The titles are grim: "His Days Are Numbered," "The End is Near," and "The Official Countdown."
But these are not your ordinary apocalyptic tales lining the shelves at area bookstores. Instead, they are calendars, many, many calendars, counting down the days until the end of the Bush administration.
As President George W. Bush enters his final year with some of the lowest approval ratings in his two terms in office, publishers are seizing on a disgruntled America and hoping to cash in this holiday season with a bounty of Bush-bashing calendars and handbooks. The countdown products feature celebratory exclamations like "Yes, the End is Near!" or "Hang in there! It's almost over!" along with unflattering pictures of Bush and quotes from the president.
In Downtown Crossing, the items are so popular that Borders bookstore has dedicated coveted aisle space to them, with a "Countdown to Victory" sign hanging over products including "Bye Bye Bush" and "The Bad President," along with four exclusive "Countdown to Victory" calendars for presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Barack Obama. Sales of the Bush calendars are up 30 percent over last year, according to Ann Binkley, a Borders Group spokeswoman.
At Barnes & Noble, the countdown products are among the top-selling 2008 calendars. And independent publisher Sourcebooks Inc.'s "2008 George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown" ranked among the top 10 best-selling calendars of thousands sold on Amazon.com in recent weeks.
"What makes me like it rather than some regular calendar is that it has various quotes, humor, and downright truth about the hard times we have to deal with," said Darren Major of Attelboro, who plans to buy one of the Bush calendars. "And it helps encourage me to vote Democratic this round, not that I need a lot of help."
There's certainly a market for the merchandise. After all, calendars are big business, with an estimated $467 million annually in sales. More than 80 percent of them are typically sold between Thanksgiving and Christmas, according to Calendar Club LLC.
And the appeal of the countdown calendars is clear: Only about 37 percent of American adults surveyed in November approved of the way Bush was performing as president, compared with about 42 percent last November, according to Rasmussen Reports, an electronic publishing firm. Bush's ratings have steadily eroded since February of 2005, when 51 percent of Americans approved of his performance. (A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on the calendars.)
But to some people, buying a Bush calendar as an act of rebellion seems counterintuitive.
"One has to wonder at the mind of a liberal; why would you subject yourself with the face of a man you hate every day?" Carl Eranio recently wrote in a review of "Bad President Countdown Page-A-Day Calendar" on Amazon.com. "Hasn't your doctor been telling you, 'No more Bush news because it is raising your blood pressure.' "
Eranio gave "Bad President" two out of five stars.
Workman Publishing Co., which created "Bad President," says this is the first year it has offered a countdown calendar. It is a takeoff of its best-selling "Bad President" book - fourth in a series of bad books that include "Bad Cat," "Bad Dog," and "Bad Baby" - published last year that features facts about Bush, his cronies, and barbed political jokes, according to Workman publicist Jen Pare Neugeboren. The countdown calendar, however, comes with a disclaimer: "Tearing off pages by the fistful will not speed up the outcome."
Pennsylvania publisher Andrews McMeel also put out its first countdown calendar this year - "His Days are Numbered George W. Bush Countdown Calendar," an idea that came from the "utter despair" felt after the 2004 election, said calendar creator Alex Goulder. Each page offers anecdotes on the perceived shortcomings of the Bush administration. For example, Jan. 19, 2009 (1 day left), features "With Friends Like These . . . A tabulation of UN voting records shows that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, two countries Bush has touted as close allies in the 'War on Terror,' vote against the US almost 90 percent of the time."
"The only thing that helped was knowing that even four years would eventually be over," Goulder said. "Counting down to that day makes me feel a little better."
Andrews McMeel also created calendars exclusively for Borders that feature four presidential hopefuls in "Countdown to Victory" with new photos and quotations from the candidate for each month. Currently, Clinton is outselling Obama, Giuliani, and McCain by almost two to one, according to McMeel.
Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, said, "We are pretty confident that voters in New Hampshire are paying more attention to the substance and leadership qualities of the candidates than the sales figures of calendars."
Other campaigns declined to discuss the calendars or did not return messages seeking comment.
Sourcebooks, which launched its first countdown calendar last year, expanded its offerings for 2008 to include a desk calendar, a postcard calendar, and a handbook. In the calendar, September features a picture of Bush making a funny face and the quote "The best way to relieve families from time is to let them keep some of their own money."
With Bush's days numbered, Sourcebooks already is working on its next project: A Bill Clinton, First Lady calendar for 2009.
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
