I found this article to be rather interesting as I wondered myself if him deciding not to run for POTUS had anything to do with his weight or the fact he would most likely be attacked by some because of it as a health issue.
I allways here that Ron Paul dont have a chance because of his age , and being unhealthy due to being overweight ( IF that could even be the case) I would think might have the same impact on others as far as being able to finish his term if elected.
Just curious as to others thoughts. I aint no docter so I have no clue how weight effects ones health.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is staying out of the Republican presidential race, but his brief flirtation sparked a debate that resonated in a country worried about the personal and national consequences of obesity: Does being overweight say anything about a person’s fitness for high office?
In his press conference Tuesday, Christie made clear he was rebuffing requests to enter the race because he was not ready to leave his job as governor. But he addressed the obesity issue, too.
Video
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...-not-my-time/2011/10/04/gIQAnjlDLL_video.html
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he will not run for president in 2012. Heavily courted by Republican donors, he says, "I have a commitment to New Jersey that I simply will not abandon."
“To say that because you’re overweight you are therefore undisciplined — you know, I don’t think undisciplined people get to achieve great positions in our society,” he said in answer to a reporter’s question.
He said he didn’t mind comedians joking about his size as long as they’re funny. But some of the columnists who’ve opined on the subject in recent days “are among the most ignorant people I’ve ever heard in my life.” Those who suggest that obesity may reveal character “further stigmatize people in a way that is really irrelevant,” he said. “Those are the people that we should really, you know, look down upon.”
It was the kind of tell-it-like-it-is moment that’s made the 49-year-old governor popular in New Jersey and elsewhere. But it will take more than a verbal smackdown to change the attitudes of lots of Americans.
“Public attitudes about obesity have been pretty negative for a while and don’t seem to be growing much better,” said Kelly Brownell, a psychologist heads the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University, who was interviewed in the days before Christie made his decision. “They are lazy, they are dirty, they are unintelligent, they lack willpower. These attitudes are very pervasive.”
He argues that blaming the individual is misplaced, given how difficult it is to maintain a healthy weight in modern America. He attributes the negative attitudes to traditional American values.
“Part of it is the American philosophy of personal responsibility and individual blame when things don’t go well,” Brownell said. “So people often get blamed for diseases that are not under their control, people are blamed for their poverty, people are blamed for their lack of education — things like that. Obesity gets especially stigmatized because it’s visible and because the social norms now are preoccupied with thinness.”
Earlier this week, the Obesity Society, which represents obesity researchers, came to Christie’s defense.
“Caution should be taken in making assumptions about a person’s lifestyle behaviors based on physical appearance alone. Individuals who are not struggling with their weight are not necessarily healthy,” the organization said in a statement. “A lean body does not reveal whether or not a person smokes cigarettes, drinks excessive alcohol, eats a balanced diet, exercises regularly or wears a seat belt. To single out a political candidate on the basis of body weight is discriminatory.”
The rate at which overweight people report experiencing discrimination, however, appears to be increasing, according to Rebecca M. Puhl, director of research at Yale’s center. In the past decade, the fraction of the population reporting discrimination based on weight increased from 7 percent to about 12 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...bout-obesity/2011/09/30/gIQABQmpNL_story.html
I allways here that Ron Paul dont have a chance because of his age , and being unhealthy due to being overweight ( IF that could even be the case) I would think might have the same impact on others as far as being able to finish his term if elected.
Just curious as to others thoughts. I aint no docter so I have no clue how weight effects ones health.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is staying out of the Republican presidential race, but his brief flirtation sparked a debate that resonated in a country worried about the personal and national consequences of obesity: Does being overweight say anything about a person’s fitness for high office?
In his press conference Tuesday, Christie made clear he was rebuffing requests to enter the race because he was not ready to leave his job as governor. But he addressed the obesity issue, too.
inShare
Video
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...-not-my-time/2011/10/04/gIQAnjlDLL_video.htmlNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he will not run for president in 2012. Heavily courted by Republican donors, he says, "I have a commitment to New Jersey that I simply will not abandon."
“To say that because you’re overweight you are therefore undisciplined — you know, I don’t think undisciplined people get to achieve great positions in our society,” he said in answer to a reporter’s question.
He said he didn’t mind comedians joking about his size as long as they’re funny. But some of the columnists who’ve opined on the subject in recent days “are among the most ignorant people I’ve ever heard in my life.” Those who suggest that obesity may reveal character “further stigmatize people in a way that is really irrelevant,” he said. “Those are the people that we should really, you know, look down upon.”
It was the kind of tell-it-like-it-is moment that’s made the 49-year-old governor popular in New Jersey and elsewhere. But it will take more than a verbal smackdown to change the attitudes of lots of Americans.
“Public attitudes about obesity have been pretty negative for a while and don’t seem to be growing much better,” said Kelly Brownell, a psychologist heads the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University, who was interviewed in the days before Christie made his decision. “They are lazy, they are dirty, they are unintelligent, they lack willpower. These attitudes are very pervasive.”
He argues that blaming the individual is misplaced, given how difficult it is to maintain a healthy weight in modern America. He attributes the negative attitudes to traditional American values.
“Part of it is the American philosophy of personal responsibility and individual blame when things don’t go well,” Brownell said. “So people often get blamed for diseases that are not under their control, people are blamed for their poverty, people are blamed for their lack of education — things like that. Obesity gets especially stigmatized because it’s visible and because the social norms now are preoccupied with thinness.”
Earlier this week, the Obesity Society, which represents obesity researchers, came to Christie’s defense.
“Caution should be taken in making assumptions about a person’s lifestyle behaviors based on physical appearance alone. Individuals who are not struggling with their weight are not necessarily healthy,” the organization said in a statement. “A lean body does not reveal whether or not a person smokes cigarettes, drinks excessive alcohol, eats a balanced diet, exercises regularly or wears a seat belt. To single out a political candidate on the basis of body weight is discriminatory.”
The rate at which overweight people report experiencing discrimination, however, appears to be increasing, according to Rebecca M. Puhl, director of research at Yale’s center. In the past decade, the fraction of the population reporting discrimination based on weight increased from 7 percent to about 12 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...bout-obesity/2011/09/30/gIQABQmpNL_story.html
Theres others but we dont want to be turned in to attack watch. 