<p>I think you can be addicted to tobacco and still be President as long as you do not smoke in public. Unfortunately, you can’t hide fat. If our current President was fat when he ran for election would he have been elected?</p>
<p>Ed Rollins, the advisor who told Huckabee he had to lose 40 lbs to run for president said that Christie’s size and presumed lack of conditioning calls into question his ability to withstand the travel, lack of sleep, constant pressure and seven days a week whirlwind of a campaign. “It’s a distance event; it’s a marathon,” Rollins remarked.</p>
<p>I am sure there are many fat people who hold high positions of responsibility in business and government.</p>
<p>Without pointing to any particular presidential candidate, be they democrat or republican, I would rather have a President with a fat stomach than a fat head.</p>
<p>I would never vote for someone in the physical condition of Christie. Yes, there is a bias. If you are looking for self-discipline and stamina in a leader, you don’t want obesity.</p>
<p>That is ridiculous…so it is not ok to comment on one’s race, sexuality,personal life,but ok to ridicule Christie’s weight? Hypocrites…not loving the guy or his beliefs,but he is head and shoulders above ANY Republican candidate…And what momofwildchild said is beyond belief</p>
<p>Personally, there are other characteristics than self-discipline and stamina that I’m looking for in a leader: empathy, intelligence, humility, kindness, compassion, fairness. None of those are contra-indicated by fatness. </p>
<p>(I’m not saying that Christie exhibits those qualities, either, just that I don’t care if the president can run five miles if he or she can’t think for him or herself, or care about other people, or speak in complete sentences.)</p>
<p>It is important for the president to be healthy. We always worry when the president has a health problem. I would think obesity would be a big red flag.</p>
<p>During the American Revolution, General Knox was as fat as a house. And so was his wife.</p>
<p>Yet, he was one of the greatest founding fathers.</p>
<p>Under your standards, he would not have been made a general.</p>
<p>He was not so fat that he couldn’t lead the effort to drag captured British cannon from Lake George in New York State all the way to Boston, in the dead of winter, and thereby drive the British fleet out of Boston. He was an engineering genius, despite being fat, and this effort proved to be an important event in the American Revolution. </p>
<p>There are probably countless other examples. </p>
<p>Some people eat too much.</p>
<p>Some people drink too much.</p>
<p>Some people smoke too much.</p>
<p>etc, etc. etc.</p>
<p>One foible is really not better or worse than the other.</p>
<p>Also, some people are fat because of thyroid problems. Perhaps Christie is one of those.</p>
<p>I doubt many democrats would vote republican just because the democratic candidate was fat. And I doubt many republicans would vote democratic just because the republican candidate was fat.</p>
<p>Hmmm . . . I actually find Christie’s fatness refreshing. The antithesis of cool. He is not a narcissist. Does he smoke? Drink too much? Cheat on his wife? Gamble?</p>
<p>Some of those would bother me more. In fact, all of them would.</p>
<p>I like that he’s fat, I think. It’s prompting some pretty silly people to out themselves as pretty silly. That’s always fun.</p>
<p>I deleted my post ,so as not to have is thread be eliminated…but is was ok when a former president regularly chowed on Big Macs in office,and has had a subsequent bypass after leavng office?</p>
<p>Being fat does not put you in a protected class. Anyone who is “educated” knows the health problems that go along with obesity. I wouldn’t date an obese person, hire one or vote for one for president. I do have some heavy friends, and I worry about them. I feel the same way about smokers, although I don’t have friends who smoke.</p>
<p>“it is not ok to comment on one’s race, sexuality,personal life,”</p>
<p>I had not noticed that!</p>
<p>Not feeling I have a problem with an overweight president, but I don’t see what it being a thyroid problem or whether it is beyond someone’s control has to do with it.</p>