The first time Austan Goolsbee appeared in front of a white board, pundits were pleased as punch. A visible and comprehensible Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers! What fun! Liberals in particular just loved the idea of explaining why Obama was right, very clearly and simply.

Now, in the fourth edition of this White House feature, the affably serious Goolsbee is still beloved. Here he is talking about the resurrection of GM.

• Aw, Look at Him  "These White House white board videos are simultaneously quaint, bizarre and also kind of cool," writes Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo.

• Twitter Fans  From Sam Vance:
  

• Also, He's Hot  Meanwhile, Salon named Goolsbee one of the sexiest men of the year. The folks over there love his "unabashed, and slightly goofy, smile distinct to male professors--men who spend most of their time talking to students about what they care about, and not having to muzzle their enthusiasm for a corporate or cubicle culture." They're digging his "low voice," too.
  

Whenever Goolsbee popped up on cable news or on "The Daily Show" armed with clear data and even clearer blue eyes, we turned up the volume. In a climate of simmering panic and fear, Goolsbee's media appearances and more recent White House White Board summaries were direct and lucid, as he patiently explained the reasons for Obama's trip to Asia, or outlined--with all the polite zeal of your favorite high school math teacher--why the Republican tax plan favored the wealthy to a financially calamitous degree.

Looks like politics followers have a new Peter Orszag.

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Heather Horn