Let the joyous news be spread

Paul Simon was right: "Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears."

But this comes close:



Eight long years. It's still amazing to me that there are people who didn't anticipate Bush's glib willingness to beat this country to within an inch of its life. Look: he came very close to completely destroying this crazy, beautiful place, and all of the positive things it has stood for.

But as Ezra Klein wrote earlier today:

If you can say anything good of the financial crisis, it's that it has sealed Bush's historical fate. There will be no revisionism, no credible reconstruction of his legacy. He has been worse than a bad president: He has harnessed the power of America to do genuine evil under his watch. On Iraq, on global warming, on famine, on nuclear non-proliferation, and on much else, America has not been the last, best hope of mankind, but instead, a contributor to the very forces that threaten the health and welfare of countless human beings. I have no particular opinion on whether Bush meant well, or is a good man in private. Nor am I particularly interested in those questions. As a president, he has been monstrous, responsible for the needless deaths of, at least, tens of thousands. As one of those rare individuals who had the opportunity -- indeed, the power -- to do great good, he has been negligent in a fashion that's borderline sociopathic. He left a world largely united in its contempt for America and a country largely united in its revulsion for him. History will, and should, judge him harshly.

That's great for history, though perhaps a little frustrating for those of us who have been judging Bush harshly for a long time.