President Bush seemed relatively amused for the first fifteen minutes of Stephen Colbert’s routine at Saturday night’s White House Correspondent Dinner. Or at least he looked like he was trying to appear amused. Which couldn’t have been easy, considering that Colbert, in full Fox News persona, went at him with lines like: “When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday–no matter what happened Tuesday.” Taking a faux-whack at those likening recent administration personnel changes to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, Colbert quipped: “This administration is soaring, not sinking. If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.” Ouch.

Here’s part of Colbert’s performance. (Click the play button in the center of the image to start the video.)

(Part two is here, and part three is here.)

There’s been some buzz  that Colbert was “too biting,” and even that the president and first lady bid him a chilly farewell after his address. But not much attention has been given to the powerful series of attacks–one might call them precision-guided jokes–Colbert landed on Bush again and again. There’s no doubt that Colbert hit the president hard. But too?

(Bonus Colbert coverage: 60 Minutes profiles him here.)

Update

Apparently C-SPAN asked YouTube to take down the video. So here’s a link to the Colbert performance hosted on Google.