'Pec-tacular': DC Mag to Feature Shirtless Obama on Cover

April 21st, 2009 10:03 AM

The gushing and fawning over our new president will reach new heights -- or new lows depending on your point of view!!! -- when the May issue of Washingtonian magazine is released with a picture of a shirtless Obama on the cover.

Even more disgraceful, the headline will read:

26 Reasons To Love Living Here

Reason #2: Our New Neighbor Is Hot

Now that's respect for the office, dontcha think?

ABC's Jake Tapper has more (h/t NBer motherbelt):

Garrett Graff, editor-at-large at The Washingtonian, told ABC News the idea for the cover came during a discussion among the magazine’s staff about how, with the arrival of the Obamas, came a “celebrity aspect that has brought energy to the city and the attention of the paparazzi.”

“The Obamas are the center of attention here and the whole world is looking to Washington now in a way we haven’t seen in years,” Graff said, calling it “a real golden age of Washington.” [...]

He said they were trying to “capture the energy and excitement” over the Obamas in Washington and “have a little fun.”

“It’s a unique time in Washington and this photo helps capture all of the reasons why,” Graff said. “It’s not a normal way to look at a president of the United States but this is not a normal president.”

Graff said the magazine used the photo to illustrate two things: first, the president himself is hot  – “you have a buff president and the paparazzi like taking shirtless photos of him,” Graff said – and second, the Obamas’ presence in Washington is “really hot.”

Yeah, I'd say it's a unique time in Washington: a time when so-called journalists abdicated all of their professionalism to gush, coo, fawn, and swoon over a president much as a teeny bopper does a rock star.

Of course, what's likely missing is how such coverage is at the heart of the separation between how the public views the president and his policies.

As has been reported the past few months, Obama's favorability rating is much higher than support for what he's enacted since taking office.

This is what happens when media members focus more attention on his "hotness" than how he's actually performing at his job. 

Sadly, journalists don't understand that by doing this, the president will be able to continually enact policies the public doesn't support.

So don't worry, fellow citizens, that your taxes are going up and new debt levels are being created that will strangle the economy as well as future generation's prosperity. The guy doing it is hot, and that's all that matters!