We saw this coming and yet, like a boomer with a ponytail, we didn't want to admit it. He's only picking up on what college kids and Hollywood have known for months. It's time to face it everyone: President Obama is not cool anymore. 

In July 2008, the gray hairs started sprouting. A year later, he wore dad jeans in public, and he didn't even claim that it was a laundry day instead defending them as "comfortable." This spring, he started talking about the bags under his eyes as his 50th birthday looms on August 4. Obama has started admitting to fundraisers that he's "sort of old news," Politico's Julie Mason reports. "I know that it's not going to be exactly the same as when I was young and vibrant and new,” he told donors in New York last week. "Posters everywhere, hope. The logo was really fresh. And let's face it, it was cool to support me back then. At cocktail parties, you could sort of say, 'Yeah, this Obama guy, you haven’t heard of him? Let me tell you about him.'"

Mason writes that at about six recent fundraisers, Obama has lamented his declining cool. In Washington last month: "The campaign is not going to feel exactly the same... It's not going to be as fresh and new and trendy." In Washington last week: "The old posters are all faded... People make fun of hope and change."

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Elspeth Reeve