A belated welcome to The Politico — a new online and print journal providing an insider’s view of everything inside the Beltway.

While they are chiefly a source for straight news from the Hill, their “Happy Hour” section takes a broader (and often lighter) view of the the cultural and social context — the pop, we might say — surrounding the politics.

Margaret Little, for example, investigates whether political party divisions spill over into what Democrats and Republicans drink. Quick answer (according to Washington bartenders — “perhaps the ultimate political insiders”): not really.

One of more thought-provoking recent articles is Helena Andrews’ analysis of the “rock-star” appeal of the present batch of presidential candidates — especially Hillary and Barack. While this aspect of the campaign has been discussed before, the wide variety of opinions Andrews solicits from academic and entertainment sources distinguishes the piece:

“In the era of manufactured celebrity, it’s easier to become a political celebrity,” Variety’s Ted Johnson said of the American Idol-esque nature of modern politics [...]

What’s interesting, several sources say, is the line separating real celebrities who are candidates — such as movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger when he ran for California governor in a 2003 special election — and candidates who become celebrities.

“It’s a curious shift from the Ronald Reagan kind of celebrity candidate,” Dennis Barron, a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois, said of the phrase. “Now you start seeing it in terms of people who are sort of political phenomena” [...]

New-kid-on-the-block Obama is a textbook example of that, having been launched into the superstar stratosphere so quickly and early in the game that his White House bid provides an ongoing case study in the success or failure of the new political pop star.

“He gains his rock star appeal through that indefinable thing called personal charisma,” explained Marty Kaplan, associate dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California.

“He looks like a spotlight is following him and people want to be near him, want to touch him,” added Kaplan [...]

Still, in the face of Obamania and even Baracklash (some Obama haters renamed his bestseller “The Audacity of Hype”), Clinton’s got a solid grip on the Madonna moment. Even the most famous of the famed stop and gawk when she enters a room.

A close friend of Johnson’s attended a Clinton fundraiser during Oscar week and said the crowd froze when she walked into the room. “Oh my God, there she is!” he remembered people saying.

Kaplan ultimately points out that celebrity candidates are not new — noting that George Washington was a war hero.

Celebrity in age of the perpetual, omnipresent news cycle, though, appears to be on a completely different level of intensity and obsession — and it is damaging political discourse. The hour-long news shows on cable, for example, are virtually unwatchable — having abandoned coverage of public policy for coverage of politics for politics sake. While image and narrative are important points of discussion — and points that we at PopPolitics hold dear — they should be entry-points, not end-points.

Obama and Clinton are pretty smart folk, I realize, and they tend to elevate our discourse simply by their eloquence. But I’m still waiting for the day when intellectuals can become voices that matter in that discourse simply because of their intellectual abilities.