"young, handsome and sun-tanned"

How refreshing it is when the political leaders of someone else's country are the ones behaving embarrassingly for a change. After Obama's historic victory, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, best known, perhaps, for his wealth, age (he was born exactly one month after John McCain) and playboy antics, remarked to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that President-elect Obama “has all the qualities to get along well with you: he’s young, handsome and suntanned, so I think you can develop a good working relationship." While I am sure everyone is relieved that Berlusconi foresees a bright future for American-Russian relations, the joke did not go over so well. Nor does it necessarily make much sense. Evidently, it was some sort of reference to Medvedev also being young, handsome and suntanned (not qualities I'd ever particularly remarked upon in him myself...). In other post-Cold War relations news, Kremlin announced that Medvedev and Obama would soon meet so perhaps Berlusconi's comment gave Medvedev a nudge in the diplomatic direction?