New York Times fashion reporter Cathy Horyn's "Critics Notebook" entry on Paul Ryan, "Embracing The Right Fit [1]," (get it?) made the front of Thursday Styles section criticizing Ryan's fashion sense and offensively suggesting that Republicans (but not Democrats) need hot politicians to salivate over:
So far, the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan ticket has been given the approval rating typically reserved for a Hollywood bromance in the dead of August. Two thumbs up for the cute Republican dudes!
The man from Janesville, Wis., was hoisted onto the love pedestal, a nerd suddenly out of his loafers and into the sex dreams of Republicans, who apparently, unlike Democrats, need this kind of thing. The Web site Politico worked up a complete Ryan hot sheet, noting his “dreamy bedroom eyes” and “buff” body, while TMZ, brandishing a photo of the congressman and his trainer, called him “the hottest vice-presidential candidate ever.”
It's easy to refute Horyn's smug contention that Democrats don't have "sex dreams" of their candidates. Just look at the Times itself. Former ultra-liberal columnist Judith Warner dreamed of Obama in an infamous column [2] posted on nytimes.com February 5, 2009, and said her friends did as well.
The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, and then he was being yelled at by my husband, Max, for smoking in the house. It was not clear whether Max was feeling protective of the president’s health or jealous because of the cigarette....I figured that my friend and I couldn’t possibly be the only ones dreaming, brooding or otherwise obsessing about the Obamas. Were other people, I wondered, being possessed by our new first family? I launched an e-mail inquiry. And learned that they were. Often, in strikingly similar ways. Many women -- not too surprisingly -- were dreaming about sex with the president.