IOKIYAR

[trinityvixen]

(For those of you reading this who aren't inundated with liberal blogs, the title of this post refers to the fact that minor sins are only minor, and major accomplishments are only major, based on your political affiliation. Guess which party the "R" stands for?)

Obama: too fit to be president?

I'm showing my age here, but I remember when the Presidential fitness test was first started in an effort to at least monitor what negative progress my fat ass was making in terms of my general fitness. I remember Clinton and Arnold (yes, Ah-nold) promoting it. (In fact--more age showing here--I remember Ah-nold going on an episode of a Nickelodeon show I used to watch called Wild and Crazy Kids wanting to be a "wild and crazy kid" while wearing his Presidential Fitness Challenge shirt. OMFG WHY IS THIS STUFF IN MY BRAINS!?!) Mostly, I remember it as being the twice-yearly HELL they put the fat, lazy, inflexible, weak kids through. (Yes, I'm bitter, why do you ask?)

Anyway, I seem to remember some chuckles over Bill Clinton's jogging, though, bless 'im, he kept at it even though he was getting plenty of other exercise. But because he was paunchy, the jogging was mostly seen as a stunt. Dubya Bush, on the other hand, spent so much time exercising and sleeping in his first lack-luster year, no one was really sure he did anything else. A Newsweek article at the time, even before 9/11 when you couldn't question anything the idiot did, soft-balled the issue by going, "Gee, Mr. President, don't you think it looks, well, not great that you barely work 9-to-5, schedule yourself time to exercise, and get eight hours of sleep a night when more than half the electorate doesn't have a prayer of ever getting any of that? Oh, and you spent a lot of time on vacation...." Of course, he didn't see the problem. He delegated! It worked! There were never any problems!

And now Barack Obama's exercise schedule gets more coverage than his positions on anything, and we're finding fault with his dedication to his health? He doesn't do half so much "personal time" shut-down of work as Dubya. The person writing that people won't vote for him out of spite for being less dedicated in their workout habits than he is clearly an idiot, but the fact that this is held up as something to be suspicious of unto the point of note voting for someone when Bush's Jogging for Jesus (and to Stay Off the Sauce) is a miracle and a wonder?

It's O.K. if you are Republican.

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

What really gets me is the constant references to the "liberal bias" of the mainstream media. Apparently the Wall Street Journal isn't mainstream enough to count.

You realize, of course, that we're going to see plenty more of this? McCain's falling into the "I'll be whatever you what, really!" strategy that worked so very well for Kerry, so the Republicans, out of ways to help that along, are just throwing anything they can think of at Obama to see what sticks.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

In fact, if you do a perusal of the short-hand used to describe articles on the two candidates, even the abbreviations are hostile towards Obama. It's the Fox News-ification factor.

And yeah, we're going to see plenty more. Joy.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Ah-nold was supposed to come to my elementary school for that fitness thing. We won the contest. Then Governor Weld said he had to go to a underprivileged inner city school, so he didn't come to mine. We had dance routines and a banner and everything.

I hate him.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

And then he kicked your puppy. Well, at least someone else besides me has a grudge against the fitness test. Not for the same reasons, but it's nice not to be alone.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

I get it. Voting for Obama is kind of like voting for Batman.

... actually, that's kind of scary.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I'd vote for Batman. After all, he'd win even if I voted against him. He's the goddamn Batman.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

That panel would make a great campaign slogan. "Are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think he is? He's the goddam Batman! Vote Batman 08!"

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Alas, the whole point of The Dark Knight was that we couldn't vote for Batman. If only!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think it's more like voting for Superman--the clean cut, fresh-faced guy, n'shit. However, given that he's already being compared to Hitler for that rally in Berlin (anyone who holds an audience of 10+ Germans = Hitler), I doubt we want to associate Obama with the super-man.

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

I have never understood how the media can get away with being such asses about presidents and candidates. I mean, weren't they told they had to leave the Bush daughters alone (when said daughters got in trouble)? And they did. Even though, when Chelsea Clinton was in hear early teens, reporters felt it was okay to describe her as "homely" (they get negative wherever they can).

Clinton's whole "Didn't inhale"/pot thing was an enormous uproar, but it comes out that bush had a DUI while doing cocaine, and everyone is just like "Oh, ha! Boys will be boys!"

I don't know what the fuck is up, but seriously, they're just finding a way to detract from the fact that Obama is younger/fitter/healthier than McCain. I guess it is a sign that they feel threatened...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Oh, and don't forget that Laura Bush actually killed someone with her car. At least she wasn't high at the time? That makes it okay? But mentioning that her irresponsible driving as a seventeen-year-old is mean. MEAN. Mentioning Hillary's hairstyle or the amount her tits show out of her pants suit is totally okay.

As for the Bush daughters--they revel in the spotlight when they can get it for the right reasons. One of them just got married. CELEBRATE THEIR GOOD FORTUNE, GODDAMNIT.

This is why we have IOKIYAR.

[avram]

I can remember back in the '80s, it was common wisdom that a fat man couldn't get elected president. 'Cause of TV, see. Supposedly the electorate was so obsessed with appearance that they'd just get repulsed by a fat candidate.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of superstitions about the presidency. One is that the shorter candidate has a poorer chance of winning. Tell that to John Kerry.

My personal favorite is Missouri. Where Missouri goes, so goeth the nation since 1904. (Except, you know, in 1956. And for a hundred years before that, there's no reliable proof one way or another. But that's why it's my favorite superstition, not fact.)

[avram]

Also, how governors keep on winning because American voters just don't like senators for the presidency. That one was especially funny this year.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

In our media, political coverage treats issues as some vague generic pork-belly-like abstraction, symbols to wave around without considering that there might be something of substance there (well, fine, I suppose one must admit that there is, but we can't ever report on it, see, we'd bore the audience. I mean electorate.)

So when the only framework to do political reporting is the one that gets applied to the Bengals-Bears game, is it any surprise we get the same kind of superstitious, bogus-pattern factoids?