Well, we did have the Hillary comment “We are the President”. When Bill Clinton fielded the question of ‘boxers or briefs’, we’d already started down the path.
LOL! True!
The Clintons were somewhat created by the press and then believed the hype (thus changing from ruthless politicians to idealistic stars). I think Obama actually went into the presidency seeing it from the very start as his shot at celebrityhood.
I really wonder how we're going to be able to undo this, though. It seems to me that all candidates are now being evaluated on the basis of their capacity for celebrityhood - that is, it's all about whether the media (and hence the public) will love them and find their every breath something to be reported on and adored - and I think a lot of the rising generation of candidates may see it that way themselves.