“I just think it’s creepy,” my friend Lauren remarked. We were having our weekly dish session at the local PinkBerry. This week were looking at the tabloid pictures of Barack Obama in a bathing suit in Hawaii. “What’s even worse is all the discussion of his abs. I don’t want to see my President in this light- like a celebrity.”

” I totally agree,” I responded, taking another bite of my PinkBerry. “It feels incestuous.”

My first thought is, how does Michelle feel about having her husband’s body dissected and drooled over by the media? I can imagine it would feel quite disconcerting. The Presidential Race wasn’t a Sexiest  Man Alive Contest. Or was it? I certainly don’t think anyone is interested in checking out McCain’s abs, even with all his qualifications!

Headlines over these paparazzi photos include, “Barack Is Hot,” “The Prez has Killer Abs”, and “Presidential Porn.” The last one is particularly revolting.

Is it really appropriate to sexualize our President? It is one thing if he behaves in a way that logically puts himself in that position (ahem, President Clinton), but Obama was on a trip to have a memorial service for his grandmother when these photos were taken. Is anything off- limits these days?

Why are his abs relevant, anyway? This is not George Clooney we are discussing. This is the man who is supposed to lead and direct our country during one of the most difficult times in our history.

Let’s give him an opportunity to do this, and then honestly appraise him at the end of his term, and not his “Barack Hard Abs”!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 6:18 am and is filed under 3. Political Angst. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.