“Too Fit to be President”
A year ago, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn't give in to Republican tactics to throw his then-candidacy off track.
"Listen, I'm skinny but I'm tough," Sen. Obama said, to a nation where 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese. In his candidancy Obama was 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 lagged behind 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," said 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 on a Yahoo politics message board.
The last overweight president to be elected Howard Taft in 1908, he weighed 335 pounds. "As for tall and lanky presidents, you might have to go back to Abraham Lincoln" says presidential historian Stephen Hess. "Most presidents were sort of in the middle."
These days, Obama stays away from junk food and snacks on MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and drinks Black Forest Berry Honest Tea, while McCain was said to prefer Butterfinger candy bars, jelly beans, and Dunkin' Donuts.
So how can Obama change the way America eats? I have to say, I'm very dissapointed to hear people could criticize his Body Mass Index. What do you think? Read this article by Wall Street Journal and voice your opinion.