Our President, revealed

[Bush]

In a wonderful bit of irony, Harpers.org has a piece from their 'No Comment' department about G. W. Bush's self-described favorite painting, W.H.D. Koerner's 1916 work, “A Charge to Keep”.

“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.”

Long story short, it was created to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post. 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.”