Photos: The 18% club shows up at the Waco airport to soak up Bush's sunny nobility...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

President George W. Bush shakes hands with members of the crowd gathered to see his departure from the Texas State Technical College Airport Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009 in Waco, Texas. The president spent the week at his nearby Crawford, Texas ranch. (AP Photo/Duane A. Laverty)

...and for anyone who didn't get the "sunny nobility" reference in my subject line...

Tue, Oct 25, 2005 2:08pm ET

Matthews: Bush sometimes "glimmers" with "sunny nobility"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200510250003

From the October 24 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

BLANKLEY: Well, there are bad and there are worse. First of all, I think that perjury proven beyond a reasonable doubt is a serious felony. I thought that seven years ago about Clinton. And I will think it this week, if that charge comes down and if the evidence supports it against Republican officials. But I think that the real question the White House and the president, personally, has to decide, presumably in the next several days, is how they're going to respond to whatever does come out, presuming it's not going to be a total clearance. And in that regard, I think the president would be ill-advised to try to minimize anything. I think he needs to make a clean break and set his administration looking forward and not get defensive. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. The evidence is either going to be there or not. And if he continues to try to defend what is something which will be, you know, indefensible, if in fact there are indictments -- is going to be a mistake, and it will drag him down. What he needs to do is put together some new staff, admit whatever mistakes have to be admitted, and start moving forward. He's got three years left in his administration, and it's important for him and for the country that he be functional.

MATTHEWS: You know, Tony, there is in the past, it's not always there, but sometimes it glimmers with this man, our president, that kind of sunny nobility. How does he bring it back, because it hasn't been apparent for a while now?

BLANKLEY: Well, he's had a very, very hard last three months, and he's had a pretty difficult administration because of all the -- well, the way it is. But I think that if he is straightforward with himself first, and then with the public, he can get back to an agenda and start moving forward. But if he gets locked in to defending the indefensible, then it's just going to get -- go from bad to very worse.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Could Chris Matthews' nose go any further up Monkeyboy's butt? n/t

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[valerief]

5. It's so high up he's nose to nose with Dimson--from the inside. nt

[gratuitous]

2. Such a tight focus in those photos

Why didn't they get a wider angle shot, to show the hordes of folks who turned out to demonstrate their appreciation and support? There's also no way to tell if any of those people were there to, you know, make sure that Chimpy really left. Sort of like the funeral scene in "Charade."

[SoCalDem]

4. A lady interviewed yesterday (from Crawford)

said the town had "put on a good show" for the press, and she hoped they had enjoyed it..

She was NOT being sarcastic.. she was proud as punch..

republicans only speak the truth, accidentally :rofl:

[Lint Head]

3. This man is dangerous to other people and a danger to the country.

He needs to be arrested and committed to an insane asylum :dem:

[MichiganVote]

6. Reminds me of that movie, 'Independence Day' where the dodo heads are standing on the roof of

a building expecting the aliens to stop in for biscuits and gravy and they all get blown to smithereens instead.

[JanMichael]

7. oh look at all those cute white people

Fun!

Note a couple of the men look constipated, while their wimmen folk look oh so happy!

[lame54]

8. Perfect time to drop a giant net over them...

Mass institutionalization

[Historic NY]

9. Boy he sure is getting his monies worth out of AF one...wasting our gas...

Whats next a farewell tour?

[DemoTex]

10. Noble? Bu$h is a noble gas.

Practically inert. He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, .. (VIIIA).

[Wiley50]

11. This was 10/25,2005. So it was a month after Katrina

when the reports were coming out about how they didn't help those people.

Tweety knew he still had to keep access for 3 more years

his job depended on it.

so he kissed ass in a very dirty situation.

It's what's wrong, in microcosm, with our journalists.