Brit Hume blows a goodbye kiss to Bill Clinton

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It didn’t take long for Brit Hume, Fox News’ outgoing anchor and sometime scourge to viewers of the liberal persuasion, to size up Bill Clinton’s mood at the inauguration of Barack Obama.

As a glum-looking Clinton walked through the corridors of the Capitol arm-in-arm with his wife, incoming Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hume remarked to viewers: ‘President Clinton always looks to me like he’s searching for the right expression on his face.’

As the Clintons approached the portal where they were to wait before being introduced to the crowd, Hume noted that the 42nd president had ‘figured it out’ and now had a familiar, amused grin on his face.

Meanwhile, the Fox mise-en-scene stood in sharp contrast to the anchor blather and passerby interviews logged on other networks. That’s because much of the audio was devoted to patriotic music from the U.S. Marine Corps marching band, playing at the Capitol. The significance of the day may not always have been explained to viewers, but the pageantry was never far away.

— Scott Collins