The Incredible Fading Bush

A Miracle for the Season!

Last Christmas, one of my daughters gave me a coffee mug with an image of George W. Bush with devil's horns.

I used it occasionally over the ensuing months and the image faded slightly from a few trips through the dishwasher, but it was still very clear in October when I took the mug to my office to place on my desk as a conversation piece. It hasn't been washed since.

Then it happened. On or about November 4th, the image of the devilish president began to fade. It has continued to lighten, day-by-day, ever since, at a rate by which the devil Bush will have vanished entirely by January 20th.

'Tis the season for miracles.

Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College and the author of The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 (Random House). His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America (Crown).

Read more Holiday Season commentary from HuffPost bloggers

Comments

[dfranz]

04:03 PM on 12/26/2008

Were it not for the pardons and secret rules to destroy the environment that are still left to be done, I think Bush would leave voluntarily. But there's so much to do with so little time.

[koyopo22]

02:04 AM on 12/26/2008

He will never fade, he leaves this country in ruins and totally demoralized, Irak destroyed with over 1/2 million dead, millions more displaced, if that is not enough,he also leaves us with the afghan mess. Bush will leave a legacy as the most incompetent and criminal president ever, also the easiest to manipulate by all the diabolic forces that we all know, he will be with us for a much longer period that we could imagine or wish.

[Cactusman]

03:51 PM on 12/25/2008

Call the Vatican and start making toast with graven images for sale! I think you have a marketing bonanza on your hands here in a bad economy. I see a tourist industry and theme park being built around your miracle.

Salvation is at hand! Hallelujah!

[madtom]

02:43 PM on 12/25/2008

I, too, want Bush and the people around him held accountable.

The Eight Years of Shame need to be investigated to the FULLEST.

It was a tragedy for America when Nixon was pardoned. Nothing like that must happen again.

NOT fade away.

No pardons for traitors!

[Lahori]

10:13 AM on 12/25/2008

The mug was made in China......

[mydogshakespeare]

09:40 AM on 12/25/2008

Didn't fade fast enough. George W. Bush, American Presidain't.

[little old lady]

01:07 AM on 12/25/2008

Good story, but I don't want him to just fade away.
I want him held accountable for any illegal actions as President during the last 8 years.
Don't get me wrong--I'm counting the days until he's out of office.

[Norak]

12:47 AM on 12/25/2008

There's a link to Dorian Gray's painting here somewhere but I'm too weary to think of it.

[rich misty]

05:28 PM on 12/24/2008

We are counting down the days in our family.

[Emlyn]

03:49 PM on 12/24/2008

Thank you for giving me a good laugh. I thought that was so funny.

[joycehelene]

02:43 PM on 12/24/2008

I just love that story of the Xmas miracle of the shrinking of Bush, oh I wish we didn't have to wait until Jan. 20 for the mirale to be completed.