UMD Libertarians

Too Fit to Be President?

Facing an Overweight Electorate,

Barack Obama Might Find

Low Body Fat a Drawback

By AMY CHOZICK

August 1, 2008; Page W1

Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn’t give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track.

“Listen, I’m skinny but I’m tough,” Sen. Obama said.

But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

The candidate has been criticized by opponents for appearing elitist or out of touch with average Americans. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in July shows Sen. Obama still lags behind Republican John McCain among white men and suburban women who say they can’t relate to his background or perceived values.

“He’s too new … and he needs to put some meat on his bones,” says Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

“I won’t vote for any beanpole guy,” another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.

The last overweight president to be elected was 335-pound William Howard Taft in 1908. As for tall and lanky presidents, “you might have to go back to Abraham Lincoln” in 1860, says presidential historian Stephen Hess. “Most presidents were sort of in the middle.”

According to Sen. Obama’s Chicago physician David Scheiner, the senator works out regularly, jogs up to three miles a day when he can, and has “no excess body fat.”

Dr. Scheiner didn’t disclose his patient’s exact weight, but medical observers estimate that the 6-foot-1.5-inch-tall senator appears to weigh at least 10 pounds less than the roughly 190 pounds that the average American man of his height weighs. The Obama campaign declined to comment for this article.

Though Sen. McCain cannot lift weights due to injuries he suffered as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he “walked the Grand Canyon rim to rim in August 2006″ and hikes whenever he can find the time, according to John D. Eckstein, an internist in Scottsdale, Ariz., who treats Sen. McCain. At roughly 165 pounds, his weight is slightly above average for a 5-foot-7-inch man his age, according to nutritionists.

While most voters don’t base their decision on physical appearance alone, a candidate’s height, weight and overall look can play a big role in what Americans perceive as “presidential,” says Thomas “Mack” McLarty, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
Throw in the calories involved in a modern-day presidential campaign — often compared to a beauty pageant and a competitive eating contest rolled into one — and presidential candidates have an added challenge.

“It’s very difficult to eat well when you’re constantly on the road, attending dinners, lunches, barbecues,” says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. He says he grew a beard when he withdrew his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in January “to hide one of my chins.”

Sen. Obama, 46, wasn’t always svelte, and friends and family members have described him as a “chubby” child growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii.

Raised by a Midwestern grandmother, Sen. Obama didn’t begin to slim down until he played basketball regularly in high school.

These days he stays away from junk food and instead snacks on MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and drinks Black Forest Berry Honest Tea, a healthy organic brew. (Sen. McCain is said to have a weakness for Butterfinger candy bars, jelly beans, and coffee and doughnuts from Dunkin’ Donuts.)

On a campaign stop in May at Lew’s Dari-Freeze in Milwaukie, Ore., Sen. Obama’s wife, Michelle, and their two daughters ate ice-cream sundaes and onion rings, while Sen. Obama grinned for the cameras and swirled a spoon around in his quickly melting ice-cream concoction, taking only a few nibbles.

During a July family appearance on “Access Hollywood,” Sen. Obama’s 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, revealed that her dad doesn’t like ice cream or sweets. “Everybody should like ice cream,” she said.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a self-described “recovering foodaholic” who shed 110 pounds from his 5-foot-11 frame in two years and made fitness and nutrition central to his White House run, says voters “probably want someone who takes care of his health … as an example of the kind of personal discipline necessary to do the job.”

But too much time in the gym can cause problems, as Sen. Obama learned last month after he made three stops to local Chicago gyms in one day, for a total of 188 minutes. The marathon workout session sparked a widely circulated Associated Press article titled “Obama Becomes a Gym Rat.” In it, the reporter wrote, “Sometimes it’s hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for president of the United States or Mr. Universe.”

Republicans have recently picked up on the senator’s fitness regimen. On Wednesday, the McCain campaign launched a new ad titled “Celeb” that compares Sen. Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. In a memo to reporters explaining the ad, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, “Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day.”

Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass says likening Sen. Obama to a Hollywood celebrity shows that Sen. McCain “is engaging in the same old negative politics of Karl Rove” that Americans are tired of.

Food faux pas have plagued presidential candidates in the past. On a 1976 visit to Texas, Gerald Ford bit into a tamale with the corn husk still on. He lost the election to Jimmy Carter. In 2003, Mass. Sen. John Kerry was labeled effete when he ordered a Philly cheesesteak with Swiss instead of the usual Cheez Whiz topping.

Sen. Obama’s chief message strategist Robert Gibbs served as Sen. Kerry’s press secretary during the cheesesteak debacle. A few days later at the Iowa State Fair, famous for its deep-fried Twinkies and beer booths, Mr. Gibbs noticed Sen. Kerry buying a $4 strawberry smoothie. He made a frantic call to campaign staffers: “Somebody get a f-ing corn dog in his hand — now!”

Sen. Obama drew cringes on a campaign stop in Adel, Iowa, in July 2007, when he asked a crowd of farmers: “Anybody gone into a Whole Foods lately and seen what they charge for arugula?” The upscale supermarket specializing in organic food doesn’t have a single store in Iowa.

Lately, Sen. Obama is more careful. On a campaign stop in Lebanon, Mo., on Wednesday, Sen. Obama visited with voters at Bell’s Diner and promptly announced “Well, I’ve had lunch today but I’m thinking maybe there is some pie.”

He settled on fried chicken and told the crowd he’s become a junk-food lover. “The healthy people, we’ll give them the breasts,” he told the waitress. “I’ll eat the wings.”

Struggles with weight-loss, on the other hand, can make a candidate seem more human. Some aides winced when footage of a sweat-drenched Mr. Clinton jogging into a McDonald’s in Little Rock, Ark., aired ahead of the 1992 campaign. But the footage is widely believed to have helped the then-governor of Arkansas connect to voters in conservative-leaning states like Georgia and Tennessee, which eluded Democrats in 2000 and 2004. These states have a statistically higher number of overweight people than Democratic strongholds.

“It says: ‘He’s just like one of us,”‘ says Arthur English, a political-science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock who used to see Mr. Clinton stop in for fries and a Big Mac after his three-mile jog.

Sen. Clinton has said she tried Weight Watchers to keep the pounds off during her presidential bid — a tidbit that appealed to her core of middle-age female supporters that Sen. Obama is now trying to woo.

Sen. Obama is not without vices. According to Dr. Scheiner’s medical report, he has quit smoking “on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success.” People close to the senator say he began smoking nearly three decades ago and smoked about five cigarettes a day.

Some voters say that even this adds to Sen. Obama’s somewhat superhuman persona. “I mean, really, who quits smoking and doesn’t gain any weight?” says 30-year-old Stella Metsovas, an Obama supporter in Laguna Beach, Calif.

Energy Policy

Foreign Policy

Domestic Surveillance

Tax Policy

Unitary Executive

has to be from the onion
Bush benches like 190 for sets.

that’s pretty decent.

Honestly though, Obama looks like the kind of guy that just uses machines.
I wonder what Hillary’s Wall Street Journal article would have looked like:

Hillary Clinton: Hair too Long for Oval Office?

So …. is that the new acceptable cover-up for him being “too black” for these voters’ tastes?
Bush benches like 190 for sets.

that’s pretty decent.
really good

Criticizing a candidates behavior is acceptable.

I just like that article better.

washington was like 6′8″ 2000

he’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming, beware

he was tortured, yo.

For the title?

and the content is better.

also I’m the one who made that thread.
utterly ridiculous

white people will come up with just about any excuse in the world

I’ve never heard anything ridiculous from a black person.

the irony!

if you hear a black person say he’s not voting for someone due to their weight, you let me know

..and you’re a fucking moron all together.

hayy guise whats my default ip router, fuck out of here.

this black man right here >>> you

Ever.
But no, seriously, this is probably the dumbest political article I’ve ever read. Who cares what Obamas’, or McCains’ for that matter, body type is? This will have absolutely zero effect on how they carry out their duties as president. We need to be focused on policy, and by “we” I mean everyone in the country. Too bad that is just a pipe dream
I never thought about it until now, but McCain looks just like Cotton Hill.

maybe you’re > me, i seriously fucking doubt it, but maybe. but that doesn’t make your post deriding “white people” for making excuses any less ironic

yea i forgot white people are too arrogant to see themselves as anything other than superior.

ya rly

Yeah, and all black people are worthless, thugged-out, drug dealers, right?

Give me a fucking break. You come in here and act like we all disagree with you or Obama or any prominent black person because of race. While I can’t speak for everyone, I am not voting for Obama because his policies fucking suck. I don’t care what color he is, where he’s from, or what he’s done up to now.

Don’t act like you and “your people” are all oppressed and us whites are evil incarnate.

Grow up.

on OT, yea pretty much

funny how white people can’t stand being stereotyped for one minute but want us to accept it our entire lives.

if i want to believe most whites are inherently evil, that’s my right. just like it’s your right to believe most blacks steal tvs, and love fried chicken & watermelon.
good god.. is this actually news?

Who the fuck was paid to write about something this stupid??

CUNTS

Touche

Who said anything about stereotypes? I’m talking about political policy. I wasn’t stereotyping anyone, and you weren’t either. You simply implied all white people are racist.

You’re absolutely right; you have the right to be as ignorant as klan members if you’d like. However, if you don’t want to look like a hypocritical douchebag, you might want to knock off the “whitey is holding me back” sob story.
You didn’t hear? Rupert Murdoch owns The Wall Street Journal, it’s a joke publication now.

It pisses me off because racism pisses me off.

you’ll never actually hear anything close to that come from me.

You certainly seem to be implying that

Believe me, I know racism is still alive and well. However, I am a firm believer in giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. I get accused of being racist literally daily at work. What I am reading from some of the black posters here is the same thing I hear from those accusing me of being racist at work, i.e. all whites are racist, the deck is stacked against blacks, etc. I get it; I know all about the studies showing sentencing disparities, arrest disparities, and so on. However, I shouldn’t be lumped in with some KKK asswipe simply because I’m white. Nor should you be lumped in with bangers and absent fathers just because you’re black.

I guess what I’m saying is, judge people based on their actions. Have I ever said something that would lead you to believe I am racist? If not, why would you imply that I am?

I guess I kinda rambled a little bit and went off topic with this reply

Son you’re just making yourself look stupid. This isn’t about race.

i know, these hillary supporters have clearly stated it’s about weight.

i don’t even know you. i just like to provide some sort of balance to all the bullshit black OTers go through on this forum.

Okay chief, I’m black and don’t think this is a racial issue in the least, so let’s try to not make it into one.

i don’t care about your race, i enjoy lumping white people together like they do blacks.
makes life a lot easier when you see a entire race of people one way.

So …. what ARE the racial issues you see in America?

I don’t know if you’re baiting me into answering something, so I’m not going to answer this question. Your intent is unclear.

Yes, they call that stereotyping and prejudice.

…

Well what the fuck do you want me to say? The guy is being racist against white people as though blacks see it as racist, I don’t. There’s nothing more to it, and you seem to like to pick at it in every thread about race on here. Is there something you want from me?

it amazes how some black people go out of their way to defend obvious racism.

Fair enough, but my question isn’t really related to marcu5.

Just curious about what racial issues you DO see in America. Seems like a fairly simple — though possibly broad — question.

What do I see as a racial issue in America? That is the most vague question, would you mind simplifying it?

Is racism a problem in any areas of American society, in your opinion? If so, name one …. preferably the one you would classify as one of the most important.

It’s certainly a problem in this race because everyone is walking on egg shells so as not to even mention racism, but that isn’t the most important. I feel the most important racial issue without a second thought is affirmative action. I am against blind favoritism without consideration. However, I am for setting aside racial “quotas” so that you can have a culturally diverse group whether it be workplace or school. Naturally, problems arise if some people of different races aren’t as qualified as those of others, but choosing the best of all different kinds of people isn’t a bad thing in my mind.

Are you in favor of setting “racial quotas” or are you in favor of “setting them aside”… as in getting rid of them?
here is a link to where the reporter did her “research”, using Google’s since apparently she edited her original post

Bad wording. I am in favor of racial quotas. Reason being, it’s fine to have only the best of the best students to learn academically, but they also need to learn culturally. By bringing in people of other ethnic backgrounds, people can learn more than just books and can have a comprehensive cultural knowledge. Note that this is different from just picking someone because they’re of a certain race.

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