Just doing my best here to help Digby achieve her life's work.
I plan to make it my life's work to remind Chris Matthews of these little exchanges. It was the day that Matthews revealed that he and the other media whores were not just shilling for the GOP for professional reasons, but that they actually had a barely contained (and inexplicable) sexual attraction to George W. Bush.
Chris Matthews finds another excuse to praise W for his flight suit appearance on the USS Lincoln.
Matthews: Before we break, President Obama’s taken flack for his war time decision making—a little too much hand wringing some critics say—not enough snap to it. But no such knocks on the way the Commander in Chief gives his salute. The editor of Smithsonian Magazine, a former Marine himself recently decreed that Obama’s salute at Dover Air Force Base was impeccable in every way. He said it’s spot on as a mastery of standards as set by the armed services themselves.
Presidents have long taken salutes from the troops that attend them but Ronald Reagan, the movie star who made training films during his service in WWII was the first to actually return those salutes and boy did he get it right. Check out the sweep of his arm there. And then there was George H. W. Bush, the WWII fighter pilot, who kept up Reagan’s tradition. Bush’s salute as you can see was less dramatic than Reagan’s but did have a snap to it.
Bill Clinton who was as a candidate was best known for his youthful opposition to a war caused some flack for his solute which was, well, it was a bit uncertain when he first took office but after a while, he got it down pat.
As for George W. Bush, who could forget this moment on the deck of the U.S.S. Lincoln? That beats even Reagan when it comes to Commander in Chief performance art. But getting back to our current president, it does seem that the president’s salute isn’t the only one he’s mastered.
Remember Mr. Spock’s Vulcan salute in Star Trek? Obama showed that off at a black tie dinner earlier this year. Live long and prosper.
Matthews does these sort of segments week after week on his Sunday bobblehead show and I assume he thinks he's being either cute or funny. Generally they're neither with this week's addition being no exception.
