Of all the positions on a political campaign, the so-called body-man is the most peculiar. As a group, they tend to be young and politically inexperienced. Yet they have more access to a candidate than any other staff-member. Obama's body-man is 26-year-old Reggie Love, who played football and basketball at Duke, but is now tasked with tracking down the Junior Senator's favorite line of Honest Tea (Black Forest Berry) anywhere they happen to be in the country. Apparently Love is also charged with teaching Obama about rap.

After the Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia in April, Mr. Obama borrowed a move from the rapper Jay-Z and mimed brushing off his shoulders, but it was Mr. Love who had uploaded his music to the senator’s iPod in the first place — a silver Nano that he bought the senator for his 46th birthday.

“So I’ve gotten pretty fond of Jay-Z,” Mr. Obama said. “He’s broadened my horizons in the hip-hop world.”

In turn, Mr. Obama said he had gotten Mr. Love into “everything from John Coltrane to Frank Sinatra.”

“I think he’s got the most eclectic music of any 26-year-old,” the senator said.

This may come as a surprise to WEEKLY STANDARD readers who have come to know me as a voice of the common man, but I can only name five (living) rap stars off the top of my head. Jay-Z is on that list. How eclectic can he be? Or rather, how clueless is Obama?