How Duke Basketball Helped Obama Be Cool

Michelle Cottle of the New Republic writes about what makes Obama cool, and gives some credit to his assistant, his "body man", Reggie Love. Love, of course, is the former Duke basketball player who at the age of 27 has since gone on to become one of Obama's closest aides:

But as Obama is surely aware, hanging with Love only boosts his own cool quotient. Every story about Obama banging in the paint alongside Love--not to mention some of Love's pals and former teammates, at least one of whom is now in the NBA--is a feather in the 47-year-old president's virility cap. Shrewdly, Team Obama has been liberal with its media access to Love. In multiple profiles of the infamously hip body man (he received A-1 treatment in the Times), we have learned, among other things, about Love's romantic preferences (a basic knowledge of sports is required), his late-night socializing (on the trail, he was the guy everyone wanted to party with), his tattoo ("MY WORD, MY BOND, MY BOYZ, MY BLOOD"), his enduring affinity for beer pong, and, of course, his role in helping his boss keep up with the hip kids. (It was Love who introduced Obama to the fist bump, Love who gave Obama an iPod for his forty-sixth birthday, and Love who loaded said iPod with Jay-Z and Lil Wayne.)

The fact that Obama chose a former Duke player rather than a Carolina player is probably my biggest complaint with the man. None of that stimulus money better get funneled over to Durham!