Bush has been such a curse on the United States that the mere prospect of his impending departure has improved the country’s image abroad.

In a poll released earlier this month, the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland found that for the first time in a while, there’s been an upswing in the global perception of the United States. “After years of becoming progressively more negative, public views of the United States have begun to improve, according to a BBC World Service Poll across 34 countries,” says PIPA, which helped conduct the poll.

So, there has been an uptick of 4 percentage points, on average, to 35 percent, of people with a sunny image of the United States in the countries polled. The percentage of people with a less cheery view of America has, on average, declined by 5 percentage points, but it still stands at 47 percent.

One huge reason for this change in perception, the pollsters say, is a global sigh of relief that Bush will be in retirement at Crawford soon.

“The image of the U.S. is already being influenced by the prospect of one of the candidates becoming President,” Steven Kull of PIPA says. “All three talk more about multilateralism and cooperation; all express concern about the U.S. image in the world; all express substantial concern about climate change and signal readiness to take action on that front.”

It’s almost as if the rest of the world can’t believe its eyes. After seven-plus years of gleeful official disdain for global public opinion, here are three potential Presidents who actually say they want to listen to the world. Of the three, Obama is generating the most excitement globally, as I can personally attest to. Some weeks ago, I made a call to an uncle in India. One of the first things he wanted to talk about was Obama, and my uncle was quite envious that I had gotten to see Obama in person a few days before our conversation.

Certainly, there is a lot of work to be done to repair the image of the United States, as a closer look at the poll numbers shows. There is still a twelve-percentage point gap, on average, between those who hold a positive view and those who have a negative perception of the United States in the countries surveyed. And there is a danger that expectations will build up so much for the incoming occupant of the Oval Office that there will be disappointment when fundamental policies on, say, Israel don’t change.

But the numbers do confirm that Bush’s policies and persona have generated immensely negative feelings abroad, and that just the mere recognition that his presidency is going to end is enough to make people become more hopeful about America. We’re not alone: People around the world are ready to wake up from the long nightmare that the Bush presidency has been for this planet.