As would eliminating the shoe carnival, the war on some liquids carried by some people, and your degenerate strip-search/gropefests. And I suspect that when TSA screeners were working the DNC, they were under the supervision of competent individuals from other agencies -- a marked improvement over the situations in airports, where poorly trained, unprofessional supervisors apologize for poorly trained, unprofessional screeners.

OP can't figure this one out. He gets on a plane where there are maybe no security personnel. So TSA checks him out more than Secret Service, which blanket presidential appearances, do. Sounds like a totally logical relationship. If there were as many cops protecting each plane as there are Secret Service protecting a leader, it'd be almost unnecessary to screen passengers. The government has decided, by whatever process, that the major effort will be ON THE GROUND.

A really good friend of mine flies on a certain 747 that's very recognizable.

Their security procedure: leave their bags on a table. An explosive dog sniffs around the bags and they're good to go. They're given a quick once over with a metal detector and names are checked off a manifest and that's that.

Granted he had a very thorough background check done, he's known to them and there are several dozen men armed to the teeth that will stop any funny business that occurs during the flight.

... and those with Nexus cards have been through similar - iris scans, finger prints, background checks ... but clearly TSA doesn't think that matters (I know, it would be unrealistic to think that Border and TSA might actually collaborate and extend the "trusted traveller" into "trusted-to-be-on-an-airplane".)

They should but will they?

Not if they worked the way one of your colleagues at DCA worked this morning. He got up and walked around after EVERY bag went through the machine. Then called my bag that had (only) a DSLR and lens in it for a bag check. Said bag was "chock full of electronics" (an outright lie - they were all in the rollaboard) and had the nerve to accuse me of being abusive when I asked him to proceed to finish screening my other bag so that his colleague and I could proceed to the swab area. All told: 12 minutes to clear the line, and I was #2 in line. The swab test took 45 seconds.

Disgusting, disrespective, and abusive behavior toward the passenger.

And because they're members of the press and there is a desire to ensure that a certain someone will get good press.