You left out my conditional "if" in front of the yearning quote. I don't know whether or the extent to which it exists although I suspect it does.  Barroso is seen as the head bureaucrat and not as a politically elected figure.  Prime Ministers are mostly indirectly elected -via their Parliaments - and so I suppose by electing a Council President they are conferring some indirect democrat legitimacy to the President.  Yes, I know they also elect/appoint the President of the Commission and so you can argue the same logic applies.

I'm not saying this is right or logical, but for whatever reason the popular conception of the post seems to regard it as more of their representative - rather than a representative of the "Brussels Democracy" - and insofar as this improves the democratic legitimacy of the EU, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

notes from no w here