No shoes, no shirt, no pictures:
The last time the news media snapped pictures of a shirtless President Obama, tabloids, blogs and gossip magazines were agog.
“Pec-tacular,” exclaimed one photo Web site. “Fit for Office,” declared The New York Post.
The White House press office has made sure that won’t happen again. On a trip to Florida over the weekend, the president’s staff kept photographers at bay while he took a dip in waters off Panama City Beach.
The only photographer on hand to document the presidential swim was a member of the White House staff. The photographers who made the trip to Florida with the president – unaware that he was going to go in the water – were led into a hotel by the White House staff and remained there for about three hours while Mr. Obama swam.
The White House later released one picture of the president, who was seen from the shoulders up playing in the water with his daughter Sasha.
No bare-chested shots this time.
Bill Burton, the deputy White House press secretary, explained that logistically, it was easier to have a White House photographer there than to coordinate a photo shoot with the press corps.
But the photographers and reporters traveling with the president over the weekend were irritated to learn that they had been excluded from documenting Mr. Obama’s swim, which had become a politicized issue because of the BP oil spill. By choosing to go in the water, the president was making a symbolic gesture that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were indeed safe for recreational use.





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