Matthews: Welcome back. On Friday George W. Bush said his memoir comes out this November. That will be two years since Barack Obama’s victory which some say was a repudiation of the Bush years and that brings us to this question. Will there be George W. Bush nostalgia this November when his book comes out? Kelly?
O’Donnell: Well every president gets a bit of that and I think the more George Bush is not visible, is not talking now; the more there will be interest in what he had to say.
Matthews: Will there be nostalgia?
O’Donnell: For some there will be.
Matthews: Okay, David Ignatius…
Ignatius: It depends on large part on where things are in Iraq. If after the election next month Iraq looks stable a lot of people are going to say, you know we weren’t comfortable with it at the time but George Bush was right.
Matthews: Kathleen, Bush nostalgia for the young (inaudible).
Parker: I think David makes an excellent point that will be the key to whether there’s any nostalgia, but you know George Bush has conducted himself awfully nobly since he left office in terms of hanging back…
Duffy: Compared to Cheney…
Parker: Yeah, well compared to Cheney as Chris would say… (crosstalk) I think he’d really appreciate that and you know there’s admiration for certain things about him.
Matthews: Yeah.
Parker: …that you know transcend his accomplishments.
Matthews: So there will be nostalgia?
Parker: Well, yeah.
Matthews: Okay.
Duffy: Sure as long as everyone’s competing memoirs don’t open up all the debates we’ve been talking about and they are all coming out. But I think these things get better with time.
Matthews: I think he needs a little more time to be away before he gets any, gets the David McCullough treatment.
It's an article of faith among the Villagers that Bush will eventually be vindicated as Truman was. They have to rationalize their fanboy hero worship to themselves somehow.