Though he works out six times a week—and though the Democrats are using his excellent health as a wedge to set rich, cold-hearted Republicans apart from the millions of poor children they are denying exercise with their reluctance to spend federal funding on kickball tournaments (in which no scores will be kept)—the fittest president in US history is still overweight, judging by the government’s own standards. From Cato’s Radley Balko:
Critics of critics of the BMI often counter such claims by saying they’re aberrations—that when we talk about how the government classifies world-class athletes as “obese,” we’re being disingenous because most people don’t have the muscle mass of world-class athletes.
But the president isn’t a world-class athlete. He’s a guy who exercises six times per week. He is exactly what the government says we should aspire to. And yet the government still says he’s overweight. Which means if we all worked out as often as the government says we should, we’d probably add to the government’s overweight and obesity statistics, not subtract from them. Which means the statistics are wrong. Which means 2/3 of Americans probably aren’t “overweight,” as we’ve been told.
Which means that all of these calls for drastic government intervention are overwrought.
Well, now you’re just being cynical, Radley. As an upcoming study commissioned by the newly-formed Department of Rebutting Claims Claiming to Rebut Our Government Studies will clearly show.
I just had an aneurysm.
Does this also mean that cigarettes are actually good for you? Please?
President Buff could not be reached for comment.
I think that the only people in the country who are not officially overweight are that really skinny Olsen twin and the increasing legion of meth heads who only eat like one meal a week.
The left has Bush right where they want him, i.e., in his familiar, cozy little Catch 22. He sets unrealistic expectations of health that will discourage unhealthy Americans, and he’s also flippant about his being “objectively” overweight, unconcerned with the impact this will have on the impressionable slobs who inhabit this godforsaken land of lard.
Damn, I’m 6’1” and that thing says I’ve been overweight since I went up to pants with a 31” waist in my senior year of high school. Now I’m 220lbs and just shy of obese. I can’t believe that I’ve let myself go to the point that I’m as fat as Keanu Reeves.