Presidents to represent me

Frequent commenter Rikyrah has an interesting piece up about Obama, not as our first black president, but as our first celebrity president. Of course there was Camelot before him, but there was no US Weekly, People or TMZ--at least not as they exist today. The point is that Obama is the first president that the celeb machine is actually obsessing over:

Barack Obama is the first CELEBRITY President. I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean it in a factual way. He's the first President of the Modern Celebrity Culture that we live in today.

To be honest, that realization frightened me. I mean, look at the magazine racks. Obama isn't just on magazines like Time and Newsweek, the Obamas, or some combination of them are on People, US, Life & Style, OK, The Star.

Look at that list.

Within days of the election, what did we hear about the WeeMichelles? Some offer from Hanna Montana?

Then there was the article in the Wall Street Journal about Malia, her dress from Election Night, how it sold out, and maybe she's going to be a trendsetter for the ' tween' set.

I turn on the tv and see Inside Edition doing a piece on Sasha's Dress - yes, SASHA, and how it's become a sellout too.

Meh, I knew it was over when I saw the tabs trading rumors about the First Couple's various affairs. It's pretty crazy.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2008/11/presidents-to-represent-me/6336/