Is the Bush “Miss Me Yet?” Poster the Solution to Our Unemployment Woes?

The anonymous internet user who came up with the now-famous George W. Bush “Miss Me Yet?” poster must be kicking themselves for not copyrighting the work. The poster, which originally appeared last September around the internet (as these things are wont to do), made a mysterious and unsettling appearance over a Minnesota highway last week and, after much speculation, one of the anonymous businessmen behind the billboard assured everyone that all they wanted to do was tell everyone to “lighten up.” It was enough to spark an online shopping frenzy where everything from bumper stickers to coffee mugs to baby onesies are flying off the virtual shelves. Maybe Bush really is going to fix our economy from the post-presidential great beyond after all.

The NY Daily News reports that Cafepress, a website where users can make money by uploading original artwork and selling merchandise emblazoned in it, is experiencing a significant spike in online sales of Bush-related items, especially those bearing the image now made famous by the billboard. Last week, the company is reporting, variations of the Bush billboard sold up to 500 orders a day of different items, something the website’s spokeswoman, Jenna Martin, told the Daily News was unprecedented since Barack Obama took office.

Not that Bush has knocked the President completely off of the map– Cafepress is still overflowing with Obama swag– but Obama merchadise did not make the top 100 best-selling list the week “Miss Me Yet?” burst onto the scene. Whether we can chalk up the success of this meme in the real world beyond the borders of our computer monitors to the rising Tea Party movement or to a panging hunger for political humor to dry the tears with, maybe there is something to the fact that people are making money off of this. The economy is bad, but it’s still not terrible enough for people to not squander money on “Miss Me Yet?” 150-packs of bumper stickers.