Bush's "Christian Cowboy" Hero Was Really a Horse Thief

George Bush keeps a painting in the Oval Office depicting a rider on horseback racing up a rugged hillside, two other riders not far behind. Bush tells people that early-twentieth-century illustrator W.H.D. Koerner's painting is called "A Charge to Keep," and that it depicts a Methodist circuit-rider, a kind of Christian cowboy who helped spread the teaching of John Wesley throughout America in the nineteenth century.

image source: Slate

That's the Bush Administration in a nutshell: The self-image of a high-minded doer of good deeds cloaks the reality of a thieving scoundrel one step ahead of his angry victims.

(via Avedon Carol)

Tags: bush politics president irony history w h d koerner ignorance idiocy painting horseback missionary horsethief psychology self-delusion closed-minded humor funny