Where is that banner? Was it torn down and tossed out right as soon as the debate started? Did someone keep it as a historical memento?
It actually looked more like a sign than a banner… So I doubt anyone just rolled it up and walked away with it…
Kind of an odd question, I know, but I was wondering if some soldier has it tucked away in their basement or something.
Seeing as though this has pretty much reached the bottom of the first page in GQ, I’ll WAG:
It is highly unlikely that someone’s got it tucked away in their basement. Had things gone rather more as hoped, the banner would have been an item of some interest as a national keepsake of the Bush administration years. It would have been taken by the logistics people accompanying Mr Bush and put in an archive box in a warehouse along with shirts worn at APEC meetings and pens used to sign various documents. It wouldn’t have been later destroyed precisely because someone might ask this question.
Which banner?
Which debate?
Memento of what?
What the heck are you talking about? Wanna give us some clue about where you remember it from? Please, you’re really not giving us much to work with here!!
Are you serious? He’s talking about the banner given in the Mission Accomplished speech given by President Bush.
Well there was that banner Colbert had on his show the other day…
No, it was quite clear to me exactly what the OP meant. Now I’m curious as well.
My Googlefu has failed me. Anybody else found anything interesting? Now I’m fascinated to know whether it was stored, destroyed, stolen, etc.
By “debate” I mean bickering back and forth among the masses, Keeve, not a debate between any two specific people. I think the other who, what, where, when, and whys that you asked were answered by Dr Who’s link.
And it obviously wasn’t some random quick streamer and balloon thing that was taped up… It looks like a hard sign. Something like that from such a historical event would, I assume, be saved. That is, of course, unless it was picked up by a few guys in suits to be shredded and burned.
Any ideas?
I vaguely remember reading something about the white house taking it back for safe keeping, but haven’t been able to find an on line cite for that.
As his poem for Laura from Oct. 2003 shows, the president was quite taken with his carrier experience:
I bet that he kept the banner.
See, I tend to agree - it’s got to be hanging in the War Room! 
I sincerely thank you for that Wikipedia link.
(If the speech had been recent, I would apologize for my silly question, but given that it was over three and a half years ago, I don’t think that’s necessary.)
Seeing as military aviators were involved, I imagine it got peed on.
It’s in a crate, in a huge warehouse, right next to the Holy Grail.
Nitpick: the Ark of the Covenant.
From my experience on a ship, I would WAG that the public affairs department was responsible for having the banner made, and the deck department was responsible for putting it up (I worked in both of these departments, incidentally). After that, one of three things were likely to have happened: 1) A couple of deck hands crammed it in a locker 2) Those in charge of the ceremony had no idea this would be so very widely scrutinized, so when the deck hands asked what they should do with it, they were told to throw it away 3) Someone responsible from public affairs reclaimed the banner and archived it somewhere.
If the OP or someone else were interested, they could just call and ask. The phone number and e-mail address for the Public Affairs Office on the USS Abraham Lincoln are here: http://www.lincoln.navy.mil/pao/contact.html
But the ship has already made a statement: It was their idea. According to them, they went on the longest deployment in the history of the Navy and all that was meant by “mission accomplished” was that they had successfully completed their deployment. This sounds reasonable to me, but the information is conflicting. The White House also claims responsibility for the idea.
I don’t really want to go into whether the White House tried to cover its sorry lying ass by making a few good sailors fall on their sword. No sirree, Bob. If you want those kind of threads, we’ve got plenty of them. 
I’m just kidding - thanks for the info, alterego. I might try to find out. I’m devilishly curious - less curious about all the furor that was going on at the time re: the banner - it was pretty overexposed at the time - but I’m really, really curious about where it went after that. I’m inclined to think that you’re right that they probably just trashed it after the photo op, without realizing the shitstorm to come. But I think it would be interesting to find out.
Heck, I can’t believe that some enterprising young newspaper reporter hasn’t already done an article on this!
:smack: You’re right, of course. The Holy Grail is in a completely different wing of the warehouse.
Conspiracy Theory Time!
My favorite… it comes on right after Blue’s Clues.
It doesn’t look like a hard sign to me. They put it over the hand rails because it had metal rings at the corners. They put line (rope) through the rings and tied it to the hand rails, allowing them to make the sign as tight as they wanted.
Probably at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Diego Garcia.
You could ask the Public Affairs Officer aboard the ship.