CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Of course, Time magazine had no choice in choosing its 2008 Person of the Year. Barack Obama is a towering figure, a history-maker who changed the face of America forever. He symbolizes a deep shift that is occurring in U.S. culture, a transition to more enlightened, diverse, cosmopolitan and progressive values.

In addition to Obama's own attributes, he also symbolizes another change: an end to the ugly, harmful, selfish, belligerent behavior of the disastrous Bush administration.

Back in 2003, The American Prospect displayed George W. Bush on its cover with the label, "The Most Dangerous President Ever." Last month, after Obama's victory, the magazine hailed Bush's impending departure with an essay titled "Goodbye and Good Riddance," written by Paul Waldman of Media Matters for America. Here's a long excerpt:

"Goodbye, we can say at last, to the most powerful man in the world being such a ridiculous buffoon, incapable of stringing together two coherent sentences. ... Goodbye to being represented by a man who embodies everything our enemies want the people of the world to believe about America - that we are ignorant, cruel, and only care about foreign countries when we decide to stomp on them. ... Goodbye to a president who talks to us like we're a nation of fourth-graders.

"And goodbye, of course, to Dick Cheney. Goodbye to the man whose naked contempt for democracy contorted his face to a permanent sneer. ... Goodbye to the 'unitary executive' theory and its claims that the president can do whatever he wants - even snatch an American citizen off the street and lock him up for life without charge, without legal representation and without trial. Goodbye to the promiscuous use of 'signing statements' (1,100 at last count) to declare that the law is whatever the president says it is, and that he'll enforce only those laws he likes. ...

"Goodbye to an administration that welcomed gluttonous war profiteering, that was only too happy to outsource every government function it could to well-connected contractors who would do a worse job for more money. Goodbye to the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war. Goodbye to the lust for sending off other people's sons and daughters to fight and kill and die just to show your daddy you're a real man. Goodbye to playing dress-up in flight suits, goodbye to strutting and posing and desperate sexual insecurity as a driver of American foreign policy. ... Goodbye to Guantanamo and its kangaroo courts. Goodbye to the use of torture as official U.S. government policy. ... Goodbye to the accusation that if you disagree with what the president wants to do, you don't 'support the troops.'

"Goodbye to stocking government agencies with people who are opposed to the very missions those agencies are charged with carrying out. Goodbye to putting industry lobbyists in charge of the agencies that are supposed to regulate those very industries. Goodbye to madly giving away public lands to private interests. Goodbye to a Food and Drug Administration that acts like a wholly owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry, except when it acts like a wholly owned subsidiary of the fundamentalist puritans who believe that sex is dirty and birth control will turn girls into sluts. ...

"Goodbye to vetoing health insurance for poor children but rushing back to Washington to sign a bill to keep alive a woman whose cerebral cortex had liquefied. Goodbye to the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. ..."

On and on went the damning farewell to the smirking lame-duck president. It concluded that new President Obama must spend "most of his time cleaning up the mess George Bush made."

American history will change profoundly on Jan. 20. Thank heaven, the sad Bush chapter will end in just one month.

In addition to Obama's own attributes, he also symbolizes another change: an end to the ugly, harmful, selfish, belligerent behavior of the disastrous Bush administration.

Back in 2003, The American Prospect displayed George W. Bush on its cover with the label, "The Most Dangerous President Ever." Last month, after Obama's victory, the magazine hailed Bush's impending departure with an essay titled "Goodbye and Good Riddance," written by Paul Waldman of Media Matters for America. Here's a long excerpt:

"Goodbye, we can say at last, to the most powerful man in the world being such a ridiculous buffoon, incapable of stringing together two coherent sentences. ... Goodbye to being represented by a man who embodies everything our enemies want the people of the world to believe about America - that we are ignorant, cruel, and only care about foreign countries when we decide to stomp on them. ... Goodbye to a president who talks to us like we're a nation of fourth-graders.

"And goodbye, of course, to Dick Cheney. Goodbye to the man whose naked contempt for democracy contorted his face to a permanent sneer. ... Goodbye to the 'unitary executive' theory and its claims that the president can do whatever he wants - even snatch an American citizen off the street and lock him up for life without charge, without legal representation and without trial. Goodbye to the promiscuous use of 'signing statements' (1,100 at last count) to declare that the law is whatever the president says it is, and that he'll enforce only those laws he likes. ...

"Goodbye to an administration that welcomed gluttonous war profiteering, that was only too happy to outsource every government function it could to well-connected contractors who would do a worse job for more money. Goodbye to the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war. Goodbye to the lust for sending off other people's sons and daughters to fight and kill and die just to show your daddy you're a real man. Goodbye to playing dress-up in flight suits, goodbye to strutting and posing and desperate sexual insecurity as a driver of American foreign policy. ... Goodbye to Guantanamo and its kangaroo courts. Goodbye to the use of torture as official U.S. government policy. ... Goodbye to the accusation that if you disagree with what the president wants to do, you don't 'support the troops.'

"Goodbye to stocking government agencies with people who are opposed to the very missions those agencies are charged with carrying out. Goodbye to putting industry lobbyists in charge of the agencies that are supposed to regulate those very industries. Goodbye to madly giving away public lands to private interests. Goodbye to a Food and Drug Administration that acts like a wholly owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry, except when it acts like a wholly owned subsidiary of the fundamentalist puritans who believe that sex is dirty and birth control will turn girls into sluts. ...

"Goodbye to vetoing health insurance for poor children but rushing back to Washington to sign a bill to keep alive a woman whose cerebral cortex had liquefied. Goodbye to the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. ..."

On and on went the damning farewell to the smirking lame-duck president. It concluded that new President Obama must spend "most of his time cleaning up the mess George Bush made."

American history will change profoundly on Jan. 20. Thank heaven, the sad Bush chapter will end in just one month.