I was struck at how strange this is and I'm wondering if I'm alone.
People Magazine's Managing Editor Larry Hackett and Washington correspondent Sandra Sobieraj Westfall had an interview with President and Mrs. Bush. They published part of it in the magazine this week, a benign Q-and-A that included just 15 extremely noncontroversial questions -- some submitted by readers -- published in a warm-fuzzy four-page spread. The stuff in the magazine was all fluff, chatter about Jenna Bush's upcoming wedding and the state of the First Marriage. I didn't really expect much more because it's People Magazine and, also, it probably would be boring to read his rote answers to the Iraq War and all that.
But tell me this isn't unsettling:
PEOPLE: Mrs. Bush, Julie Cregger, from Keymar, Md., writes, "My boyfriend was a Marine at Camp David and always said how nice you smell."
Mrs Bush: Oh really? That was so sweet.
OK. Umm. (A) That's not sweet, it's a disgusting and weird. And (B) That's the best People could come up with, a reader whose boyfriend is a straight-in-the-military stalker?
And here's the best part. Was Mr. Bush creeped out? Did he order the Secret Service to find out who Julie Cregger's stud muffin is and why he's been smelling up the First Lady? No! Here's what he said after Mrs. Bush seemed flattered:
The President: Obviously he didn't work in the gym.
Holy mother of GOD! What is wrong with these people? And, with no due respect, what if he DOES work in the gym? Then Julie Cregger's boyfriend thinks Laura Bush's sweat is HOT. Mmmm.
I'd love to point you to this interview, but for some reason, it's not anywhere to be found on the People website. I did find
last year's Presidential chat, which was a lot better. (Less freaky readers asked hard questions about why the president isn't pressing his own daughters to fight in his unwinnable war and wondering how an anti-gay president can be so respectful and loving towards Dick Cheney's then-preggers lesbo daughter while giving the rest of us same-sex-lovers the wrong sort of shaft.)
Beyond the fact that the Q-and-A isn't online, there's also no Web extras from this exclusive visit with the First Couple at Camp David. Did they really only give them 15 questions? There's a photo in the magazine of Hackett and Westfall with the Bushes hanging out on couches. Both have recorders on the coffee table. Why don't we get to hear a podcast of the conversation? And, by the way, Mr. Hackett, if you go to interview the President of the United States, you wear a frigging tie.
