Shirtless Barack Graces Mag Cover

A very buff and bare-chested Barack will grace the cover of the latest issue of a D.C. magazine.

President Barack Obama will showcase his beach-ready bod when he appears shirtless in a red bathing suit on the cover of the next month's issue of The Washingtonian under the headline "Our New Neighbor Is Hot."

The photo used for the magazine cover was snapped by a paparazzo during the Obamas' Hawaii vacation in late December and caused quite a stir when it first surfaced.

But there were some marked changes in the cover shot from the original photo. The Washingtonian took some liberties with the image -- changing the president's bathing suit from black to red and editing out the background.

Obama has expressed annoyance in the past about the press coverage of his hunkier side -- and has complained before when the media seized on a different beach photo when he was a then-Senator.

"The problem's not that the info's not out there," Obama said during Feb. 2007. "The problem is that that's not what you guys have been reporting on. You've been reporting on how I look in a swimsuit."

The headline of the May Washingtonian issue boasts "26 reasons to Love Living Here." Below in bold letters it reads, "Reason #2: Our Neighbor Is Hot." 

The Washingtonian editor at large defended the semi-nude pics of the commander in briefs and said the magazine wasn't revisiting the images simply to sell more issues.

"You have a buff president and the paparazzi like taking shirtless photos of him," Garret Graff told ABC News.

Obama in D.C. is "really hot," she said.

The magazine tried to "capture the energy and excitement" over the Obamas and "have a little fun," Graff told ABC, even if the photos at this point are months old and Obama's lived in Washington, D.C. for nearly as long.

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