no detail too small

In case you thought I was being frivolous when I wrote about Obama’s decidedly un-hip look on a bike, think again.

It turns out that Obama himself was hyper-aware of the ramifications:

Mr. Obama confessed that before putting it on for the bike ride, he wasn’t sure he wanted to wear it.
“I had an internal debate,” Mr. Obama said. “Because I knew that the A.P. was going to take a picture, and they were trying to portray it like Dukakis wearing that tank helmet. But I wanted to make sure that the children who saw that picture knew that even the Democratic nominee for president wears a helmet when he goes biking.” (The crowd applauded enthusiastically.)

But being a good role model comes with a price, though:

Then he admitted to being wounded from some critiques of his bike-riding outfit, which included sneakers, jeans and a tucked-in polo shirt.

“Now, obviously the rest of my apparel was apparently not up to snuff, because I got a hard time from all sorts of blogs,” he said, “Who said I looked like Urkel.”

Forget the shirt! That bicycle seat is way too low.

And: welcome to the wonderful world of celebrity, Mr. Obama.

You can thank your “narrator” for creating such devoted and loyal fans.

Don’t let them distract you from the issues.