Earlier we told you about a billboard that popped up along an interstate highway in Minnesota that features the image of a smiling George W. Bush next to the question, “Miss Me Yet?” Since it was confirmed that the billboard actually existed and wasn’t merely an urban legend, two questions have remained: who is behind it and what’s their motivation?

To get some answers, Yahoo! News tracked down Mary McNamara, the general manager at the Minneapolis office of Schubert & Hoey Outdoor Advertising, the company which owns and leases out the billboard space.

“The ad was purchased by a group of small business owners who wish to remain anonymous,” McNamara said. However, McNamara did offer this political bombshell: “Some of the people in the group who paid for this were Obama supporters.”

McNamara told us that the message the group hoped to convey was one of “Hope and change, where is it?” She went on to say that she has yet to receive any negative feedback about the ad, which has been up for about a month, and added that some have even contacted her office offering to donate money to keep it up.

However, not everyone is buying McNamara’s portrayal of the group’s ideological makeup. Cindy Erickson, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Chisago County, where the billboard is located, suspects the ad’s funders are conservative activists posing as Obama supporters.

“I don’t have any idea who did it, but my thought was that they’re Tea Party people,” she said. “Regardless, it’s been the subject of many conversations around here.”

While Minnesota has long been a blue state, Chisago is part of a Republican-leaning string of suburban counties surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul, and Obama lost the 2008 vote in Chisago by 10%. But Erickson argued that local Democrats who voted for him are content with the job the president is doing. She added that if the intent of the ad was to reflect poorly on Obama, then it’s failed to deliver its message.

“I think most people have interpreted their message to be ‘If you think it’s bad now, don’t forget how bad it used to be,’” she said. “It’s just a goofy photo of him. It’s goofy.”

So the Tea Baggers are probably behind the ad but their message is being largely misinterpreted to reflect positively on Obama rather than against him. Hilarious!

Photo: Jeff Meidl