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No, I don’t. We already saw what happens when we have a president with this history:GWB. I’m with MOWC.</p>
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Plus Johnson, who I believe had a serious heart attack before becoming President, and Eisenhower who had a heart attack while President. I think he was still re-elected. THey were both chain smokers.</p>
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But who would ever have thought Johnson would ascend to the presidency?</p>
<p>Here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>Since I know all too well from experience, fitness does not necessarily equal health. To echo Hayden, are his parents still alive and kicking?</p>
<p>A Republican from New Jersey is a different animal than a Republican from Texas. </p>
<p>Looks matter in an election. From the time of the Nixon-Kennedy debates, how a person appears on TV influences voters.</p>
<p>Fat men who dress well come across as strong and competent, women - well, let’s face it, we would never see a fat woman in contention. </p>
<p>The attractiveness factor has yielded Sarah Palin, Barack Obama (he didn’t have cankles) and Michelle Bachman. </p>
<p>We can forgive and accept and unattractive male, women don’t stand a prayer. </p>
<p>All I hope for is a candidate who can lend a reasoned voice to debate about important issues. I guess I can overlook his or her waist size or whether he or she occasionally grabs a cigarette.</p>
<p>Clinton might not have had healthy habits, but he made it through eight years of the highest stress job there is (IMHO, in the entire world) without a major health incident, and he is still doing well. He was strong enough to recover and do well after bypass surgery–many people do not. I don’t know a lot of 65 year olds who don’t have some health issues.</p>
<p>As for Obama’s smoking, you can point to it all you want… but he has quit.</p>
<p>Reagan had Alzheimer’s, and there’s a fair amount of evidence that it was covered up. Alzheimer’s worries me a lot, and is a reason I could not support McCain, although I did look at him closely (before he went nuts and chose Palin as VP). (If he’d chosen Olympia Snowe, I might have switched, and I donated to Obama in the fall of '07.)</p>
<p>could not agree with you more on this. I think policies and how he /she governs is more important than his/her divorce/weight etc…</p>
<p>From Yahoo news:</p>
<p>[Christie</a> White House bid talk spurs obesity debate - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/obesity-debate-rages-talk-christie-white-house-bid-005232473.html]Christie”>http://news.yahoo.com/obesity-debate-rages-talk-christie-white-house-bid-005232473.html)</p>
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<p>This raises a HUGE red flag. I know first hand what asthma is. I know many people with asthma who have much less stellar health coverage than he does. Either he is irresponsible about his medication, or there is more to his breathing problems.</p>
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<p>Maybe he has. Maybe he hasn’t. During his last health report, his doctor said that he needed to continue his efforts to quit. Since then, we have his press secretary saying that he had not personally witnessed any recent smoking and his wife’s claim that he had quit. With someone who had chewed nicotine gum and smoked for at least the last three years, I would characterize the assertions that he has quit as less than convincing. “Quitting smoking” is a term that has many shades of meaning to nicotine addicts.</p>
<p>If he had really quit, he would be talking about it. A more likely scenario is that he is still feeding his drug addiction with nicotine gum and white-knuckling his way through stretches of time without the occasional cigarette. That is not “quitting” in my book, but others might consider it to count, even though it will almost certainly lead to a full-blown relapse.</p>
<p>Some personality flaws in a candidate bother me, e.g., lying to cover up wrong doing, lying about a position/policy/vote or hypocrisy. I find those behaviors more unacceptable in a candidate than being very overweight. I agree that there is discrimination against fat people; Christie will suffer because of those views.</p>
<p>I’ve met Christie (my husband’s company does business in NJ) and I was impressed with his intelligence. He’s bright/sharp/quick. If he gets the nomination, he’ll be a tough candidate to beat. I don’t support his policies and wouldn’t vote for him for President, but I do believe he’s someone who keeps his word–as much as any politician can do so. Christie’s said that he’s not ready to run and has stuck to that position. He’s concerned about his family (I think he has young children) but there’s tons of pressure on him from prominent Republicans to change his mind, which may have him wavering. </p>
<p>Finally, someone made this point earlier–the physical aspect of running for office is grueling. Candidates are on the go from morning to night–there’s no down time and there’s hardly any chance to do what you need to do to lose weight (limit your calories and exercise). I think that’s a consideration for him. Also, given the amount of weight he’s got to loose, I don’t think he shed enough weight before the primaries begin early next year.</p>
<p>It’s very important for me that Mr. Obama take excellent care of himself. The thought of a President Biden makes me physically ill.</p>
<p>You’ve got to feel sorry for Mitt Romney–the guy doesn’t smoke or drink, is fit, has had no reported health problems–and he just can’t get any love.</p>
<p>Neither does Huntsman.</p>
<p>Huntsman gets tons of love.</p>
<p>From the left.</p>
<p>Huntsman has seven children–surely he at least has high blood pressure.</p>
<p>If he doesn’t, he should be disqualified from the presidency!</p>
<p>I hope Christie doesn’t run. Just because I do hate these Fatso V Fitso [Urban</a> Dictionary: Fitso](<a href=“http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fitso]Urban”>Urban Dictionary: Fitso) discussions.</p>
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<p>Considering that 8 (18%) of the 44 US presidents died in office, it would not be unwise to consider the vice presidential candidate when deciding whom (or, strictly speaking, whose electors) to vote for on the presidential election.</p>
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It’s not a question of unwise, but Kennedy was so young and vibrant. I wasn’t yet born when he was president, but wasn’t he perceived to have been a strong and healthy young man?</p>
<p>Yes, the impression of “vigor” was carefully cultivated (I was alive and clearly remember his election). His significant health problems were covered up completely. Much easier to cover things up in those days.</p>
<p>Just had lunch with a lifelong NJ democrat today. She can’t stand Christie but says it took a so-and-so like Christie to make some headway with the entrenched public sector employee entitlements. She says she doesn’t want him running for president because she wants him to keep doing things in NJ. She says he’s rude and fat and she can’t stand him. But he’s getting stuff done.</p>