Texas Town Adjusts to Life Without Bush

[kskiska]

CRAWFORD, Tex. — The first thing you see when you arrive in this minuscule town is a defunct curio store where people once bought souvenirs of their visit to President George W. Bush’s adopted hometown.

(snip)

Yet long gone are the days when this town of 750 people played host to foreign heads of state or teemed with journalists, protesters and White House officials.

And as Mr. Bush has settled into a quiet retirement in Dallas, appearing rarely and seldom speaking about politics, so too has this town near which he spent his vacations in office.

He still comes to his 1,400-acre ranch on holidays and on some weekends, but he does not arrive with the thwap-thwap-thwap of helicopters anymore. He slips quietly through town in a black sport utility vehicle and leaves just as quietly, townspeople say.

“Ever since he got that new place in Dallas, he hasn’t been around much,” said Carter Blenden, the waiter at the Coffee Station who served Mr. Bush a cheeseburger with jalapeño fries on July 28 last year, his last trip to the local restaurant. (The ticket is preserved on the wall of the kitchen.)

(snip)

“Crawford has never really gained anything from him being president,” said Bill Bregan, 69, a retired woodworker. “The only thing we got out of it was that bank.”

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/us/21crawford.html?ref=global-home

[DUgosh]

1. smoke and mirrors

He doesn't need the cedar chopping photo op anymore, why bother?

[WCGreen]

2. And the Journalists were compliant with the ruse...

[rpannier]

11. He moved there shortly before he announced he was going to run for POTUS

He was trying to capture the image of Ronald Reagan
He was a silly version of Reagan - at best

You can say lots of bad things about Reagan, but he could ride a horse and he could cut his own wood

[RandomThoughts]

3. To the pain The Princes Bride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH_iDlCdL60


However that is the wrong thought, Peace and love is a better way.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

4. And not he's not there to cut it, all that brush

is just taking over the 'ranch'!

[onehandle]

5. I'll bet you that he spent more time there in those 8 years than he will for the rest of his life.

It was all for show.

[rpannier]

9. He spent more time there than he did at the White House

The place where he was supposed to be working

[TacticalPeek]

6. Strike the set.

The play is over. Booooo.

[white cloud]

7. 4200 lives wasted

[Stuart G]

8. Plus hundreds of thousands of Iraqs

[rpannier]

10. If I remember right Ted Nugent moved there

So they have that to console them

[yellowcanine]

12. The pig farm "ranch" was all a facade. It was a place for jr to ride around in a pickup truck

and cut brush like Ronald Reagan when there were any reporters around. I am guessing he quietly sells it in a few years to one of his drinking buddies.

[freesqueeze]

13. They were played

Shrub pretended to be a rancher and they were his props. Big city momma's boy playacting at backwoods manliness. I'd have to have more proof before I will believe he ever leaves his north Dallas compound for that place since they shut down the cameras.