May 17, 2009 10:35PM 

# Cultwatch: Union Station, New York Times 

By [Gene Healy](https://www.cato.org/people/gene-healy) 

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![obamastore](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/obamastore.jpg?itok=lzjNeTYd) 

Snapped this pic at DC’s Union Station this afternoon, on my way from the Amtrak platform to the Metro (where the machine dispensed a metrocard [featuring a grinning BHO](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/inauguration-watch/obama%20farecard%20mockup.jpg)). Readers planning to visit DC will be happy to know that you can get all your Obama-related tchotchkes and talismans in one convenient locale right after you get off the train.

Say what you will about hapless Jerry Ford, but he had this going for him: nobody ever thought of making an action figure in his image.

In other cult-related news, today’s *New York Times* has an “Op-Extra” sidebar,with “excerpts from Opinion Online.” Our friend Judith Warner, [last seen ](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/GeneHealy/Beware-the-cult-of-Obama-42163117.html)discussing cougar fantasies about “sex with the president,” [weighs in ](http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/president/)about the shirtless Obama cover on the current *Washingtonian*:

> “Just as having a president who can string a sentence together with subject-verb agreement makes us all look a little bit smarter, just as having a really admirable family in the White House makes us all seem a little less dysfunctional, perhaps having a president who can look good in a bathing suit is in some bizarre way good for the nation.”

Yeah, I mean, God knows [it’s been good for Russia.](http://boozhy.typepad.com/my_weblog/images/2007/08/23/putin.jpg)

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[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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