HAIL to the Commander-in-Chief! It’s almost a week since Barack Obama took office in the White House and I, for one, was among the many millions who welcomed the onset of a new era with a huge sigh of relief. For maybe at last we'll get some common sense emanating from the Oval Office.

But in another way I’m sad. Just think of it – no more Bushisms to gladden your day on the one hand or throw you into deepest despair that on the other, the Western world was led for a eight years by this chimp.

True to form he was at it right to the end. His last major speech was eight days before Obama took office and yet again he demonstrated his extraordinary capacity for making an absolute prat of himself. To whit: “One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people’s money to help prevent there to be a crisis.” Good one, George.

Then we had: “I’m telling you there’s an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That’s the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best.” No doubt Bin Laden was rolling all over his Afghan cave floor at that one. This was closely followed by further sage observations on the credit crunch: “In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession.” His eight-year tenure was a huge success then… He really is a classic buffoon. At his last G-8 summit in Japan in July last year he said farewell to Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy with a jaw-dropping: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter!” grinning inanely and punching the air as he did so.

And a couple of months earlier he winked: “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.” Not quite right there, George. Most people got what didn't go on in the Oval Office from day one, actually…. You know – leadership, strength of purpose, clarity on issues, intelligence…..

But it’s the adverts I love. There was a fabulous one doing the newspaper rounds featuring a power charger for portable electronic devices showing a glum George with the words “for whenever you lose power”.

Or how about the Mexican newspaper that claimed to have solved the inner workings of Bush’s personality by showing Homer Simpson added to John Wayne equals George W with the tagline: “Such a complex world needs a good explanation….”

A Brazilian company selling sticky tape showed a picture of Bush with his mouth taped with its product bearing the legend: “The world needs a tape like this.”

Amnesty International in Malaysia used a facsimile of a postage stamp bearing a picture of Bush to urge people to write to him in protest against alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay with the snotty caveat: “Remember – use simple words…” Ouch.

If you voted for GBW in 2004 an advert from Hong Kong washed the guilt away by declaring everyone makes mistakes and extolling the use of an eraser pen to correct the ballot.

But the Australians, with their near-knuckle bravura win the contest hands down.

Most women will be aware of a well-known hair removing cream that sells in chemists and supermarkets all over the world. In Australia’s Daily Telegraph beneath a story showing a smiling Obama ran an advert for said product with the memorable words: “Goodbye Bush.” That’s what I call media placement.

The last word, however, should go to the four-year-old who won internet blog fame when his dad put up the following comments on a website after the kid saw Bush on TV one evening.

He said sagely and with a wisdom obviously far in advance of his tender years: “That silly Bush. He should just get his crayons and his colouring book. He should use markers too. He can draw pictures and do artwork. Then he can go to jail.” Enough said.