What does YOUR president smell like?

[NatureJunkie]

A blog inspired by Pypermarru1

Two years ago, Michelle Obama revealed in an interview with Glamour magazine that her girls refused to cuddle with her husband in the morning because he is too "snore-y and stinky." Stinky, that is, because of his cigarette smoking.

This got me thinking about what President Obama smells like now. My gut-check personality assessment of the presidents of my lifetime tells me that President Obama wears Drakkar Noir.

Probably about the same time the Glamour interview came out, I was coffee klatching with a bunch of friends, all of us liberals, when I offended all of them by saying I thought President Bush looks like a man who smells good. God did I piss them off. It was just too un-PC to say even that much nice about the guy. In for a penny, in for a pound, so I just put my shoe in the shit all the way and said, “He looks like an Aqua Velva man to me.”

Pyper has since corrected me on this. “If I had to guess, I would peg him for a Stetson man. Good cowboy scent.” She is totally right. W would choose a scent he felt was in keeping with a certain image. It also made me realize that George the Elder is an Aqua Velva man, in which case, W would wear anything else but Aqua Velva.

I have been reading presidential biographies this year in the chronological order of the presidencies. Unfortunately, not a one contains the personally telling detail of how these men perfumed themselves. Therefore I submit my conjecture about the ones I know best:

John F. Kennedy: Old Spice

Lyndon Johnson: Burma Shave

Richard Nixon: Gillette

Gerald Ford: Taylor of Old Bond Street

Jimmy Carter: Mennen Skin Bracer

Ronald Reagan: Didn’t use aftershave or cologne; didn’t want it clashing with the scent of his Brylcreem

George H.W. Bush: Aqua Velva

Bill Clinton: Aramis

George W. Bush: Stetson

Barack Obama: Drakkar Noir/stale Marlboro


As for Michelle? I know in my heart of hearts that she is what I am: a Halston woman. But she probably wears Chanel No. 5.

[NatureJunkie]

@ Christine: "I think a man should smell like a man.." Well, I guess Obama could swap out the Drakkar Noir for Old Milwaukee. That sounds like it could be a cologne.

@ Deborah: This wasn't real trivia. Just conjecture. Sort of like news.

[NatureJunkie]

@ Deborah: "I am made of blue sky and golden light, and I will feel this way forever..." Is there really such a thing as too much Chanel?

[Pypermarru1]

Chanel 5 - I am of the opinion that all women and Presidents should smell like Chanel 5 except Ron Reagan, he should smell like soap and sweat.

[NatureJunkie]

@ Pyper: I think it's possible that John Kennedy smelled like Chanel No 5. (The CSI shows call that "transfer evidence.") As for President Reagan, perhaps he did smell like soap and sweat, but you never would have noticed for the permeating smell of his Brylcreem. He used more than a little dab.