"I wish he'd done that the last eight years," Williams replied. "I can't wait to see his helicopter take off for the last time."
That will be the money shot for a lot of Americans. As Bush was to watch returns in the White House with his wife, Laura, whose 62d birthday it was, he enjoys, if that's the word, a popularity rating of about 25 percent, almost Nixonian.
Two months after 9/11, his approval rating was 88 percent.
W's been a pariah in this presidential election, starring in opposition ads, skirted by Republican candidates. Asked in March whether he'd campaign for McCain, the president said he'd do what was best for the party. "If he wants me to show up, I will. If he wants me to say, 'You know, I'm not for him,' I will."
This is my country
I asked Williams, a 67-year-old goateed African American who takes photographs in addition to taking care of buildings, why he celebrated the end of the Bush years.
He took me back to 1958, when he joined the Air Force and was undergoing basic training. "We saluted the flag, and I got chills. For the first time, I felt, this is my country."
That pride lasted until Bush & Company took us into war, he said. "After 9/11, they had the sympathy of the world, but they blew it. We even had Iran. We are now not a respected entity in the world."
We talked of torture, Guantanamo, the arrogance of thinking you're not subject to international law. Williams hoped Barack Obama could restore America's primacy.
While Bush has been unseen, he has not been unheard. A New York Times piece Monday detailed his administration's quiet punchlist for the final days: making scores of regulatory and rules changes to weaken the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights.
Another country heard from
Back in September, when I wrote something unflattering about Sarah Palin, a Philadelphia lawyer named Joseph Ferry predicted I'd need industrial-strength grief counseling after Obama lost.
