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     *Sen. Barack Obama will be featured on the cover of GQ magazine’s September issue, marking the first such appearance from a politician since Bill Clinton and Al Gore covered the men’s publication 15 years ago.

      Writer Ryan Lizza begins the cover story: “We already know that Barack Obama has what it takes--the crowd-pleasing charisma, the outsize ambition, the audacity of hope--to be a serious candidate for president. But does he have all the rest--the nerve, the political spine, and the will to do the (sometimes dirty) work it takes to get to the White House? That is the question. A journey with the new star of the Democratic Party.”

      The Washington blog FishbowlDC has posted the following excerpts from the issue:

• Regarding Hillary Clinton, Lizza writes: I asked [communications director Robert] Gibbs if his understanding was that, despite the campaign's rhetoric, Hillary had to be actively taken down. Gibbs looked at me and smiled. "We're not running the race thinking we're the horse in second," he said, "and that ultimately the horse in first is just going to stop running."

• Regarding Howard Dean, Lizza writes: But Obama also offers a cautionary note. He leans back in his chair and crosses his legs. "Movement without organization," he says, "without policy, without plans, will dissipate. Howard Dean, one could argue, back in 2004 helped to engineer a movement, a movement in opposition to the war. But there wasn't a structure there and a set of policies and plans that would then lead to governance.” And yet... Obama is on his way to raising more money from a larger pool of donors than any presidential candidate in history. He will out-raise Hillary by an astounding $10 million for the quarter. He can parachute into almost any city in America and attract a crowd of thousands. But his poll numbers, both nationally and in the early primary states, still aren't budging, and the whispers about Obama being the next Howard Dean are growing louder.

• Lizza notes: "Pollsters are beginning to talk about Obama's "beer problem." Survey after survey shows that he appeals to the college-educated, "wine sipping" Democrats but isn't reaching less educated "beer drinkers."