<p>Let’s be honest, we like our Presidents to be very attractive people. Governor Christie needs a fashion advisor, if nothing else. </p>
<p>Health? It didn’t seem to bother us to have a VP who had three (or was it four?) heart attacks before joining the ticket. It’s a miracle Cheney it made this far with his bum ticker.</p>
<p>I have absolutely no evidence at all to back my belief that unattractiveness contributed to the less than stellar presidential campaign of John Kerry.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are very capable fat people and especially back before the health risks were known I’m sure there were many more. I’m sure there are even fat people who lie and cheat on their wives. </p>
<p>I place great value on health and fitness. I choose to work for companies and management which feel the same way. I certainly walk the talk, and it has served me well.</p>
<p>MOWC, is it true our current president smokes? I’ve read that and honestly not cared one way or the other. I don’t like passing judgement on people over their health behaviors. Some of the most fit people I’ve ever known have been complete scoundrels. And vice versa. But I do find it interesting if our current president is a smoker that so little has been made of that. Surely, it is modeling a very dangerous practice for young people.</p>
<p>Also, now that I live in NJ, I see Christie on the local news often and I have heard him talk several times about his struggles to lose weight, his concern over his health, his frustration over his lack of success at losing weight. He is not in denial about it. He is actually, imo, sort of a useful spokesman for obese people in that he is out there, visible and making very public his desire to conquer his weight problem. </p>
<p>I guess if we need our leaders to be buff then we have to just hope we actually don’t pass over leaders that could truly help us at this difficult time. That would be really stupid of us to do as a country. </p>
<p>My own take is that things are bad enough that we don’t need just a competent president who looks the part and happens to align with our political views. We truly need a real leader. Those are quite rare. And they aren’t always physically attractive. FDR was in a wheelchair. Teddy Roosevelt was a fatty and wore spectacles. Oh, and how about Lincoln . . . not a pretty fellow, not by any measure. In fact, pretty weird looking. </p>
<p>To dwell on the attractiveness of the candidate at this moment is stupidity on such a level that if indeed that is how we choose our next president than our country really deserves its fate.</p>
<p>Bill Clinton was seen running the streets of DC regularly (okay, maybe he was running to McDonalds), George Bush was a runner and bicyclist and Barack Obama plays basketball and is fit and trim (to use a term from the diet/exercise/health thread). Many of us over there have lost vast amounts of weight on that thread and know what it’s like to be fat and what it’s like to be fit, trim and healthy. It’s a process that requires changing your life, some determination, systems of maintenance and self-motivation. I would hope that a leader would have those qualities to the extent that they can control their bodies because that’s one thing that you have a lot of control over.</p>
<p>Is being a politician an excuse for being fat?</p>
<p>Congress’s new Republican leaders want smaller government, less spending, lower taxes…and sculpted abs, bulging biceps and flexibility they never dreamed possible.</p>
<p>To achieve that second set of goals, a group gathers most days around two televisions in the House gym to follow a series of DVD workout routines known to late-night infomercial fans as P90X, the “most extreme home fitness training program.”</p>
<p>You don’t have to do P90X to lose weight - you can use something as simple and time-tested as Weight Watchers. Those on CC have a choice of threads that they can join to lose weight. There are forums and support groups all over the web to lose weight and get fit.</p>
<p>The current president’s smoking habit was a huge issue for me. I don’t have to have a gorgeous president, but I want a healthy and fit one.</p>
<p>Christie needs to move more and eat less. It’s not rocket science. People lose weight all the time. Check out the Diet and Exercise thread here in the Cafe for some incredible success stories.</p>
<p>(cross posted with BCEagle)</p>
<p>P.S. I’ve run with George W and admire him as an athlete.</p>
<p>sewhappy, I’m not expecting our leaders to be “buff,” just not morbidly obese. He is probably in the category beyond morbidly obese, actually - super obese. He’s 5’-11", so a weight of 325 would put him in that category.</p>
<p>I started “running” in 2006. I couldn’t even make it two minutes without stopping. I increased very gradually and eventually could make it 9 miles straight. And believe me, I am about the most non-athletic person in the world! I am as slow as a turtle still (12-minute miles), but I DO it!</p>
<p>Just for the record, I am not in support of Christie running. One of the things I like about him is that he says he isn’t ready. Hope he means it.</p>
<p>Some people are naturally skinny. My wife weighs 105 pounds. She can’t gain weight even if she tries.</p>
<p>Her sister is fat.</p>
<p>This does not make my wife “better” than her sister. Or a better person to hire for a job.</p>
<p>Your position makes no sense. Your statement that this philosophy “has served you well” and that you choose to work for companies with the same philosophy is rather silly.</p>
<p>Hitler was a vegetarian, and was not fat, yet the end result of his leadership was the death of tens of millions of people, and the firebombing of German cities. Would not have Germany been better off with a leader who was fat? Churchill was rather fat, but he was considered one of the greatest men in history.</p>
<p>I had a boss who I worked for at a law firm that was fat. I was skinny. Yet he had a successful business, with a big company as his major client. </p>
<p>If a computer company has an employee who keeps coming up with brilliant new inventions, why would it matter to management if he were skinny or fat?. </p>
<p>By the way, there are plenty of people who run every day and eat health food who drop dead of heart attacks in their forties.</p>
<p>Most of the people I know are either trim or working on getting there. I
do have some coworkers and relatives that are overweight (or worse) but
there’s nothing that I can do about that outside of setting a personal
example.</p>
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<p>A lot has been made of it and he tries to hide it so as not to set a bad
example.</p>
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<p>We need a buff country to compete. Other countries have had programs to
improve population health for decades.</p>
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<p>There are a lot of people out there looking for a job and lots of companies
looking to let people go. All other things being equal, your odds are better
if you don’t have health problems.</p>
<p>Floridadad- For a lawyer, your argument is very weak.</p>
<p>I am not saying all fit and healthy people are good leaders. If you don’t think companies are taking a hard look at obesity in hiring, you are very wrong. With healthcare costs out of control, it is a real issue. Companies are offering weight loss incentives as well as incentives for not smoking. </p>
<p>If you need 2 seats on an airplane, I’m not voting for you. You don’t have to be a marathon runner, but you can’t be obese. I can’t believe we are even discussing this.</p>
<p>There are also a lot of people in our society so obsessed with being thin that they resort to anorexia or bulimia and end up killing themselves, literally. If anything, our society is overly obsessed with having a perfect body. The business about it being about health is, imo, disingenuous. It’s about being cool.</p>
<p>And quite honestly, I even think a huge obsession with our own personal health and longevity starts to be sort of pathetic. We’ve all met them, people who can’t seem to focus on anything but their latest marathon and their bmi and their good cholesterol. That can be it’s own obsession and perhaps it keeps one with a beating heart but it can be a pretty limited existence.</p>
<p>Under the line of logic that a fit president would be better, shouldn’t we elect Arnold Schwarznegger? After all he was a world champion weight lifter…</p>
<p>Oh wait, we already tried that in California and look at the mess he left behind… oh yeah, and there is the small matter of the extra kid in the Christmas Card photo…</p>
<p>Fit, Buff people are obviously better candidates…</p>
<p>Actually, running has really broadened my horizons. I’ve met a great group of people on the internet (MOWC among them). About 25 of us “obsessed” women got together in Las Vegas last December to run either the half or full marathon. What a blast! We partied hard, went on trainig runs together, and enjoyed racing down the Strip. I quite enjoy my obsession! :)</p>
<p>General Knox, from Maine by the way, was one of the greatest generals during the American Revolution, and then served as Secretary of War under George Washington.</p>
<p>He was morbidly obese. And so was his wife.</p>
<p>I respectfully submit that if obesity didn’t matter to George Washington, who was very athletic (he was called the greatest horseman of his age), it shouldn’t matter to you.</p>