More Big Macs for Barack, Part II

In general, I try to avoid writing about stupid campaign coverage because there is so much of it. The vast majority of it is, in fact, stupid on some level. Some of the responsibility falls on Maureen Dowd, whose habit of imbuing impressionistic trivia with cosmic political significance now dominates both media coverage and campaigning itself in various ways. But this is noteworthy: A literal example of Dowdism in action appears in today's Wall Street Journal. Dowd has been obsessing for months about Barack Obama's slender frame and apparent desire to maintain a healthy diet as somehow prissy and elitist, rather than what it is, which is: healthy, i.e., an objectively good quality in a person and a president. The WSJ takes the Dowd meme out of the realm of pure opinion and turns it into classic, pseudo-objective newspaper claptrap:

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 article cites no evidence, in polling or history, that the skinny, fit candidate is at an electoral disadvantage to the chunkier candidate. (It notes that Lincoln was skinny and Taft was fat. Both won presidential elections.) The article's notion that Americans are fat slobs who will reject a candidate who eats right and is fit is an elitist view in itself, and flat-out insulting to American voters. The quotes cited here negatively associate Obama's physique with the true reasons for the quotees' skepticism - his "newness" and the fact that he is not Hillary Clinton. In other words, it's not his body mass index that really bothers them.

Why does the WSJ print this stuff? I'm not saying you can't write about candidates' diets or their body types - if it's done with some wit. This isn't.

Via Kevin Drum.

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Comments

[MariaHopeful]

There needs to be a backlash against these publications. We need to just stop buying them. Talk about the dumbing down of America.

[Freesia2]

This seems to be a common theme in the media these days. Pick something - anything - and spin a story around it. Give it a significance and then hopefully some other reporter will pick up on it and then everyone will be talking and talking and talking and talking and talking until there's nothing left to say about it, then they will talk about it some more. Then someone will write an article about how silly that was to talk and talk about it which will lead to more talk about it. As annoying and pointless as the paragraph I just wrote, which is my point.

I'm tired of it. I want news. If Obama's diet figures into his universal health care plan or if it has created a run on arugula at major markets then that might be a story. That he's skinny isn't. We noticed that a long time ago. Old news.

[Brettster]

Hopelessness is starting to sink in again, as it does every election. This "every good thing you do is elitism" crap is so infuriating, I feel like jumping out of the window sometimes. These Clinton supporters are quickly adding themselves to my list right next to Jesus Camp parents.

[Freesia2]

Just curious. What is a Jesus Camp parent?

[DaOne]

Does this mean that all those skinny Ethiopians are really just elitist?

[JimR]

Remember when the Journal was a respected paper? Very sad what they've become.

Thanks, Rupert Murdoch.

[JScott]

OH PLEASE MEDIA, COLUMNISTS, BLOGGERS, PUNDITS AND TALKING HEADS QUIT falling into the trap set up by News Corp. to churn this story as long as possible. The electorate doesn't care and it's not important!!!!

[illinoisan]

Obama is one of the lucky ones who can eat whatever he damn well pleases and stay fit & trim. It's a combination of genes and lifestyle. If he sat at home nights & just watched TV, he'd probably develop a potbelly but his overall frame would remain slight.

Check out his wrists. He'd probably have a tough time getting work on a construction site.

[camipco]

Obama, he's healthy, athletic and popular. Please, Republicans, keep up these "attacks."

[sparkandy]

I can think of several reasons not to vote for Obama. Skinny is not one of them. That's the dumbest thing I've heard this week.

[pekkla]

As a former employment discrimination lawyer, the word "pretext" comes to mind when I read such nonsense about Obama's being too thin for some people. The thin-ness is a pretext (a made-up reason) for not supporting him. The real reason is his race. Sad but true.

[Charmed]

So now he's to "skinny"....OMG this is crazy and it's only August.....if this is what turns "real americans" on, I'm glad I'm not one of them....

[Wolfdaughter]

This overweight, 62 year-old white woman will be voting for Obama. I can't believe the memes the Repubs are coming up with these days. I'm an aspiring thin person and wish I were as thin as Obama. I think it would be great to have him in the White House setting an example for the rest of us in how to eat and exercise.

Whatever. I certainly don't resent him for being thin. Good on him. Oh, and I have a number of overweight friends who are all also voting for Obama.

[camipco]

Fat people for Obama! I'm with you, Wolfdaughter. Let's start a movement.

[TAC]

"The article's notion that Americans are fat slobs who will reject a candidate who eats right and is fit is an elitist view in itself, and flat-out insulting to American voters."

I think it's really hard to insult American voters, at least a majority of them...

[philtll]

"I won't vote for any beanpole"? "He's too elitist"? This 6'2" 230-pound commenter would gladly vote for a withered anorexic or a bed-ridden land monster if they were the best candidate, and would like you to remember that one fat old candidate's personal net worth is 40 times that of his thin, younger opponent. Elitist indeed.

[cindyw]

He's got either great metabolism, or great will power. Either way, I see it as a plus. What do we want, another Taft?