KEY POINTS:
Many, many people were ecstatic about the inauguration of Barack Obama but there is a whole group - a subset of the mojito-drinking liberal elite - who are disappointed.
That's because as George W. Bush flew home to Texas they waved goodbye to their bete noire, their
raison d'etre and their nourriture billet (meal ticket in French).
Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and documentary maker Michael Moore are not the only ones who made a lucrative career out of hating George W. Bush - whole shrieking dinner parties of the middle class cognoscenti defined themselves by derision for Bush.
Catering to them, the publishing industry invented a profitable genre of books both for and - mostly - against Bush. That is not to mention the Bush-bashing novelty toys and computer gimmicks.
Last week I almost ran over someone who was ostentatiously reading Obama's The Audacity of Hope while crossing Jervois Rd - moron - nonetheless, the Obama genre does not look likely to be as lucrative as the Bush books due to the fact that, apart from Rush Limbaugh, all the old conservatives are playing nice.
The fact is, hating someone is much more satisfying and makes better copy. It's invigorating - it gives you a prick to kick against. And now the cottage industry built on ridiculing Bush is going to collapse. Psychologists would call it transference.
You can attribute everything you loathe to one person - the irrational phenomenon that led to the burning of witches. It also provides a helpful shorthand to identify whether someone is "one of us".
Declaring your loathing for Dubya was a badge of righteousness. What will local left-wing columnists and bloggers - Finlay Macdonald, Simon Grigg, Russell Brown and chums - write about now? They better find someone new to throw their shoes at soon because the Bush opprobrium is wearing off PDQ.
The Facebook group called "I bet I can find one million people who dislike George Bush" still has 1,000,479 members, but 383 people have unsubscribed recently, so if the attrition continues it will dip below seven figures soon.
Newsweek says Bush is not becoming a footnote; he is actually being liquidated or cauterised. "George W. Bush is being turned into an unperson, like a character out of Orwell."
But the Bush-is-the-devil brigade may find history less than vindicating. It is not going to be long before academics cool off and rehabilitate Bush.
Conservative historian Andrew Roberts says an American lady called to ask him to appear on a programme to debate whether George W. Bush is the worst President of the 20th century or simply the worst President of all time.
"I think he's a good President," Roberts replied, which dumbfounded her. Roberts says history, by looking at the facts, will probably hand down a far more positive judgment on the Bush presidency.
Commentators of different hues concede that Bush was right to insist on the surge of troops to Iraq.
And Roberts believes Bush's supposed lack of intellect will be seen to be a myth when his archive of papers is released. Remember, Bush got better grades at Yale than John Kerry. Conservative politician Boris Johnson points out most of the things people hate about Bush apply equally to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
But back home, right-wingers are in the same boat. A whole bleating segment of the blogosphere defined itself by hating Helen Clark: they're out of business now too.
deborah@coneandco.com
