[Marxism] Cuban sanctions linked to Obesity in americans

[Marvin Gandall]

Greg McDonald writes:


> In terms of time pressure--I've always been a bit skeptical of the "I
> don't have time" crowd. You know, I' don't have time to eat right,
> exercise, get massage, work out, etc.  Bullshit. I always tell people
> that if health is a priority they'll make the time.
>
> This kind of refusal to take personal responsibility is pretty
> widespread among my clientele, which is mostly middle class and upper
> middle class.
================================
You'd like this guy Obama, then... :)

But I think skin rather than skinny is going to have a more important effect 
on the outcome.

*    *    *
Too Fit to Be President?
Facing an Overweight Electorate,
Barack Obama Might Find
Low Body Fat a Drawback
By AMY CHOZICK
Wall Street Journal
August 1, 2008

Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, 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," Sen. Obama said.

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? 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.

The candidate has been 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 still lags behind Republican 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," says 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 last 
week on a Yahoo politics message board.

The last overweight president to be elected was 335-pound William Howard 
Taft in 1908. As for tall and lanky presidents, "you might have to go back 
to Abraham Lincoln" in 1860, says presidential historian Stephen Hess. "Most 
presidents were sort of in the middle."

According to Sen. Obama's Chicago physician David Scheiner, the senator 
works out regularly, jogs up to three miles a day when he can, and has "no 
excess body fat."

Dr. Scheiner didn't disclose his patient's exact weight, but medical 
observers estimate that the 6-foot-1.5-inch-tall senator appears to weigh at 
least 10 pounds less than the roughly 190 pounds that the average American 
man of his height weighs. The Obama campaign declined to comment for this 
article.

Though Sen. McCain cannot lift weights due to injuries he suffered as a 
prisoner of war in Vietnam, he "walked the Grand Canyon rim to rim in August 
2006" and hikes whenever he can find the time, according to John D. 
Eckstein, an internist in Scottsdale, Ariz., who treats Sen. McCain. At 
roughly 165 pounds, his weight is slightly above average for a 5-foot-7-inch 
man his age, according to nutritionists.

While most voters don't base their decision on physical appearance alone, a 
candidate's height, weight and overall look can play a big role in what 
Americans perceive as "presidential," says Thomas "Mack" McLarty, former 
chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.

Throw in the calories involved in a modern-day presidential campaign --  
often compared to a beauty pageant and a competitive eating contest rolled 
into one -- and presidential candidates have an added challenge.

"It's very difficult to eat well when you're constantly on the road, 
attending dinners, lunches, barbecues," says New Mexico Gov. Bill 
Richardson. He says he grew a beard when he withdrew his bid for the 
Democratic presidential nomination in January "to hide one of my chins."

Sen. Obama, 46, wasn't always svelte, and friends and family members have 
described him as a "chubby" child growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii.

Raised by a Midwestern grandmother, Sen. Obama didn't begin to slim down 
until he played basketball regularly in high school.

These days he stays away from junk food and instead snacks on MET-Rx 
chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and drinks Black Forest Berry Honest 
Tea, a healthy organic brew. (Sen. McCain is said to have a weakness for 
Butterfinger candy bars, jelly beans, and coffee and doughnuts from Dunkin' 
Donuts.)

On a campaign stop in May at Lew's Dari-Freeze in Milwaukie, Ore., Sen. 
Obama's wife, Michelle, and their two daughters ate ice-cream sundaes and 
onion rings, while Sen. Obama grinned for the cameras and swirled a spoon 
around in his quickly melting ice-cream concoction, taking only a few 
nibbles.

During a July family appearance on "Access Hollywood," Sen. Obama's 
7-year-old daughter, Sasha, revealed that her dad doesn't like ice cream or 
sweets. "Everybody should like ice cream," she said.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a self-described "recovering foodaholic" 
who shed 110 pounds from his 5-foot-11 frame in two years and made fitness 
and nutrition central to his White House run, says voters "probably want 
someone who takes care of his health ... as an example of the kind of 
personal discipline necessary to do the job."

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."

Republicans have recently picked up on the senator's fitness regimen. On 
Wednesday, the McCain campaign launched a new ad titled "Celeb" that 
compares Sen. Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. In a memo to 
reporters explaining the ad, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, "Only 
celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day."

Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass says likening Sen. Obama to a Hollywood 
celebrity shows that Sen. McCain "is engaging in the same old negative 
politics of Karl Rove" that Americans are tired of.

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 drew cringes on a campaign stop in Adel, Iowa, in July 2007, when 
he asked a crowd of farmers: "Anybody gone into a Whole Foods lately and 
seen what they charge for arugula?" The upscale supermarket specializing in 
organic food doesn't have a single store in Iowa.

Lately, Sen. Obama is more careful. On a campaign stop in Lebanon, Mo., on 
Wednesday, Sen. Obama visited with voters at Bell's Diner and promptly 
announced "Well, I've had lunch today but I'm thinking maybe there is some 
pie."

He settled on fried chicken and told the crowd he's become a junk-food 
lover. "The healthy people, we'll give them the breasts," he told the 
waitress. "I'll eat the wings."

Struggles with weight-loss, on the other hand, can make a candidate seem 
more human. Some aides winced when footage of a sweat-drenched Mr. Clinton 
jogging into a McDonald's in Little Rock, Ark., aired ahead of the 1992 
campaign. But the footage is widely believed to have helped the 
then-governor of Arkansas connect to voters in conservative-leaning states 
like Georgia and Tennessee, which eluded Democrats in 2000 and 2004. These 
states have a statistically higher number of overweight people than 
Democratic strongholds.

"It says: 'He's just like one of us,"' says Arthur English, a 
political-science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock who 
used to see Mr. Clinton stop in for fries and a Big Mac after his three-mile 
jog.

Sen. Clinton has said she tried Weight Watchers to keep the pounds off 
during her presidential bid -- a tidbit that appealed to her core of 
middle-age female supporters that Sen. Obama is now trying to woo.

Sen. Obama is not without vices. According to Dr. Scheiner's medical report, 
he has quit smoking "on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette 
gum with success." People close to the senator say he began smoking nearly 
three decades ago and smoked about five cigarettes a day.

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.