Fit for office

　　Do jocks make better presidents? Rebecca Johnson di scovers that the race to the White House can get quite physical.

　　We've had 25 presidents who were lawyers, four who were professional soldiers, one who was an actor, one a peanut farmer, a hog farmer (Harry S. Truman), and an e levator operator (Lyndon B. Johnson), but we have never once had a president or a front -runner who was a profe ssional athlete. Next to military heroes, nothing gets us going quite like a great athlete, especially if he's nice to kids.

　　We also like them because we assume they're healthy , and these days the health of the president is looming larger than ever in the public consciousness. In the pa st, we may have happily elected unfit and overweight pr esidents —300pound William Howard Taft was so large, hi s White House bathroom had to be refitted with a bathtu b big enough to fit his girth—but that was before resea rchers discovered irrefutable evidence linking lifestyl e and health.

　　These days, if you're fat (so the thinking goes), y ou're unhealthy (though the reality isn't quite so simp le). Because weight is something you can control, it ha s become the last "acceptable" prejudice in the world, and many people blithely assume that a fat person is la zy or stupid, which seems hypocritical given that Ameri cans are fatter now than ever before. Nevertheless, we expect our leader to be somehow better than us —more in telligent, more hardworking, and more fit. If he (or on e day, she) doesn't have the discipline to eat broiled chicken breast and steamed vegetables for dinner, who's to say he'll have the discipline to do the most difficu lt job in the world?

　　In any case, illness in a world leader is bad PR—a sick president equals a sick country (witness Boris Yel tsin)—and causes the world markets to weaken (the shoot ings of John F.Kennedy and Ronald Reagan both triggered sell-offs(暴跌) in the stock market).

　　In the end, being fit and in good health are import ant in a politician, but they're not everything. Moreov er, each body is unique, and looks can be deceiving.

　　by Rebecca Johnson