Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage.com (Obama)

the most eventful, hold-on-to-your-hat time of the modern era, the New York Times this morning devotes A1 real estate to a thorough accounting of the president's new life in the White House. From what Barack Obama eats for lunch (cheeseburgers!) to the temperature of his office (hot!) to the contents of his fridge (tea!), no detail is too mundane, no routine too pedestrian, and no development as telling as this: President Obama, unlike his predecessor, will not require his staff to wear suit jackets in the Oval Office. "The capital," reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg tells us, "flew into a bit of a tizzy."

Christ. What for? Obama is a modern man. He uses a BlackBerry. He plays pick-up basketball. He fist-bumps, if not as often as he used to. He doesn't buy into the old saw that men have to wear two-piece suits to take themselves or their surroundings seriously. (W. was never a modern man. One suspects that W. only insisted on jackets in the Oval because his father and Reagan insisted on it, and he wasn't going to settle for anything less. Like a lot of things in his life, it was all about him.) The new president is also wrapping his arms around some pretty big problems here, and if ditching the jacket and even rolling up his sleeves gets the blood flowing, "the capital" should calm the hell down and let the man work.

But a few words of caution, not that he needs it: the President would do well to avoid Jimmy Carter's disastrous experiments with cardigan sweaters. Presidents, unlike prime ministers, are both heads of government and heads of state, and Americans like a little pomp from the man in charge. Public addresses, formal meetings, reading My Pet Goat to kids when he should be reading intelligence briefings: such are the times when Obama needs to convey a sense of majesty with a killer two-piece suit (or — dare to dream — a three-piece) that lets everyone know he's in charge. But the rest of the time — when he and his A-team actually have some shit to do — he shouldn't sweat the small stuff. "The capital," and the Times for that matter, should do the same.

RELATED STORIES:

Richard Dorment Richard Dorment is the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io