After Obama’s speech this morning, on a small triangle of grass between the Lincoln Memorial and the Memorial Bridge, we discovered a giant inflatable statue of George W. Bush, posed like the famously-toppled statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. The statue had a plaque that described Bush matter-of-factly, with no punch-line, allowing viewers to project their own feelings onto the work. It had guy lines loosely holding it up from various points. You can probably guess what happened next.

You didn’t guess someone would face-hump it?

People also threw shoes, water bottles, and anything else they could find.

A father and son team brought the statue from Minnesota and set it up here without a permit. They told us they had asked authorities if they needed one, but police said they had no specific rules against inflatables, so it could stay. Some park police apparently even thanked them for it, thinking it a tribute to the outgoing president. They seemed as surprised as we were that it hadn’t been removed. The statue was conceived by the 20-year-old son as an art project.

It made our day.

Anthony Hecht is The Stranger's Chief Technology Officer. He owns no monkeys.

13 replies on “Don’t Let the Crowd Topple You on the Way Out”

  3. Damn. Does anyone else remember when that weeping cunt-sore had like a 110% approval rating?
    THE PAST EIGHT YEARS WERE ALL YOUR FAULT!

  5. You create something artificial that wasn’t there.

    Then tear it down.

    Gives new meaning to the word “Straw Man”.

    Sorry, did I just describe SLOG’s raison d’etre?

  6. Why the assumption that the park police wanted it as a tribute?

    I know a lot of cops and 3 out of 4 think W was a fuck-up and more than that are looking forward to Obama.

    Plus… DC Park Police are far from, say, Alabama State Police.

  9. I’m not sure I’m completely comfortable with the metaphor this engenders, regardless of it’s general appropriateness.

    Sure, shrub may seem like a big inflatable punching (face fucking) clown, but these things just keep standing back up, taking hit after hit without showing the slightest bit of fatigue; you can punch yourself out pounding on it, but it just keeps re-righting itself, ready for more, and that’s the part that sort of frightens me.

    I don’t WANT shrub to bounce back; I just want him to sink into a pit of obscurity, neglect, disregard and vilification, like he deserves.

  13. @6 – That’s what the man who made the thing told me. His direct impression was that they were thanking him for it as if it were a tribute.

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