Will we ever elect an obese President?

[retromike22]

I had to ask.  Obese Americans make up just over 25% percent of the population, much more than Hispanics or African Americans.  Overweight Americans including the obese are already at 64%.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060206185213/www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity_trends.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#Prevalence_by_state

[Alexander Hamilton]

I had to ask.  Obese Americans make up just over 25% percent of the population, much more than Hispanics or African Americans.  Overweight Americans including the obese are already at 64%.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060206185213/www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity_trends.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#Prevalence_by_state

Try 1908.

[Free Palestine]

I had to ask.  Obese Americans make up just over 25% percent of the population, much more than Hispanics or African Americans.  Overweight Americans including the obese are already at 64%.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060206185213/www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity_trends.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#Prevalence_by_state

Try 1908.

Taft was fat, but not obese.

He got stuck in a tub.

[Alexander Hamilton]

I had to ask.  Obese Americans make up just over 25% percent of the population, much more than Hispanics or African Americans.  Overweight Americans including the obese are already at 64%.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060206185213/www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity_trends.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#Prevalence_by_state

Try 1908.

Taft was fat, but not obese.

He got stuck in a tub.

LOL

[Mechaman]

I had to ask.  Obese Americans make up just over 25% percent of the population, much more than Hispanics or African Americans.  Overweight Americans including the obese are already at 64%.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060206185213/www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity_trends.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#Prevalence_by_state

Try 1908.

Taft was fat, but not obese.

He got stuck in a tub.

A f***ing tub dude, how can he not be obese?

[Alexander Hamilton]

I had to ask.  Obese Americans make up just over 25% percent of the population, much more than Hispanics or African Americans.  Overweight Americans including the obese are already at 64%.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060206185213/www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity_trends.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#Prevalence_by_state

Try 1908.

Taft was fat, but not obese.

He got stuck in a tub.

A f***ing tub dude, how can he not be obese?

A PRESIDENTIAL TUB!

[BM]

Image wasn't as important back then as it is now. I can't see a fat ever getting elected now.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well.. Maybe not an obese, but why not a slowly overweighed president ? I don't understand what people could have against that, especially if he is a good candidate.

[Zarn]

Unless America elects a fat, lesbian, color-blind, vegan, classical Greek God worshiping person of Korean, Ukrainian, South African, Indonesian, Mexican, and Turkish ethnicities, it's just not the land of opportunity, we thought it once once.

Just look at how many of our presidents were fat, lesbian, color-blind, vegan, classical Greek God worshiping, and of Korean, Ukrainian, South African, Indonesian, Mexican, and Turkish ethnicities. This is serious, folks.

[Antonio the Sixth]

There's a time for any thing. The time of fat, lesbian, color-blind, vegan, classical Greek God worshiping, and of Korean, Ukrainian, South African, Indonesian, Mexican, and Turkish ethnicities Presidents will come... one day...

[pogo stick]

There's a very good chance.

[Free Palestine]

Image wasn't as important back then as it is now. I can't see a fat ever getting elected now.

Yeah, presidents are celebrities now, especially if they're young and support "change."

[War on Want]

No. Every non-fat in the country will collectivley throw up if a fat is nominated.

[Lincoln Republican]

The medical dictionary defines obese as

extremely overweight; very fat.

So no, America will never in the future elect an obese President.

It is amazing how much emphasis people put in how someone looks.

Can you just imagine the jokes and put downs this candidate would have to endure?

I condemn this type of behavior on the part of anyone, however, I have no doubt but that is what would happen.

[retromike22]

Here's a map of the top 15 most obese states (over 27.7% of the population)

[Rob]

Here's a map of the top 15 most obese states (over 27.7% of the population)

Clearly, Jesus loves the Southland.

[Frodo]

Any man who had to ride on a water buffalo as opposed to a horse because of his weight counts as obese in my book. 

[retromike22]

haha I forgot to mention, the RED states are the 15 most obese states. 

Here's a map of the top 15 most obese states (over 27.7% of the population)

Clearly, Jesus loves the Southland.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

An obese person could not get elected today, but if standards of personal beauty change so that we revert to the historical norms wherein it was better to be obese than starvishly thin, then yes.   We live in a land of plenty where obesity is associated with being poor, not wealthy enough to afford excess food.  Once the world population reach 20 or 30 billion, I imagine being overweight will once again be considered better than being underweight.

[Antonio the Sixth]

An obese person could not get elected today, but if standards of personal beauty change so that we revert to the historical norms wherein it was better to be obese than starvishly thin, then yes.   We live in a land of plenty where obesity is associated with being poor, not wealthy enough to afford excess food.  Once the world population reach 20 or 30 billion, I imagine being overweight will once again be considered better than being underweight.

For health, it actually is better.

[Хahar 🤔]

I can't see it happening again.

[Stranger in a strange land]

An obese person could not get elected today, but if standards of personal beauty change so that we revert to the historical norms wherein it was better to be obese than starvishly thin, then yes.   We live in a land of plenty where obesity is associated with being poor, not wealthy enough to afford excess food.  Once the world population reach 20 or 30 billion, I imagine being overweight will once again be considered better than being underweight.

It won't: birthrates across the world have been in a downward trajectory since the early 90s: the population will probably peak at around 10 billion at the end of this century and afterwards will slowly drop.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

An obese person could not get elected today, but if standards of personal beauty change so that we revert to the historical norms wherein it was better to be obese than starvishly thin, then yes.   We live in a land of plenty where obesity is associated with being poor, not wealthy enough to afford excess food.  Once the world population reach 20 or 30 billion, I imagine being overweight will once again be considered better than being underweight.

It won't: birthrates across the world have been in a downward trajectory since the early 90s: the population will probably peak at around 10 billion at the end of this century and afterwards will slowly drop.

Because we all know that trends continue forever, right?

China is seeing the beginning of the end of the one child policy taking place now.  I would not at all be surprised to see China in reaction to that policy once it is finally gone, see a baby boom take place with two child families seen as the minimum desired size by mid-century, rather than a maximum desired size as it is now. China has set itself up for seeing the ability to provide for multiple children as the ultimate status symbol to say that you've arrived.  That's also true to a lesser extent in India.  That isn't to say I see the world population reaching the 20 billion mark by 2100.  I do see the world population continuing to expand until food prices increase markedly from their current historically abnormal low value as measured by the percentage of per capita income devoted to them.

[Stranger in a strange land]

An obese person could not get elected today, but if standards of personal beauty change so that we revert to the historical norms wherein it was better to be obese than starvishly thin, then yes.   We live in a land of plenty where obesity is associated with being poor, not wealthy enough to afford excess food.  Once the world population reach 20 or 30 billion, I imagine being overweight will once again be considered better than being underweight.

It won't: birthrates across the world have been in a downward trajectory since the early 90s: the population will probably peak at around 10 billion at the end of this century and afterwards will slowly drop.

Because we all know that trends continue forever, right?

China is seeing the beginning of the end of the one child policy taking place now.  I would not at all be surprised to see China in reaction to that policy once it is finally gone, see a baby boom take place with two child families seen as the minimum desired size by mid-century, rather than a maximum desired size as it is now. China has set itself up for seeing the ability to provide for multiple children as the ultimate status symbol to say that you've arrived.  That's also true to a lesser extent in India.  That isn't to say I see the world population reaching the 20 billion mark by 2100.  I do see the world population continuing to expand until food prices increase markedly from their current historically abnormal low value as measured by the percentage of per capita income devoted to them.

The main reason China hasn't repealed the One Child Policy is because the Chinese government is afraid that if they do so, the fertility rate will automatically spring back to five children per woman. This won't happen: no country with China's current HDI level has anywhere close to that fertility rate. In the very largest cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, the fertility rate is actually at or even below 1, indicating that some women aren't even having their one allotted child. Also, there are various ways by which families can get around the one child policy, and the policy isn't enforced as rigorously in the countryside, where most of the population still lives.

It's also significant to note that Taiwan and Hong Kong both have lower fertility rates than Mainland China has as an aggregate, despite the absence of the one child policy in both.

Family sizes in India have always been large, and have begun to decline slowly but significantly recently; the same is true in Bangladesh and even Pakistan, after a half century or so of explosive population growth.

[pbrower2a]

I had to ask.  Obese Americans make up just over 25% percent of the population, much more than Hispanics or African Americans.  Overweight Americans including the obese are already at 64%.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060206185213/www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity_trends.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#Prevalence_by_state

Try 1908.

Taft was fat, but not obese.

After he left the Presidency a physician ordered him to lose weight or expect to not live much longer. Such indicates pathological obesity. He took the advice seriously.

Obesity was fashionable until about 1910 as a signal of success -- which meant that one was so rich that one never had to miss a meal. After the Progressive Era, in which the words "fat cats" was applied to rapacious Gilded-Age plutocrats, obesity lost its symbolic evidence of success. By the 1930s it became a marker for arrogant, selfish, inconsiderate people other than Santa Claus. Sidney Greenstreet, anyone?

Obesity has slipped socially, devolving to those who overeat as a salve for stresses of life.