New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, who has waged a fairly effective war on his main rival Chris Christie -- played out every time I turn on the TV here in Brooklyn, New York -- seems to have adopted an insightful new line of attack: pointing out to the voters that Christie is fat.
This, insofar is it goes, is true: Chris Christie is a large man. And one thing that's certainly true of Americans is that they don't elect very many fat governors. Running through pictures of the 50 sitting governors, I come up with only about 10 (20%) who are distinctly overweight, and only 3 (6%) -- Haley Barbour, Bill Richardson, and Sonny Perdue -- who are clearly obese. This compares with percentages on the order of 65 percent and 30 percent for the U.S. adult population. The skinny on the numbers after the jump.
Bob Riley (AL) -- within the realm of average
Sean Parnell (AK) -- fit
Jan Brewer (AZ) -- pretty normal
Mike Beebe (AR) -- unexceptional
Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA) -- ripped
Bill Ritter (CO) -- moderately overweight
Jodi Rell (CT) -- roughly average
Jack Markell (DE) -- thin
Charlie Crist (FL) -- in self-assuredly fine shape
Sonny Perdue (GA) -- pudgy
Linda Lingle (HI) -- fairly thin
Butch Otter (ID) -- skinny
Pat Quinn (IL) -- paunchy
Mitch Daniels (IN) -- slight
Chet Culver (IA) -- squarish
Mark Parkinson (KS) -- on the verge of underweight
Steve Beshear (KY) -- thin, though not this thin
Bobby Jindal (LA) -- skinny, though not this skinny
John Baldacci (ME) -- trim
Martin O'Malley (MD) -- rockin' some biceps
Deval Patrick (MA) -- varies from photo to photo, but about average
Jennifer Granholm (MI) -- former swimsuit model
Tim Pawelenty (MN) -- thin, mulletted
Haley Barbour (MS) -- the opposite of skinny
Jay Nixon (MO) -- standard
Brian Schweitzer (MT) -- full-bodied
Dave Heineman (NE) -- spindly
John Lynch (NH) -- lanky
Jon Corzine (NJ) -- not like that Chris Christie fellow, thank goodness
Bill Richardson (NM) -- fat; possibly getting fatter
David Paterson (NY) -- weight, days in office are limited
Bev Perdue (NC) -- medium
John Hoeven (ND) -- needs to ditch the porn-stache, but not the pounds
Ted Strickland (OH) -- narrow
Brad Henry (OK) -- average-plus
Ted Kulongoski (OR) -- appropriate
Ed Rendell -- Flintstonian
Donald Carcieri (RI) -- customary
Mark Sanford (SC) -- a delicate, lovestruck flower
Mike Rounds (SD) -- not especially round, actually
Phil Bredesen (TN) -- average
Rick Perry (TX) -- dapper
Gary Herbert (UT) -- humdrum
Jim Douglas (VT) -- skinnyish
Tim Kaine (VA) -- not quite overweight
Christine Gregoire (WA) -- attenuated
Joe Manchin (WV) -- normal
Jim Doyle (WI) -- big
Dave Freudenthal (WY) -- blocky
Now, some of the cases are debatable -- my classifications are probably a bit conservative given that overweight is the new normal in America. Perhaps someone like Brad Henry or Oklahoma or Tim Kaine of Virgina would meet the clinical definition of overweight, along with a few others. Still, it's clear that overweight governors are considerably underrepresented as a percentage of the U.S. population. As an electoral handicap, it probably doesn't rival being atheist or (avowedly!) gay, but I'd probably bet on the skinny woman before the fat man, all else being equal.
It would take a lot of work to figure this out, but I'd guess that this is a relatively recent phenomenon. We've elected quite a few fat Presidents ... William Howard Taft, Grover Cleveland, Teddy Roosevelt -- and Bill Clinton really, though he wore it well. And those men (with the partial exception of Clinton) were elected at a time where being obese was far less typical than it is today.
Certainly, you can see where the Corzine campaign is hoping to go with this one. Let your mind run wild with the not-so-subtle implications: Christie is a fat slob who is underprepared for the pressures of office, a fat cat who will sell out to the special interests, etc. Undoubtedly, their crack research staff uncovered some evidence that Christie's weight is a vulnerability, or at least could be associated with other negatives about him.
But it's one thing for your opponent's weight to be a vulnerability, and another thing to point that out to the voters without looking like an a-hole.
There have been many, many campaigns waged over the years that deftly (or not-so-deftly) implied that the opponent was a closet homosexual, Muslim, communist, or atheist. But being fat isn't like those other things: it's something that everyone can see for themselves. There is no plus-sized closet for fat people, so to speak. And our nation's relationship with obesity and obese people is complicated. Although fat people are perhaps by default objects of disdain, it doesn't take very much to turn them into everyman-ish Bubbas -- objects of sympathy.
Corzine remains in a much better position than he was a month ago. But if this is his campaign's idea of an endgame, he's liable to send Christie's big, fat ass to Trenton.
10.13.2009
Honey, Does This Governor Make Me Look Fat?
@ 7:30 AM
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94 comments
"Let your mind run wild with the not-so-subtle implications: Corzine is a fat slob who is underprepared for the pressures of office"
I think you mean it's Christie who is the tub-of-guts in this sentence. Easy to mix the two up though, it's an honest mistake...
Christie is close to obese, it shows a lack of self control unless he has a medical condition.
People are more comfortable with people who are normal sized, but Christies biggest problem isn't his weight it's Daggett.
schwarzeneggar ripped? perhaps decades ago, but he hardly looks like that anymore.
as with his moderation, reports of his rippedness are more hype than substance.
Nate,
If you're going to use BMI-based national obesity statistics, (which I'm surprised at, given the problems with them) then you need to use the BMI on the governors, not the "look at a picture" method. It's not like you to be so lazy.
Erm...I don't think most governors publish their BMIs.
The methodology here is beyond dubious, you really can't estimate obesity based on pictures of people in suits. For example, just at a glance, I'd say Freudenthal and Doyle are obese without question. Adding Kaine and Henry, that 3/50 probably drifts up to 8 or 10 with an accurate measure, and 20% obesity is probably identical to or above the national average when you adjust for the class differences of leading politians (low-income people are much more likely to be obese).
And, of course, class is one of the things Corzine is playing on here. Christie is portrayed as lower-class, small-time and corrupt, while rich, thin Corzine is above such things.
1. joel, I'm not sure self-control over some aspects (eg. diet and exercise) of a person's life necessarily translate to others. In fact Christie may be obese in part because he works long hours.
2. Nate, I suggest that part of the explanation for why the general public is fatter than its governors lies in education.
The pool from which governors are selected is one that is mostly white, male, mostly made up of college grads, and high SES by definition.
At least two of those factors - race and education show large gaps in obesity (African Americans and less educated individuals being more likely to be obese).
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/m728a1t.gif
There surely is some resistance to fat people in politics, but I posit that the kind of people who are likely to run for governor are a lot less likely to be fat in the first place.
Chet Culver is a tub. "Squarish?" The man's a tub.
Guys, I'm pretty sure Nate's tongue is planted firmly in his cheek with the gubernatorial fitness ratings. I mean, "Flintstonian?" Come on...
Teddy wasn't considered fat in his time, he was an avid outdoorsman and just browsing through the google pictures of him doesn't really convince me that he could be described as anything other than "barrel chested". That being said, watching the Christie/Corzine ad wars here in Brooklyn is hilarious and my roommates and I think their commercials are the most entertaining by far (closely followed by the unnecessary amounts of money Bloomberg has dumped into the mayoral race).
The time has arrived, apparently, when gubernatorial candidates should "weigh in" on registration day.
And then stage one of those made for teevee spats like Ali and Frazier did in the old days.
And the sports page should publish "The Tale of the Tape" boxes, with height, weight, reach (finger tip to finget tip over the shoulders), record, and so forth.
And while they're at it, they should put in whether the hair has been dyed/tinted/bleached or replaced. And for the women, bra size, and whether they've ever had a boob job or lipo.
And finally, the candidates need to make some declarations for the record: Their favorite color, favorite number, and favorite super hero.
A list of fetishes and personal hygiene habits would also be greatly appreciated.
>> Erm...I don't think most governors publish their BMIs.
'Fraid cnoony has a point. Dig 'em up. Have a carnie guess them. ;) Or go to some other measure. Because there have been studies where the shiloette profile of 'overweight' is percieved as normal healthy. *shrug*
P.S. Not only is Ah-nauld on the tubby side, he's a decidedly unhealthy individual. His ever so brightly burning via 'roids and such was unhelpful to his longterm constitution.
BTW, damn this is a nasty friggin' race. Now with the calls of FAT? :( Damn that's low.
Blagojevich is a very fit person and a good distance runner (he did a local 15K a few years ago). :-)
Note: I appreciated the "tongue an cheek" nature of this post; as far as my own views: I don't like Limbaugh but I like Michael Moore.
Also, I think we need a new category for Mike Huckabee:
Obese as governor
(writes book about losing weight)
Svelte as presidential candidate.
Filling out again as talk-show host.
@Nate: Ok, I see where this is going.
So now when one politician refers to another as a lightweight, it's a compliment?
And when the media refer to a politician as a heavyweight, they're sinking his career?
Further, cutting the budget and tightening one's belt is good. So is "sucking it up."
But "letting it all hang out" is, as always, risky business.
>> But "letting it all hang out" is, as always, risky business.
Yes!
This isn't the endgame. I've been viewing anti-Christie commercials for several months now here in Delaware. I've seen his huge fat ass and bejowled face spread across my 50" plasma far more than I care to remember. The unspoken tagline is "Chris Christie: too fat for New Jersey."
And Corzine's not the only guilty party. Dagget has been running a commercial with Corzine and Christie impersonators on a stuck escalator. Christie's impersonator is absurdly fat and sitting on the escalator steps angrily huffing and puffing.
And, what's more, if you're watching the poll numbers, it's clearly been working.
What I find funny is that no one has actually addressed the genesis of the post, which can be found at the linked article. All of this is based on a line from an ad:
"In both cases, Christie threw his weight around as US Attorney and got off [on multiple traffic violations] easy."
Wow, that is an incredible stretch. I guess if Christie accused Corzine of telling a bald-faced lie, it would be an obvious reference to Corzine's shiny pate, eh?
All of this is based on a line from an ad:
"In both cases, Christie threw his weight around as US Attorney and got off [on multiple traffic violations] easy."
Wow, that is an incredible stretch.
Yeeeesh. Thank you, Pan, for bringing us back to reality. To call that an explicit attack on Christie's weight is indeed a stretch.
(But then again, if Nate had just said that, he wouldn't have got to do a "hot-or-not-hot" ranking on all the governors, would he? :P)
Nate,
I think you got your fat slobs mixed-up. Check the context, "Certainly, you can see where the Corzine campaign is hoping to go with this one. Let your mind run wild with the not-so-subtle implications: Corzine is a fat slob..."
Surely the Christie campaign should just respond that this attack is a sign of desperation from the Corzine campaign? That they know they are behind and are just throwing haymakers now? I can't see how this attack turns out well for Corzine.
(eeck I almost sound like a concern troll there!)
I wonder how obesity of elected officials correlates with the obesity of the states that they are elected from. The subliminal message of the Corzine commercials may be succeeding because New Jersey ranks 42 in obesity according to a recent ranking. Thinner states may simply be less tolerant of obese candidates.
I've seen Kaine in person. He's not obese. He's more like, middle-aged paunchy.
I note with interest that the women governors range from "former swimsuit model" to average. Obviously a plus-size woman doesn't stand a chance in politics, though plenty of plus-size men do.
Your governor's so fat, the biggest bill he ever signed was from the House of Pancakes! OH SNAP!
I am amazed that more politicians do not become obese once they take office. They are driven from one meeting to another, where they mingle with donors over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. The White House and presumably governors mansions have their own cooks which provide food on demand 24/7.
@DGA
Kudos for the Brando reference.
I heard - get this - that Chris Christie is fat.
Anyway. In all fairness, Nate: we're getting NYC Mayor campaign ads here (and I'm...okay, I can see Rus-er, the Manhattan Skyline from my house. Sort of. But I still live about 10 miles outside of NYC), so I have little sympathy for you getting governor drama.
Sorry.
Anyway. I honestly don't care. Christie's fat. Corzine is not only bald, he has a beard that was last seen on Ted Kaczynski. Daggett is...okay, he's attractive and dapper, but good luck on an independent getting elected in New Jersey.
I do wish that my jokes about Corzine's campaign being - essentially - "Obama likes me and Corzine's fat lulz" weren't coming to fruition in real life, though.
Though yes, Chris Christie is fat.
*Obama likes me and Christie's fat
YES I CAN KEEP MY CANDIDATES STRAIGHT.
Also @ psy: Your governor's so fat they had to turn the State House into the Waffle House!
Christie is not just "close" to obese, he's morbidly obese. He's also an unqualified blow-hard who was Bush's cat's paw in NJ.
Nate, if you expect us to take seriously a statistical analysis of whether being overweight affects electability, then it's absolutely imperative that you use some kind of objective standard for determining it, not just looking at pictures of the govs (some of them wildly out of date).
Plus, what about the people whose body types have changed since their election? What about excluding those (Patterson, Parnell, Quinn) who were not elected at all?
Sadly, if you tried to do such a statistical analysis, you'd come up with some weird problems. Can't use BMI, for instance, because even at his least fat, Schwarzenegger would have turned up on the chart as morbidly obese. Can't use fat percentage, because few if any governors have released that information. Can't just eyeball it, because it's too subjective.
One thing you might be able to do is track public approval polls on political figures whose weights/body types have changed considerably while they were in the public eye. For instance, did Al Gore's approval rating go up or down as he gained weight since his 2000 Presidential bid? Rush Limbaugh has reportedly lost 80 pounds in recent months; has that made him more or less popular?
Of course, such a study would have so much noise as to be nearly useless anyway. Surely, however, there's got to be a way to do that without putting every single governor whose body type doesn't fit your definition of "normal" into an offensive pigeonhole.
...And for old times sake: WV - inges. "If my waistline lost a few inges, it wouldn't make me any less of a man."
Hey while we're on the image subject, what's up with the 'hot' female Guvs?
Not to knock Napolitano (who fits into the tubby category), but most of the female Guvs seem to need to be attractive. Granholm, Landrieu, Palin, Sebelius. Maybe this is a pageant after all.
Your Governor's so fat he could filibuster by himself. SNAPBACK!
Nate:
I think you need glasses. Mr. Perdue is NOT 'obese' in that photo. In fact, he is not even overweight. he looks perfectly proportioned for a man of his age and height to me.
If the photo is not current, it is hardly fair to use a photo of him NOT obese and accuse him of being so.
The camera shots in Christie's ads are totally intended to highlight the fact that Corzine is bald, so nyah!
While the ad is a bit schoolyard, so what. I think Christie's ad insinuating that Corzine wants his mother dead is way sleazier.
And the fact is Christie is grossly fat. I'm not going to vote based on that, but its not like this is slander.
Your Governor's so fat, it's why they call it the 'rotunda' at the capital.
Your Governor's so fat he keeps signing off on pork barrel spending.
Your Governor's so fat that when you refer to his cabinet, he thinks that's where the Twinkies are kept.
(Okay, I'm done with this meme; apologies)
You know, these pictures don't make a very strong case for a lack of fat governors. Some--like Jim Doyle--have gained a lot of weight since taking office. Others are selective photography. I mean Freudenthal looks normal in the photo that Nate posted, but looks like the dude from Family Guy in his wikipedia picture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Freudenthal
On the other hand, these pictures point to a serious dearth of bald governors. Other than Corzine, you've got Perdue, Baldacci (what an unfortunate name), and Quinn, who was never elected governor anyway. Maybe Corzine's glib response will hurt him more than the reference to Christie's obesity will help him.
And he shouldn't encourage Christie to point out the neckbeard gap among our nation's elected officials. Even Richardson got rid of his post-loss beard (much like Al Gore--remember that?), leaving only the abysmally unpopular Paterson and porn-stache Hoeven as associations to Corzine on facial hair. Not great company, although Hoeven is the nation's longest serving gov, so maybe Corzine should just keep the stache and lose the beard.
This issue is just too f***ing funny
..leaving only the abysmally unpopular Paterson...
He really should check himself in the mirror some time.
What? What?
:P
Dwight said...
..leaving only the abysmally unpopular Paterson...
He really should check himself in the mirror some time.
Damn that's a low blow!
Mark Sadowski,
I think you meant:
"Christie: Too fat, even for Jersey"
I disagree with Nate because, unless he has something more convincing, I don't think Corzine *has* been playing the weight card at all. When he was asked a direct question, he answered it in an honest and humorous way. Fine. But he has not brought it up as an issue, subtly or otherwise.
And the 'throwing his weight around' stuff if BS. It reminds me of the 'lipstick on a pig' dust up. Much ado about nothing. It's an expression for pete's sake, and there's no good reason to think it was actually a reference to Christie's weight, other than Republican trying to stir up trouble.
If that's all you've got, I think the entire premise of the post is wrong.
Imagine viewing commercials like this every evening for several months on a large flat screen TV and you'll see what I mean:
http://vodpod.com/watch/2134073-corzine-ad-attacks-christie-over-the-michele-brown-loan
"Chris Christie: far too wide to fit in the NJ governor's chair."
I don't know, fredtc, you may be right but words in advertising are considered carefully.
I mean the lipstick on a pig thing may well have been a deliberate attempt to provoke an outlandish response from the McCain campaign. At that point they were looking under every rock to prove that Dems were secretly sexist, Obama slips a fairly well-used and innocuous but uncharacteristic line in a speech and the McCain campaign blew up in response, exposing their entire misogyny charge as ridiculous. And that was the day the Palin star began to sink.
These lines are rarely accidental. Christie or his media surrogates play the "Wah, he called me fat" card, Corzine says "deal with it," and the voters are left to think, well he is fat. I don't know if it was a clever play for Corzine, but it was designed to provoke this response.
As we increasingly have to spend time and money to keep our weight down, I think that weight has become a class issue. So, if a white woman is a little fat, or a white man is REALLY fat (like Christie), they are perceived as low-class (and therefore less qualified). Corzine must have looked at some polls that showed that swing voters were concerned about Christie's qualifications for the job and that bringing up his weight highlighted those concerns (by making Christie look low-class). This type of meta-debate is especially meaningful in states like New Jersey, with a lot of rich, moderate independents and Republicans, who care about class. Those folks are sick of Corzine because the economy sucks, but they at least think he can do the job (even if not that well). Bringing up Christie's weight makes rich moderates less likely to vote for him. They'll vote for either Corzine or Daggett.
These types of attacks are interesting because they would backfire if your swing voters were downscale (in most places, conservative Dems - Montana would be a good example of such a place). Those voters don't mind fat candidates so much, and "authenticity" is more important.
Incidentally, this may be why McDonnell (R) is beating Deeds (D) in VA. It used to be that the swing voters were conservative Dems, but now I think that swing voters are upscale suburbanites. Deeds is from a really rural area and McDonnell is from the city (Virginia Beach - grew up in Fairfax County). So, I think that Deeds just comes off wrong to swing voters in VA, where McDonnell has the better image.
@ Dwight
Damn Dwight, that was cold! LMAO!
And lest anyone thinks that it's only Corzine pushing the "Christie's too fat" button check out Daggett's ad:
http://daggettforgovernor.com/wordpress/2009/09/06/preview-daggett-tv-commerical/
Hmmm, I wonder what might have caused the escalator to get stuck?
"Chris Christie: if he get's elected governor, you'll probably end up having to take the stairs."
@ Dwight
LMAO Nuff said.
Ed Rendell. Woof!
Okay, now that I have that out of my system.
It is absolutely standard in political ads to use the least flattering photo of your opponent possible. The "throwing his weight around" narration was probably meant to be a subtle jab at Christie's weight. Unfortunately it wasn't subtle enough. When he was called on it, Corzine should have sincerely, politely and ostentatiously apologized for any unintentional slight the commercial might have conveyed, and apologized to all differently sized New Jerseyites for his campaign's lack of sensitivity.
Then run ads of Christie photographed from the side, preferably holding a plate at an all you can eat buffet. Or maybe eating ice cream in a bathing suit.
As for, Nate's methodology of not using BMI or body fat percentage, come on!
First off, such data is simply unavailable. Secondly, it's irrelevent. If a candidate's weight matters to voters (and subconsciously it does, I think) then what matters is the voters' perception of obesity at a quick glance, not the clinical definition. Some folks can be fatter, but carry it better because of factors like shoulder width, chest size, height, clothing choices, and posture. (Schwarzenegger is a perfect example of all this.) I think Nate did a fine job of sorting the Govs as best he could, and he freely admitted his evaluations were highly subjective.
I suppose if someone wanted to, they could present unlabeled official portraits of each governor to a focus group and ask them to sort the pictures by degree of fatness. But, my hunch is they would come back with similar reults to Nate's.
While we're on the subject of weight... am I the only one who's noticed how much Mike Huckabee has been packing on the pounds lately? Ordinarily I wouldn't mention it, but he built a good chunk of his narrative in 2008 out of overcoming obesity. He even wrote a book about it, as I recall. Implications for 2012?
If we're gonna start using ugly as a filter, there's gonna be maybe 14 people left in Washington. Whatever else our duly elected representatives are, pretty they ain't.
I disagree with the comments that Nate should have used some objective technique like BMI or something. I think the important point here is how the governors are perceived, not whether they actually are fat. To that end, pictures are the appropriate measure, as is an entirely arbitrary scale (from wraith-like to elephantine). And so are ancient pics (like Arnonld's), because that's how voters picture him in their mind's eye.
By the way, your governor's so fat that traveling around the state is quicker than putting on his belt...
Chambliss, a Vietnam draft dodger coward like darth cheney, compared Max Cleland a disabled Vietnam Vet war hero to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Big problem.
Corzine inferring Christie is fat, not so much.
There's nothing here people, let's move on, shall we ...
Paraphrasing Yogi Berra, politics is 90% superficial ~ the other half is profound!
Oh yeah, and I thought it was an actual article in the Newark Star-Ledger, but it was just an editorial by Paul Mulshine (who...is probably my favorite Republican-in-denial-of-being-a-Libertarian).
At any rate, seeing this flap hit the MSM is hilarious.
Also, your governor's so fat he spent the stimulus money on pork rinds.
@Jacob: Speaking as a lifelong NJ resident, we've all seen that Corzine is bald since he took office.
Come to think of it, I think I've seen my reflection on his head.
Senate Finance Committee votes 13-9 to pass Baucus' health bill. Olympia Snowe joins all Democrats in voting yes.
Now I know why Tony Soprano never became governor of New Jersey.
I know this is pretty tongue-in-cheek and I was amused by the 'fat' descriptors. But I'm curious too... first off, how many of the governors weren't truly elected (like Paterson, taking over for rail-thin Spitzer?) Also, how many were thinner (or thicker) when they were actually first elected (assuming being the incumbent would help overcome any fat-discrimination)?
Also, political fat joke:
Your governor's so fat, he's too far right AND too far left.
Nice, Davy and others.
Your governor's so fat, his political mentor is Mayor McCheese.
psy said...
Your governor's so fat, the biggest bill he ever signed was from the House of Pancakes! OH SNAP!
Well played, sir.
Your governor's so fat, when he ran for office, he was Republican Candidate AND Mascot.
shiloh,
Corzine is implying that Christie is fat. You're the one doing the inferring. Though not technically wrong, your usage of "infer" is typically avoided. Agree with your point, though :-)
(sorry, pet peeve)
Your governor's so fat, his idea of improving the Subway is ordering double meat and cheese.
Am I the first to ask what is going on in the picture featuring Gov. Jim Douglas? Thats not really Obama is it?
Chris said...
~~~~~~~~~~
Having previously apologized a couple times for all my past and future spelling, grammatical and word usage errors ;) point taken er point got ...
The most prominent national politician with an obesity problem during the last few decades must have been J. Dennis Hastert, who served as Speaker of the House for eight years.
Am I the first to ask what is going on in the picture featuring Gov. Jim Douglas? Thats not really Obama is it?
It's from The Onion.
Governors may be thin, but I can think of one political office that has consistently been staffed by fatties: the house speaker.
Is there a causal link? Perhaps. Larger people are more intimidating, can drink more without getting drunk and can have lots of intimate steak dinners with fence-sitting congressmen, in order to win their votes.
Nancy Pelosi: okay, so she is rail thin... but then again she also has a low approval rating. Perhaps she doesn't look enough like a house speaker.
Dennis Hastert: was a super-tubby man who only got fatter once in office. He was also the longest serving Republican speaker in history.
Newt Gingrich: isn't/wasn't obese, but is definitely overweight. Obviously not overweight enough to retain office.
Tom Foley: also not fat, but also one of the least successful speakers in history. Between 1992 and 1994, the guy lost 63 seats.
Jim Wright (http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/50407383.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=4996399091E831865D57FC381975303B688C6CDC44E04CDD): not fat. Only lasted 2 years on the job.
Tipp O'Neill: was the quintessential drunken fat-ass house speaker. He even looks drunk in his official portrait. Here he is, considering whether or not to eat Nancy Pelosi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pelosi_O%27Neill.jpg).
Here's another dynamic to the fat issue for Corzine: undercutting the age difference.
At 62, Corzine is hardly elderly for an established politician, but he's not young by any standard, and also bald, gray, and somewhat haggard looking. At any rate, his worn and aged appearance can't be a plus for his image.
Christie, by contrast, is 48 and relatively youthful, an image that is only heightened by his intensity and vitriol.
As anyone who saw Obama's campaign knows, youth and physical vitality can help sell a message of change and renewal as well as the substance of his message. By weakening the vibrant image, it is far easier to weaken the idea of change.
So while Corzine jogs for the cameras and appears generally physically fit for his job, he diminishes Christie's fresh outsider appeal by portraying him as the wheezing blubbering fatass that he is.
I almost forgot about these NJ gubernatorial race word clouds. Note the large three letter word featured in Chris Christie's word cloud:
http://monmouthpoll.blogspot.com/2009/09/nj-gov-candidate-image-clouds.html#
"Chris Christie: fat, corruption, conservative, Republican, change."
P.S. Sorry. This post is bringing out my inner five year old.
Is that Obama wearing a motion animation suit in the JIm Douglas picture???
Seriously wtf?
Nate,
this is so stupid! Here are two facts.
1) Rich people are thinner.
2) Rich people are usually the ones who hold public office.
While elected officials aren't expected to look like movie stars (didn't Paul Begala say "Politics is show biz for ugly people"?), their appearance does affect things, especially with regard to height, weight, and hair.
Most presidents have been above-average height. Few have been fat. Very few have been bald. None since Taft has had any facial hair.
My hunch is that it's not so much whether they're perceived as sexually attractive as whether they're perceived as looking like leaders.
None since Taft has had any facial hair.
Heh, I was looking this up and it's actually quite interesting. Every single President from George Washington to James Buchanan didn't have facial hair except for some muttonchop sideburns on John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren.
Then Lincoln comes along, and after him, EVERYONE has facial hair (and LOTS of it, way more than Lincoln) between him and Taft with two exceptions, Johnson and McKinley. One was impeached and the other was shot to death. Then Woodrow Wilson comes in and that's the end of Presidential facial hair.
Yeah facial hair went out of style rather quickly. Maybe it was the linchpin that sealed narrow defeats for Charles Evans Hughes and Tom Dewey?
Lincoln, the first bearded president, actually was elected clean-shaven, and grew the beard after he was elected. Maybe the trend for bearded presidents was partly a result of nostalgia for Lincoln, especially since all of them were Republicans. The only Democrat elected in that era was Grover Cleveland, who had a mustache but no beard. Samuel Tilden, who won the popular vote in 1876, was clean-shaven.
As a poster above noted, the era of presidents with facial hair ended with Wilson, who was a Democrat. By the time Harding came to office, the Republican taste for beards would have been a distant memory, having faded in the 1880s with the vanishingly brief Garfield presidency and the popular-vote loser Harrison. Mustaches obviously took longer to lose their appeal, as Dewey's two-time candidacy proved.
Persuter said...
Then Woodrow Wilson comes in and that's the end of Presidential facial hair.
~~~~~~~~~~
And JFK did not wear a hat at his inaugural and hats went the way of the Rep party er dinosaurs ...
carry on
It's not so much that Christie is hugely fat, it's that he's soft and pudgy, sort of like a two-legged marshmallow.
Peter
"it's that he's soft and pudgy,"
As opposed to all those people who are hard and pudgy?
:D :D :D
@Kylopod
Okay, your level of knowledge regarding presidential grooming habits is disturbing. ;-)
Well, I might have forgotten to apply for my absentee ballot were it not for this kerfuffle, so some good has come of it...
@Davy
Two words: Google Images.
Corzine might like being photographed running in 10K's and similar events not only to illustrate the comparison with Christie, but also to show that he's fully recovered from the very serious injuries he suffered a few years ago.
Peter
This just in: Christie's being looked at for abuse of his expenses.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33300058/ns/politics-more_politics/
Very enjoyable article. This line of attack is fairly typical, really.
I remember when Obama suggested that when McCain took a position that was contrary to an earlier one, that perhaps he had "lost his bearings." The McCain camp complained that this was a jab at his age. Didn't make any difference in the campaign.
One thing about implying that Christie is fat is that Christie can't really respond directly. "When you say I throw my weight around, you're saying I'm fat and that's low. I have big bones so shut up."
The other thiing here is that Christie went from being completely unknown in NJ to being the Guv candidate. That's a plus as a standard republican in a Democratic state, but it does mean you will be racing to define yourself at the same moment that someone else is defining you.
If Christie had been elected to something or appointed to something high-profile, people would already know him and like or dislike him based on his achievements, but he's done very little and people know very little about him so he's ripe to be exposed in the most embarassing ways possible and has no reserve of good will to fall back on.
His ads claim he's a white knight. His opponents' ads show him to be a fat, arrogant oaf subject to petty corruption. there's a little truth in both.
Re: "letting it all hang out" is, as always, risky business.
I would propose that
"letting it ALL hang out" is RISQUE business...
just ask dearly departed ol' Larry Craig
GOP - Grand Old Porkers ???
DEM sum mighty fine ribs, y'all...
It should be stated, if it hasn't already, that Sonny Perdue was only re-elected because he was running against the much fatter Mark Taylor. Who, in addition to being fat, was an otherwise uninspiring candidate. He looked delicious though.
Matt-
Granholm is not a former swimsuit model. She flirted with acting for a time before going to Harvard Law school.
Has anyone done a study on how many Governors, other than Corzine, have nasty lookin' beards?
Спасибо Аист мультфильм / Спасибо, Аист!
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