President Obama and the Churchill Bust – Out
Let the bust hang out
The BBC and The Daily Telegraph revealed that President Obama had sent George W. Bush’s Jacob Epstein Oval Office bust of Winston Churchill packing. The media went abuzz with speculations over the implied symbolism.
Personally I think the media just demonstrates its degenerate irresponsibility to keep fanning these non- issues. Years ago they might have published thoughtful pieces on the future of the US-UK relationship. Not any more.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. When President Bush had a Churchill bust in the Oval Office, zealots would occasionally demand its return. In their view Bush was undeserving, or was using the bust to proclaim himself another Churchill. (In fact, he was simply an admirer, like most of us.)
Never complain
You can’t win. Now that Obama has returned Churchill’s bust, we are encouraged to protest its removal. But Barack kept the bust of Lincoln. So? It seems perfectly understandable that he should have the totem of his choice in his office.
Meanwhile, James Kirkup reported in the March 2nd Telegraph amazing news! Prime Minister Gordon Brown was presenting the President with Martin Gilbert’s “seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill.” (“Seven” was a typo. Sir Martin sent the books but was short Volume V. Chartwell Booksellers in New York City helped him out and the full eight volumes were delivered.) So now, “Winston is Back” in the White House. And President Obama has arguably more Churchilliana than President Bush had.
Surely the President seems to have more pressing matters to concern him—as do we. So for the nonce (with acknowledgement to the Daily Telegraph’s Washington bureau), here is a pastiche on a future “Bust Out” which might very well erupt four years hence. Will the media please file this for future use:
Washington, 15 February 2044
A bust of Abraham Lincoln, loaned by the State of Illinois to President Obama has now been formally handed back. But when Illinois officials offered to let the new President, Billy Bob Calhoun, retain the bust for his own term of office, the White House said: “Thanks, but no thanks.”
Where has the Lincoln bust gone, devotees of the 16th President are wondering. Investigators have tracked it to the palatial Springfield, Illinois residence of Rod Blagojevich, who served again as Governor in 2030, a decade after his jail sentence was ciommuted by President Trump.
Lincoln is a major hero to most politicians, but not Mr. Calhoun, who prefers to quote Winston Churchill, author of the famous alternative history, “If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg.” Today, a bust of Winston Churchill, retrieved from storage at the British Embassy in Washington, has replaced Lincoln’s in the Oval Office. One state senator has suggested that, given President Calhoun’s interest in the Civil War era, Mr. Blagojevich should offer a bust of Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln’s leading opponent during the 1860 Presidential Election.
