[Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center (a conservative media watchdog).]

So how unusual is it for a new President to be featured seven times on Time's cover, as Barack Obama has been (with First Lady Michelle Obama snagging her own solo appearance)? A look back at Time's covers finds Bill Clinton matched Obama's celebrity in 1993 — seven covers for himself, one for Hillary. But the last three Republican Presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush — were given relatively short shrift.

Indeed, looking at the covers from when those three Republicans won the presidency through early August of their first year in office, Reagan and the two Bushes combined were only featured seven times — and it would have been only six if Reagan hadn't been shot by an attempted assassin (April 13, 1981 cover story)...