When I first learned about the Bagman Campaign poster ds106 assignment, I immediately thought of reworking Richard Nixon’s famous slogan: Nixon Now. But once again, Alan beat me to the punch with his Nation Needs Bagman post and tutorial. So I had to try another angle.

If I couldn’t go with a paranoid crook for inspiration, how about a populist racist? I had only a vague recollection of George Wallace for having been the victim of a failed assassination attempt while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. But digging a little deeper, I learned that he had also been a third party candidate in 1968. Others might remember George Wallace from the movie Forest Gump.

This poster was created in GIMP. I found an image of Bagman  while checking @andessurvivor’s Flickr stream. I’d been thinking of using the Wallace poster since finding it over the weekend but didn’t feel it would work on the class blog and didn’t know where to find Bagman images. I used the pen tool to create a path, turned path into selection and pasted in to new layer. The color and typography was just a matter of trying to match the original poster. On further review, I wish I had done something to give it a more weathered look.

And poor Bagman, why has this character who has brought nothing but mirth and joy been associated with two such notorious political characters? I can’t speak for Alan. In my case, I guess I liked the look of the original campaign poster. I also like the in your face tone of the copy on the poster. I wonder if Wallace’s style of politicking would still work in 2012.