of democrats and obama apologists saying ad naseum, "oh obama inherited this". At what point does obama claim ownership of his actions as president? Obama, NOT BUSH sent troops to afghanistan in the last few months. Bush has no power in ending the war. Obama does.

Obama is as clueless as the last resident of 1600 penn avenue, and thats sayin something. Both are deaf to public opinion. Both could give a damn about us. Both are wealthy entitled, jerks.

Im done waiting around for some wealthy politician to fix problems. You wanna wait for it? Go ahead, but you gonna be waiting for a long time friend!

musicismylife78

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i miss the sense of embarrassment i felt every time bush strolled in front of a camera to stumble over the words that a 3rd grader could pronounce....other than that i don't miss much else...

i agree, and as I hinted before, its so much better having an educated, smart individual....who does the same exact actions and schemes as bush did. How is the fact that obama is smart, remedying the wars? Obama blew it. He could have rode in, day 1 and pulled all troops out of both theaters. He could have started a massive new deal type organization, and infrastructure that would have put millions of people to work and would have remedied the great recession. He could have made HUGE strides to drastically cut emissions and do something radical on the environment. Instead he gives bailouts to banks, and sends tens of thousands of 18 year olds to die in some foreign land. That to me isnt intelligence.

gimmesometruth27

musicismylife78 wrote:

i am a radical left winger, and I think the message is right on. as aaron mcgruder said, "Isn't it SO much better being sent to a dumb war by a smart president??"

i am so SICK of democrats and obama apologists saying ad naseum, "oh obama inherited this". At what point does obama claim ownership of his actions as president? Obama, NOT BUSH sent troops to afghanistan in the last few months. Bush has no power in ending the war. Obama does.

Obama is as clueless as the last resident of 1600 penn avenue, and thats sayin something. Both are deaf to public opinion. Both could give a damn about us. Both are wealthy entitled, jerks.

Im done waiting around for some wealthy politician to fix problems. You wanna wait for it? Go ahead, but you gonna be waiting for a long time friend!

yes, bush is in no way, shape, or form responsible for any of our current problems :roll:

sorry but it takes more than 1 year to undo and try to fix everything that built up over the last 8 years. maybe if you told your republican congressman to get off of his ass and come to the negotiating table instead of yelling "NOOOOO!!!" at the top of his lungs every day obama MIGHT just have a little easier time trying to address your concerns...

Dirtie_Frank

Fixing the problem means even more spending in the past 8 years all in one?

Godfather.

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

musicismylife78 wrote:

i am a radical left winger, and I think the message is right on. as aaron mcgruder said, "Isn't it SO much better being sent to a dumb war by a smart president??"

i am so SICK of democrats and obama apologists saying ad naseum, "oh obama inherited this". At what point does obama claim ownership of his actions as president? Obama, NOT BUSH sent troops to afghanistan in the last few months. Bush has no power in ending the war. Obama does.

Obama is as clueless as the last resident of 1600 penn avenue, and thats sayin something. Both are deaf to public opinion. Both could give a damn about us. Both are wealthy entitled, jerks.

Im done waiting around for some wealthy politician to fix problems. You wanna wait for it? Go ahead, but you gonna be waiting for a long time friend!

yes, bush is in no way, shape, or form responsible for any of our current problems :roll:

sorry but it takes more than 1 year to undo and try to fix everything that built up over the last 8 years. maybe if you told your republican congressman to get off of his ass and come to the negotiating table instead of yelling "NOOOOO!!!" at the top of his lungs every day obama MIGHT just have a little easier time trying to address your concerns...

not to be rude but there is no way you or any of us could possibly know the interworkings or reasons inside the
white house unless we are there to see and hear for our selfs,unfortunately all we get is the end result and a pack of lies to cover up the for the wrong doers,we always need somebody to point a finger at and the GAME of politics is like the nut and shell game, I'm not saying Bush did or did not screw up or obama is or is not doing a good job but in the GAME of politics there is only one party IMO, as far as I can see they're all crooked
in one way or another from kennedy to obama.

Godfather.

Pepe Silvia

cajunkiwi wrote:

Bush was a "nucular" embarrassment. All of the people who bash Obama for not pulling the Mustang out of the river fast enough seem to have forgotten who drove it in there in the first place...

in many cases Obama hasn't even called a tow truck yet.

i am aware change doesn't happen overnight and 1 year to undue 8 but on many things he has shown zero effort. so yeah, i know it takes time but when does it actually start? sure, he has done some good things like SCHIP funding and stem cell research but i honestly believe that would've happened no matter which democrat got elected, Obama, on the other hand, ran a campaign based on being so much more than any other politician. yes we can, cool, so when are we gonna? he kept a lot of horrible bush policies, rolled over on health care giving up importing drugs, price fixing, public option....in exchange for virtually nothing. he broke his pledge to renegotiate NAFTA and said now is not the time, he broke his pledge the 'first thing' he'd do would be bring the troops home from Iraq and end the war, instead he's escalated it and displaced millions with our bombing of Pakistan. he seemed to forget his promise that any meetings with execs or lobbyists would be broadcast on the internet and cspan and not in secret (i still giggle when i think of how he sternly vowed "no more secrecy, no more secrecy!") or his website he would make detailing all the pork barrel spending and who asked for it, he has done nothing about the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and their war crimes, he rejected the Goldstone report which said BOTH sides were guilty and should be tried by saying it was too one sided, he lectures Iran about their obligations to the world in inspections and full disclosure of their nuclear facilities and then says he will keep Israel's secret and no accountability for them. he did nothing to reverse the warrantless wiretapping, in fact if i'm not mistaken he voted to make it legal for Bush, he has done nothing to repeal the patriot act (but why would he, he always voted to renew it). his energy plan was shit that gave more to each industry like nuclear, oil and coal than all renewables combined. and let's not even get into him recently asking for a big increase in spending on nuclear weapons, cause ya know if we have more than anyone else this will make everyone else not want them :roll:

we went from yes we can to meh, maybe someday. and yeah, i'm aware republicans and some democrats are holding things up but are you asking me to believe that when Obama was campaigning for 4 years he was so naive to american politics he foolishly thought everyone would just go along with him in his 'no more business as usual' crusade???

Jon Stewart was right, Bush fought and won giving the executive branch supreme power and the ability to push things through, where is Obama's push or even leadership? where is the change we can believe in? so this change wasn't ever even him is what is basically being said

TriumphantAngel

Obama is just continuing on with the same strategy Bush had. really it's just more of the same. i personally think Obama is more genuine and caring and wants to do the right thing, more so than Bush was ever capable of because he never gave a shit about anyone but himself. worst President ever.

that's no good to me though. geniune and nice is great, but as our President we need him to be more than that. i'd rather see results. it's sickening that we seem to have plenty of money for war, but not enough for basic Heath Care.

we are a one party system now. there is no opposition. from most anyway.

Commy

TriumphantAngel wrote:

Obama is just continuing on with the same strategy Bush had. really it's just more of the same. i personally think Obama is more genuine and caring and wants to do the right thing, more so than Bush was ever capable of because he never gave a shit about anyone but himself. worst President ever.

that's no good to me though. geniune and nice is great, but as our President we need him to be more than that. i'd rather see results. it's sickening that we seem to have plenty of money for war, but not enough for basic Heath Care.

we are a one party system now. there is no opposition. from most anyway.

we seem to have traded a militant capitalist for a militant capitalist, corporate interests still put ahead of the public. so its always been.


1 party system, definition of fascism.