An exhibition slamming the legacy of US President George W. Bush was unveiled Tuesday in Washington in a 45-foot (15 meters) long, 28-ton bus parked just steps from the White House.
Emblazoned on the side of the bio-diesel powered bus are the words "The Bush Legacy," and bullet points to highlight, in the words of organiser Americans United for Change, "how eight years of failed conservative policies" under Bush have damaged the United States.
"The idea is not to bash Bush as an individual but to show that he had help from Congress in creating all of the disasters you see in this bus," Julie Blust, press secretary for the exhibition told AFP. The bus is to set off on Wednesday on a five-month tour of 150 US cities and towns. Inside, a steady stream of visitors walked on a red and white timeline of the Bush years, starting with his swearing-in on January 20, 2001.
Interactive exhibits on the walls of the bus call for reflection on what the group has deemed the "worst policy failures" of the Bush administration, such as a collapsed healthcare system, the "endless Iraq war," record fuel prices, or the handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
At the far end of the bus stands a petrol pump, with "Bush Cheney Oil" on top. "You can put in the particulars of your car, and find out how much you paid for gas in 2000 versus how much you pay now," said Blust.
The first stop of the bus after Washington will be Dayton, Ohio, where it will arrive on Wednesday. It will travel the length and breadth of the United States, with stops at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, in late August to the Republican one in St Paul, Minnesota in early September, before wrapping up in Dallas, Texas on October 15 - three weeks shy of the US presidential election.