Just how 'kewl' is the president?
Pretty darn kewl if you read the obedient media who has been touting Obama's "coolness" ever since his campaign made it clear that this is how they will appeal to the youth vote.
Now, keep in mind that before the Obama campaign decided to push this "cool" PR talking point, news reports rarely mentioned it. And if they did, it was often in a negative way, as in "Should Cool Obama Warm Up?" or "Why Obama's Cool Comes Off as Cold."
Back then, the press could afford to gently chastise Obama for coming across as too aloof, particularly when the country was hurting economically while he was vacationing in Hawaii.
Now, when the stakes are higher, the mainstream press seems willing, if not eager, to focus on the real task at hand -- helping Obama get re-elected. Nowhere was that more evident than in the coverage of Obama's idiotic appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show.
It's not that there aren't genuine angles that a truly independent press corps could pursue about Obama's latest PR gambit.
They might, for example, focus how this "cool" campaign seems to smack of desperation. As columnist Michael Barone notes on the next page, the president spends a lot of time trying to shore up his youth base. A confident Obama would be chasing swing voters.
Nor did the press bother to mention how the left-wing Fallon was last seen sandbagging Michele Bachmann when he had his band play "Lyin' Ass Bitch" as she walked on stage. Civility police, anyone?
There's also the more important question of whether Obama's Fallon appearance crossed the line on campaign finance laws. As Ben Shapiro notes on Breitbart's "Big Hollywood" site, letting Obama read a campaign speech on that show, without offering equal time to his political opponents, appears to violate the federal equal-time rule.
It is likely that Obama will win a sizable portion of the youth vote again - although signs indicate that the turnout among the 18-24 group will not match 2008.
The spillover of the "Obama is cool" meme, however, will hit just about anyone under 40. Trendiness is not limited to the young and this is especially true among women. With the press doing the bidding of his campaign, millions of voters may pull the lever for Obama based largely on his appeal as a pop culture icon.
And that's depressing.