Editor’s Note: A longtime journalist, Margo Howard went into the family business (her mother was the fabled Ann Landers) in the 1990s as Dear Prudence. Her broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else. Click here to read her column on Yahoo!

Ah yes, he was going to “bring dignity back to the White House.” Instead, he brought Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and half of K Street. Aren’t there any Republicans who are gonna say they’re sorry?

Perhaps not. My take on Republican hopes is not unlike La Rochefoucauld’s view of remarriage: the triumph of hope over experience. According to The New York Times, “a whopping 91 percent of Republicans have a favorable view” of Palin, who is “the runaway favorite when they are asked to rank possible contenders for the party’s 2012 presidential nominee.” Clearly, these people have put their fingers in their ears and gone lalalalala to the 60-plus percent of people who were kindly disposed toward McCain but said they could not vote for him because they felt the lady was in no way ready to assume the presidency, if the need arose.

Meaning no offense to my Republican brethren and sistren, I cannot help but wonder: Don’t you people ever learn? Do you think these polls are made up? Are you not a little bit pleased to look forward to at least four years of hearing a president for whom English is his first language? Do you not take some pride in the fact that we have been mostly (and relatively instantaneously) reinstated in the international community? Can you imagine Barack Obama ever giving a neck massage to Angela Merkel at an economic conference? On whose watch, exactly, do you think we saw the mess of the last eight years unfold?

I, for one, am thrilled that George Bush and co. are soon to head back whence they came. I suspect they might be a little bit thrilled themselves.

Something really telling is that, as of now, there is no interest in a presidential memoir. This is a first in modern times. I mean, all any recent president has needed is “former” after his name and Bob Barnett, and voila! A big deal book contract. This is too bad, in a way, because with no Bush memoir the book he will most be associated with is My Pet Goat.

And just talking about books makes me think of language, and playing with words. I am sorely temped to riff on an old chestnut and say, "Good Riddance to bad RuBush," but that would be rude. Oh, hell, given what we’ve been through, what’s a little rudeness?