George W. Bush Billboard Asks: Miss Me Yet?

Rumors are swirling that if you drive down I-35 in Minnesota, you'll see a billboard featuring a smiling George W. Bush accompanied by the question "Miss me yet?"

This was initially discredited as a photoshopped hoax, but it's real. But the dual mysteries surrounding who paid for the ad, and their motivation, remain.

Are they Obama supporters sarcastically hoping to remind people about George W., or Bush fans sincerely yearning for the "good" days of the past administration?

Mary McNamara, the manager at the Minneapolis office of Schubert & Hoey Outdoor Advertising, the company which owns and leases out the billboard, says:

"The ad was purchased by a group of small business owners who wish to remain anonymous." However, "some people in the group were Obama supporters."

McNamara added that the message the group hoped to convey was one of "Hope and change, where is it?" She went on to say that she has yet to receive any negative feedback about the ad, which has been up for a few weeks.

Not everyone buys that. Cindy Erickson, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Chisago County, where the billboard is located, suspects the ad's funders are in actuality conservative activists posing as Obama supporters.

"I don't have any idea who did it, but my thought was that they're Tea Party people," she said. "Regardless, it's been the subject of many conversations around here."

Minnesota was a "blue" state in '08, but Chisago is part of a Republican-leaning string of suburban counties that Obama lost about 55-45 in the presidential election.

While it's subject to interpretation, Obama has been under fire (and hitting back) of late. Has George W., however unwittingly, joined Sarah Palin in laying into him?

What do you think of the Bush billboard?