President Donald is doing a great job of making America miss George W. Bush. And now Michelle Obama and the “liberal” media are chipping in. Barf.

First there was the hubbub back during the election that nobody in the Bush family could bring themselves to vote for Donald. Then more recently it was former President George W. standing up to Donald and defending the importance of a free press. Then we saw Dubya on Kimmel laughing at Trump jokes. Dubya says he doesn’t like the racism. Former first daughter Barb is on the podium defending Planned Parenthood. And any number of former Bush aides and staffers suddenly have the knives out, like here, where a former strategist marvels at how poor the Trump team’s collective memory is when it comes to remembering all those meetings with all those Russkis.

Now the coop de Gracie: my news feed can’t get enough of the tender love affair between Bush II and Michele Obama. She gets my sense of humor, he says.

And, as theWaPo breathlessly informs us, Michelle O ain’t the only liberal who loves her some Dubya these days.

In the words of a famous woman, gag me with a spoon.

I’m not going to belabor any of this, but I will make some brief observations.

1: Isn’t the timing remarkable. After eight-plus years of radio silence surrounding the most incompetent grease fire of a president in recent memory, all of a sudden it’s wall to wall Everybody Love Dubya. What a wonderful, affirming moment in the lives of those who believe passionately in the power of coincidence.

2: Anyone who writes an article about how “liberals” love Bush is, de facto, an unfiltered moron. If you like Bush and you think you’re a liberal, you, likewise, are an unfiltered moron.

3: L’affaire Michelle + George tells us nothing about Bush and everything about the Obamas. It’s not at all difficult to believe that they get along famously because the truth is – and we’ve been telling you this for years – there isn’t that much that the Bushes and the Obamas disagree on.

• Neither George nor Barack was especially interested in doing anything about the Wall St. thugs who destroyed the economy.
• Neither had any reservations about drone-bombing the shit out of anything that moved in the Middle East. (As a side note, if I’m Bush, I’m probably pissed that I didn’t win the Peace Prize, too. I mean, I did as much to deserve it as Obama did.)
• While Obama finally came around on marriage equality when it became clear he had little political choice, neither was ever a diehard champion of unrestrained social justice for all.
• Neither man was ever likely to stand in the way of the oil industry’s best interests, although again, Bush has to be annoyed that he never got to turn the water cannons on the Injuns in sub-zero weather.

And on and on.

Look, I get it. Obama is charismatic as hell and he had this gift for making otherwise lucid people buy the idea that he was something that he simply never was. Bush has this aw shucks hillbilly charm that many people are suckers for.

In other words, both are the types of guys that I imagine I’d enjoy hanging with. I mean, you know, except for that war criminal thing, which would be a little awkward.

But when push comes to shove, Michelle Obama and George Bush are a lot more alike than they are different and they have far more in common with each other than they do with you or me. They’re members of a narrow, refined ruling elite and there’s no question at all that Michelle is happy to be a part of Bush’s meticulously timed and orchestrated public rehabilitation and his transformation from lavvy-headed numpty to American Statesman^®.

We can’t stop them from throwing that cynical PR hook in the water, but hopefully we’re smart enough not swallow it, mmmkay?