GW Bush's pick up truck sold (for crap) at Barrett Jackson.
I'm watching it now on DVR from it's original broadcast Saturday night from Scotsdale AZ.
They're auctioning off the white stage prop George Bush drove when he did his brush clearing routine as a charity car for Fisher House. They sell a number of charity cars at the BJ auction, and they always soar into high six figures or more, depending on who's car it is. Alice Cooper put up a Mustang and Brett Michaels sold a Camaro last year, and the donations were astronomical. It's a tax write-off, after all, and there are a lot of millionaires there who could use the break. This one still had the owner's name on the title, and would be seen for as long as the buyer owned the truck.
It was prefaced by a video of GW asking for the donation to Fisher House, and he asked Jay Leno to present the truck. As they rolled the truck onto the stage, the enthusiasm was obviously muted. Leno appeared along side the truck to give his plea for the charity. He went into a heartfelt overview of what a very noble charity fisher House is, and asked that the bidding start at $100,000. Remember, these star cars usually see between a half to a full million.
The auctioneer began his spiel and quickly found another ten thousand in the room, and there it stopped. Leno again came onstage and resorted to pulling the jingo card. He mentioned how they auctioned off his Fiat for Fisher House at Pebble Beach for a cool mil, and he knows the people there in Arizona were more patriotic than them. He continued that Bill Orielly even gave a million, and joked that if he can do it, so can they. Again, the auctioneer began his banter, and the bids rose to $150,000 where it stalled again.
Enter Michael J Fox, who from the auctioneer's post begged the people to open their hearts and wallets for the wounded veterans while the camera moved from one current bubba bidder to the other. The two bidders they focused on looked remorseful to my eye, as if one was hoping the other would outbid him. Back to Jay on the stage as he picked it back up, pretty much calling the Arizona bidders pussies for not stepping up and helping the vets.
The auction restarted anew and this time, with a heated demand from Leno that someone take it to $200,000. It did indeed reach that figure quickly. Then the floor again fell to the sound of chirping crickets. Leno tried once more, imploring bidders to match the $600,000 he gave this year. The bidding eventually hit $250k, but that was all the money in the room.
Somehow, the bid shown on screen was $300k as they pushed it off stage, perhaps from Jay himself trying to save face for his ranchin' buddy.
If they filled the bed with good quality bullshit, it might have pulled down double.
BTW, the original #1 Batmobile from the '60s TV show saw Kalifornia Kustomizer George Barris taking home $4.2 million for the car he's kept since the day he built it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It was used to move his classic cars around the shop, and was autographed by Bush and himself. It is pretty sleek though, and I'll bet that's the original paint:
http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/vintage-top-charity-sales-from-past-barrett-jackson-auctions/
on edit:
Imagine what it would have pulled down without the autograph.
Really uncomfortably awkward segment. Market seemed a little soft overall, other than the Batmobile and a few others. 
