Posted on 06/22/2010 8:30:30 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last week, President Obama strolled the beaches for a photo op with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a self-described "fat redneck." Our beanpole president made quite a contrast to the chubby gov, who, as the New York Times noted Sunday, resembles "an adult version of Spanky from the Little Rascals."
Newsweek calls Barbour "the anti-Obama," but the Times downplayed his presidential prospects. Apparently, Haley needs to slim down if he's serious.
Is corpulence really a disqualification for the presidency in the land of supersized fries? If so, that's a shame.
America might do better with a fat president. After all, some of our best have been big fellows, and lately the trim and ambitious types haven't served us so well.
"Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much. Such men are dangerous," Shakespeare's Julius Caesar comments to Marc Antony. "Let me have men about me that are fat ... such as sleep o' nights."
There's valuable insight there. Keeping fit is fine, but it's hard to trust someone who has spent decades counting carbs so he can stay light enough to leap for the brass ring.
A few years back, Slate examined the relationship between flab and presidential performance. What it found suggests that if you want New Frontiers and crusades for democracy, then vote for the skinny striver. If you'd prefer someone who leaves well enough alone -- who's content to preside over peace and prosperity -- pick the porker.
Per Slate, our four chubbiest chief executives were Presidents Taft, McKinley, Cleveland and Taylor. McKinley, a high-tariff Republican who took us into an unnecessary war, was no prize, but the rest lived large and governed lightly.
I once joked that my favorite president was a chunky, draft-dodging, scandal-plagued Democrat elected in '92 ... (wait for it) ... Grover Cleveland. (The Big-Mac-gobbling Bill Clinton was pretty flabby himself, and lately he looks ever better compared to his successors.)
Like a giant, implacable Buddha, the Great Cleveland set his bulk against Big Government, wielding the veto pen more than any president before. Even $10,000 to relieve Texas farmers during the 1887 drought was too profligate: "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution."
Our 27th president, William Howard Taft, didn't start any major wars or federal programs, so he's now best known for weighing in at 355 and installing a plus-sized White House bathtub. But Taft fought hard against Teddy Roosevelt's grandiose visions of presidential power, insisting that "the president cannot make clouds to rain, cannot make the corn to grow" -- and that Roosevelt's notion of the chief executive as national savior would lead to an imperial presidency.
America's best governor today is New Jersey's Chris Christie, who took office despite his opponent's juvenile "check out the fat guy" campaign ads. Since then, Christie's faced down Jersey teachers' unions and made major budget cuts -- showing the kind of gumption America could use in the fiscal crisis to come. Yet most discussions of Christie's political future end with the observation that he's just "too fat" to be president.
Celebrity culture has infected American politics. Since the advent of television, we've reliably opted for the taller candidate -- those with receding hairlines need not apply. We seem to have forgotten the purpose of the office. We're not casting a chick flick here -- we're picking a constitutional chief executive.
The Framers never saw the president as a glamorous tribune of the people. They wanted someone solid enough to stand firm when Congress and the public demanded things they shouldn't have.
Let's give fat guys a chance. We could hardly do worse.
-- Examiner Columnist Gene Healy is a vice president at the Cato Institute and author of "The Cult of the Presidency" .
How about a diet?
larry the cable guy and drew carey.
It’s hard to be skinny if you are dedicated to fulfilling your responsiblities. You’re too tired at the end of the day to go to the gym.
That’s why obamadinejad is so thin - he doesn’t do a f*cking thing so he has plenty of time for “sports”.
The cigarettes and blow probably help too...
“...roaring fires, malt beer, red meat off the bone...”
Gimli, son of Gloin, in Moria...
That and running away from Wookie when she is in heat
“”Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much. Such men are dangerous,” Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar comments to Marc Antony. “Let me have men about me that are fat ... such as sleep o’ nights.””
Or, as Charles Laughton (as the historically anachronistic character of Gracchus) said in Spartacus:
“You and I have a tendency towards corpulence. Corpulence makes a man reasonable, pleasant and phlegmatic. Have you noticed the nastiest of tyrants are invariably thin?”
I figured he was endorsing the Huckster.
How about a bald president?
We haven’t had one of those since Ike.
I say fat is in. Look no further than Governor Christie of New Jersey. He is flat getting the job done.
Hey, waitaminnit...
I’ll take Christie anyday!
They said "fat president" not "fathead."
I’d vote for Barbour or Christie. But Christie isn’t “flat”.
“;^)
Feels like the choice between your most hated vegetable - and apple pie. We sooooo need a return to a 'solid' America.
Feels like the choice between your most hated vegetable - and apple pie. We sooooo need a return to a 'solid' America.
Ford was pretty bald. Nixon, too, for that matter.
Obama looks like he has had a wax job.
I guess that is what fellow gays go for.
Where was the “Buckwheat” reference? Bias? Nope.
Gimli, son of Gloin, in Moria...
"...and my a$$!"
You gotta love the hat, though. I’m a hat guy. How about a president who is fat, bald and wears a hat. Hey, I could be president!!
Of course he does...
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.How could any self respecting muslim not?The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.
-- Sir Winston Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 [London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899]).
Or as a husband (um, assuming I were a lady FReeper, which I am not). :-)
Mao got pretty chunky at the end too, IIRC.
That would be okay. But I have my original birth certificate.
Coolidge was wiry and governed lightly.
Christie is pushing it with the weight. He has a shot at the presidency if he loses a few pounds. Seems to be the most qualified person for the job at the moment.
Wouldn’t you rather be a General in Afghanistan?
I hear there’s an opening coming up tomorrow.
;)
Pick me
New Jersey’s Chris Christie
****************************************
After MEchelle and her elbowing into our lives— fat will be the new and welcomed chic!
I wouldn’t complain a bit, if this nation could snatch Christie from New Jersey!
Ha! Social justice, share that political wealth!
Barry just screams "Fabulous!!"
Obummer and any type of attraction to a woman is just smoke and mirrors. Obummer's favorite type of foreplay involves bumping and grinding other males on the basketball court. He wasn't as picky in 1999...he tries to be more discreet now that he's so in the public eye. He got away with a lot more in the 80's and 90's.
It certainly fits with his motto...to suck at everything!
Yep you can squeeze me between Zooey and Emily any day!! Hubba hubba!!!
I think it’s time we had a conservative, Constitutionalist president. Think we learned our lesson on this current one. Many folks who bought the hype sure had their eyes opened. You can kind of see some of them walking around looking embarrassed they voted for him, kind of shell-shocked.
The good thing about Christie is that he gets the job done. 99% of politicians have enormous skills to talk, promise and pander, but very few deliver on the talk. Ability to deliver is the paramount issue for me.
Eww!! Gross!!
America used to have a lot of fat Presidents with facial hair. That is when people cared about issues rather than how someone looked.
The current vain American populace would probably elect an American Idol contestant President before it’d elect William Taft again.
Even then, looking down his nose at the world.
Ewwww who sits that close to another man?
Gov. Christie, NJ!
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