Obama Too thin To be President? Here’s the Skinny on His Weight Liability

I’ve never liked the way Republicans shifted the discussion of important issues to the inane and frivolous. But this next topic was so far out there, I just had to mention it here. If anyone had any questions about the vacuous, mean spirited nature of conservatives, this should put that to rest. This is so surreal, it even involves both the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, an unbeatable Rupert Murdock team if there ever was one.

According to Fox News & WSJ: Forget arrogance, Barack Obama is just too skinny to be president. The Wall Street Journal reported that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee may be turning off voters by refusing to chow down at every pit stop on the campaign trail. The newspaper notes that 66 percent of the voting-age population is overweight — while 32 percent fits the definition of obese — and that could be hurting Obama. “He’s too new … and he needs to put some meat on his bones,” Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas. "I won't vote for any beanpole guy," another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.

McCain’s campaign has already used the senator’s healthy living
against him, linking his “celebrity” to his diet. “Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day, demand ‘MET-RX chocolate broasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew — Black Forest Berry Honest Tea’ and worry about the price of arugula.” McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, "Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day."

Wait a minute. Aren’t these the same guys that complain all the time about health care costs going through the roof because of lazy fat people eating too much fast food and not taking care of themselves? I would guess these guys don’t have any favorite foods themselves that they would like to share with all of us? (just the crap they normally dish out for fellow Republicans to swallow like obedient lap dogs).

Thank god there was an immediate response: Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn't give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track. "Listen, I'm skinny but I'm tough."

In this Fox News story of a WSJ story (my head is hurting), they never mention McCain’s bouts with skin cancer, for instance: While rival John McCain and his doctors insist the Republican candidate is healthy despite Vietnam prisoner-of-war wounds that limit his mobility to this day, Obama is a lean, mean, fighting machine … Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

I know, it’s hard to believe that this really is the Wall Street Journal and not the Onion. But it gets better. Despite the healthy food choices and physical workout by Obama, out of the clear blue sky we’re suddenly talking about food faux pas.

Food faux pas have plagued presidential candidates in the past. On a 1976 visit to Texas, Gerald Ford bit into a tamale with the corn husk still on. He lost the election to Jimmy Carter. In 2003, Mass. Sen. John Kerry was labeled effete when he ordered a Philly cheesesteak with Swiss instead of the usual Cheez Whiz topping.

Sen. Obama's chief message strategist Robert Gibbs served as Sen. Kerry's press
secretary during the cheesesteak debacle. A few days later at the Iowa State Fair, famous for its deep-fried Twinkies and beer booths, Mr. Gibbs noticed Sen. Kerry buying a $4 strawberry smoothie. He made a frantic call to campaign staffers: "Somebody get a f-ing corn dog in his hand -- now!"

Sen. Obama has quit smoking. Some voters say that even this adds to Sen. Obama's somewhat superhuman persona. "I mean, really, who quits smoking and doesn't gain any weight?" says 30-year-old Stella Metsovas, an Obama supporter in Laguna Beach, Calif.

The WSJ provided two priceless “kickers” to end this story. You decide.

Kicker 1: But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability?

or Kicker 2: But too much time in the gym can cause problems, as Sen. Obama learned last month after he made three stops to local Chicago gyms in one day, for a total of 188 minutes. The marathon workout session sparked a widely circulated Associated Press article titled "Obama Becomes a Gym Rat." In it, the reporter wrote, "Sometimes it's hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for president of the United States or Mr. Universe."