Last day of the Bush Error!

It’s nearing 1:30 AM, I’m cold, I’m tired, and yet, before snuggling into my triple blanket sandwich, I thought I’d pop in and let out a triumphant HALLEFREAKINLEUJAH! It’s over! The last page of the countdown calendar has turned, and at this very moment, George W Bush is dreaming his last dream as President, having finished packing away his crap, so as to make way for a man deserving of that high office, Barack Hussein Obama.

And even as I type that, I’m having a few conflicting thoughts.

The overriding feeling is one of DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD! The Cheney Administration is over, and will soon be consigned to the dustbins of history, dredged up, hopefully, only when people want to know what not to do (can we make a History Channel show out of this, along the lines of “What not to wear”? I can imagine it now…cue the gay historian….”And this is when Bush went wrong,” (sidekick) “When was that?” (historian) “January 21st, 2001″….)

But at the same time, I’m pragmatic and/or cynical enough to recognize that the words I wrote above, “so as to make way for a man deserving of that high office, Barack Hussein Obama,” frames his ascension to high office in EXACTLY the same terms as Bush partisans saw the arrival of their man into the Oval Office. That in no way presumes that should Obama makes it through 8 years as President, he will leave with everyone proclaiming him to be the worst president in history; I have confidence that Obama will succeed, despite the barriers thrown up by the sheer incompetence of the GOP Congress, the banal evils committed in our name by the Cheneys and Roves and Addingtons, carried out by hapless low level soldiers and continuing in the hands of countless burrowed functionaries for, likely, years to come.

I just find it ironic that at this moment of triumph, I’m using that particular frame to describe the uppermost thought in my head regarding this particular transition, and the fact that I hadn’t even realized it until now.

I’m looking forward to the next 4 years, of the turning of America away from the path of disaster trod by Bush and the Gang, onto firmer footing, led by commonsense, progressive ideals. We’re not going to get all that we want from Obama and the Dem Congress, that much is inevitable, but it’s gonna be a damn sight better than we have experienced these past 8 years (he says, swallowing back doubts about how much will actually get accomplished before some sort of backlash sets in).

I’m just gonna stop this essay in the same happy place it started, and leave any such worries for when they might actually arise….

Bottom line, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD RIDDANCE TO YOU MR BU–SH–! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out….assuming you can get it open in the first place!