Bush is running out of European buddies. Mere months after Berlusconi lost one of those too-close-to-call elections, Tony Blair has just announced that he too will step down soon—and none of his likely successors seem to be pushing a pro-American agenda too hard.

But don’t take this as big score for Europe against the US. First off, Blair announced his imminent retirement even before he won his record third term, so this is hardly shocking news. And let’s not forget that while several pro-Bush leaders have gone by the wayside (Aznar, Berlusconi), we’ve also seen the most anti-Bush leader of all—Germany’s Schroeder—replaced by the more conservative (and pro-American) Merkel. Even the stereotype of the anti-American Old Europe is fading away; as Bush plays nice with E3 powers over Iran, images of the asshole cowboy are becoming increasingly confined to San Francisco newspapers and university blogs.

Finally, individual members of the EU seem to prefer the more laissez faire economic style of America and Britain than the pseudo-socialist French model—and let’s not forget that the competitive nature of capitalism is as core an American value as democracy.

So as we bid farewell to Teflon Tony, we should recognize that he’s leaving behind a Europe that leans toward the Atlantic. Take that, Chirac.