Having obtained the record for the highest Presidential approval rating ever shortly after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush broke the record for the lowest approval rating ever given a President in February of this year. An American Research Group poll found that 75 percent of Americans surveyed disapproved of Mr. Bush and his policies.

Though this is no more of an “”issue”” in the classic sense than it would be if someone had broken the record for longest crap ever taken this spring, I can’t think of anything I’m looking forward to this Christmas more than knowing that Mr. Bush is finally going to be gone. No need to get entrenched in the ugly debates about the extent to which his administration is responsible for our impending economic crisis, or whether the Iraq war is a complete failure or not. The fact that these debates are ongoing and so ugly is all we need to realize Mr. Bush has been a bad thing.

When I was still a virgin, we didn’t despise each other for being Republicans or Democrats. When I was still a virgin, most of the world didn’t hate or fear the U.S. Thanks to Mr. Bush, all of this has changed. Whether you want to call it media hype or chalk it up to primitive human psychology, U.S. citizens are more polarized along party lines than we’ve been in a good many years, and it’s possible that we’ve never experienced such widespread disdain in the international community as we have in the post-9/11 world.

The image our leaders project to the national and international public are just as important (if not more so) than their policies. It’s hard to imagine someone who could represent America with a more divisive image than Mr. Bush’s; maybe Snoop Dogg? I for one am looking forward to a leader whose style and policies are normative enough that we can fight about their decisions and not the demagogue him/herself.

Daniel Sullivan is a senior majoring in German studies and psychology.