Jake Tapper Tries The Presidential Workout

Correspondents can approach reports like the results of President Bush’s physical from two directions: They can prepare a typical White House lawn stand-up, or they can look for a distinct angle of the story. ABC News reporter Jake Tapper chose the latter: When doctors called President Bush’s condition “superior” recently, Tapper was inspired.

“We decided to try the presidential workout,” he said on Tuesday’s Good Morning America. With a trainer named Melanie from the L.A. Sports Club, Tapper “stretched, walked on the treadmill at an incline, tried the match the President by bench-pressing 185 pounds five times.”

It wasn’t easy. “He’s clearly a superior athlete,” Tapper declared after a tough jog. GMA executive producer Ben Sherwood loved the piece. The White House live shot “is the way television always does it,” he said yesterday. But he wants his correspondents to become “more engaging and relatable.” Maybe Tapper could try a simulated spacewalk?…