There's a delicious sense of schadenfreude to this story.
From a wooden bench in front of a shop selling mementos of "The Western White House," tourist Chuck Yorde wondered aloud why he seemed to be the only visitor in town.[..]
The Youngstown, Ohio, resident was almost apologetic about his own presence in the town that hosts President George W. Bush's 1,600-acre ranch. He said he was visiting his sister in nearby Gatesville who's "a big Bush fan. ... She dragged me over here."
Shuttered storefronts and eroding retail sales figures show tourism and the Bush memorabilia business are slumping in this once-sleepy farm-and-ranch town of 732 residents.
A for-sale sign is the only thing in the smudged window of the turn-of-the-century, two-story brick building that once housed the Crawford Country Style store. "The numbers just weren't working," said Norma Nelson Crow, who closed the shop at the beginning of the year.[..]
Bill Johnson, owner of the Yellow Rose, Crawford's largest gift shop, said he has been stocking more Texana and Americana items in response to the drop-off in sales of Bush merchandise. "We're changing our mix," Johnson said. "As a business we have to do what we have to do to be successful."
The comments attached to the article are worth a laugh or two as well...
