No, NOT from TheOnion... Rupert Murdoch's WSJ: "Obama's too skinny to win"!!!!!!!!!!
Taylor (taylor.taylor@gmail.com)
WSJ asks: ‘Could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability?’
Posted August 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am
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It’s easy to rail against the political media’s fascination with
trivia, but the frustration often misses the mark. Some reporting on
human-interest stories relating to presidential candidates is normal;
news outlets aren’t going to be all-substance, all-the-time. Adding
some trivia to the mix can help make coverage of the campaign, for
lack of a better word, “lively.”
The problem is when the media treats trivia as if it were serious. I
don’t mind frivolous reporting, so much as I mind when news outlets
pretend it isn’t frivolous reporting.
The media covered John Edwards’ haircuts as if they were important.
Reporters scrutinized Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits and cleavage as if
they were legitimate subjects of journalistic inquiry. Questions about
lapel pins have actually managed to make their way, not only into the
media’s coverage of the campaign, but into nationally televised
debates.
With this in mind, I noticed that the Wall Street Journal ran a 1,400-
word article today, under the headline, “Too Fit to Be President?
Facing an Overweight Electorate, Barack Obama Might Find Low Body Fat
a Drawback.” It’s not just a fluff story about a slender candidate;
it’s a lengthy news article about voters’ possible discomfort with a
slender president.
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. […]
“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.
Well, sure, I’d like universal healthcare, a strong economy, a smarter
foreign policy, a cleaner environment, and a more just federal
judiciary, but what I’m really looking for in a leader is excess body
fat. Screw the country’s future, let’s talk BMI numbers.
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. […]
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…. 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.” […]
“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.
It’s not just a 1,400-word article about Obama’s weight; it’s a 1,400-
word article that suggests Obama’s weight really is important.
At one point, the WSJ noted, “The Obama campaign declined to comment
for this article.”
Ya don’t say.
+++ ntv/nat media http://i35.tinypic.com/2m5ihr6.jpg ntv/nat media +++
http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2008/08/the-wall-st-jou.html