As an obese person myself, I know of what I speak. If he's like me he has carried that weight for a long time. He will not be able to keep up the pace. Everyone went wild when they found out Bachmann had migraines so why shouldn't they question the capability of Christie to run. I've heard all the comments in my 65 years, been on diets off and on my whole life. I stopped 'dieting' and am changing the way I eat. I am losing but that still doesn't stop the comments. Some are very harsh but they're right, I am in terrible shape. Each person has to make up his/her mind when that time is. Nothing or nobody can make that decision for you.

This is an old discussion...are we the people entitled to know all the details and make judgements about how a candidate's health might affect his or her performance in office? We know now that in the past much was hidden from the public about the health of Presidents, e.g. Cleveland, Harding, FDR, Ike, JFK, etc. Was it out of line for voters in 2008 to be concerned about the heart condition of a President McCain, with Palin waiting in the wings? Let's say that Christie wins the nomination and selects someone like Bachmann or Cain for VP...I would think Chrstie's health and everything about it would be of great concern to all. Candidates for the most important job in the world don't get a free ride on anything, nor should they.

I find the comments about Christie's weight offensive and mean. They say so much more about the people making them than they say about the person they are meant to disparage. That being said, health is always a factor to consider when choosing a president. I have observed the toll exacted on the health and well-being of obese friends and relatives. A candidate who is seriously overweight is just as much cause for concern as one who has any other serious illness.

Yes, let's quickly get beyond this so we can focus on the fact that he is a jackass.

I too am an overweight person. Stress causes me to eat. I am sure Mr. Christie has many stresses in his current job. As president I can see him eating himself into an early grave. He needs to deal with the stress, his feelings and just how does he deal with stress. There is no such thing as will power. Will Power died at the Battle of the Buldge. I am not going to vote Republican but if I did I would want a healthy man in the white house. Get some help there is a 12 step program for overeaters. Maybe there is an answer. Weight loss surgery does not help.

When people on the left loose the intellectual argument, they invariably resort to school yard taunts. Since liberalism is the ideology of "feeling good" about your motives rather than solving problems, most liberals seem to feel that attempting to make an opponent feel bad is tantamount to winning the argument, as "Mr. Baker" demonstrates. As a libertarian, I'm used to ad hominem attacks from both the left and the right. But the left is definitely more venomous. Being passionate does not automatically translate into being compassionate.

The author could have also mentioned that Taft's campaign slogan was "Get On the Raft with Taft!"

A reactionary right-wing blowhard? A fat reactionary right-wing blowhard? You're right, Knute. "Fat" doesn't matter, and isn't the point.

I can't even believe that the obesity of someone not even running for office is deemed worthy news. Get with it Crosscut, if you want to be our news source, let's hear about something that matters!

For me, Christie's weight is emblematic of his excesses. When he was NJ Attorney General, he spent more money on out of town trips than any other Attorney General in the country; staying in hotels that averaged $242/night over the per diem.

He loaned a "friend" $46,000 and that friend was in a position to help him out because she handled FOIA requests. She didn't pay him back until late last year.

He wanted to take money from poor school districts and put it into more affluent ones.

I'm overweight too; I'm working on it. But Christie's obesity hides a lot of dirty laundry and is just part of the baggage he's carrying.

Body awareness is a fact of life in the US - in Europe, one can wear whatever they want at the beach as long as their personal body parts are covered. Try that at an American beach.

I'll start feeling sorry for Christie when he starts governing in a consistent manner.

Knute maybe on to something here. This could explain why Hillary lost to Obama...physical appearances. Obama seemed more vital, healthy and thinner. While Hillary looked old, tired and overweight. So the '08 election probably came down to pounds, not policy. I wonder if voters will learn from that?

the nice thing about being a liberal is that you can be an environmentalist and still drive a Range Rover, be a feminist but condone interns performing fellatio in the Oval Office, be a "caring civil rights suporter" and live in an all white neighborhood, and spew juvinile bile at the obese and less attractive while driving to your yoga class in your Prius with the fading Obama sticker on the bumper. Secure in the knowledge that you belong to the "intelligent party"

I'm wondering if this renewed discussion about size, masquerading as a discussion of health, is just one more aspect of our shift from private to public. In a Facebook world, it seems that all aspects of our lives are open to comment.

As we all know from the popular song, "Short people have no reason to live." That could be extended---and it has been--- to weight, religion, you name it.

There is a more serious concern about Christie's weight, however, and it is not partisan. I wrote a piece last Friday about his possible candidacy
and noted that he'd been admitted to emergency rooms for asthma attacks and
had told an interviewer his weight fatigued him. A presidential camapaign and the presidency itself are physically and emotionally draining. I would be worried about Christie's health throughout. The whole process was far less taxing during Taft's time. Christie surely should consider his health as he decides whether or not to run.

Every general election for President in the last 40 years has featured candidates in good, and usually superb physical condition (the perfect example being Bush vs Kerry in '04. So yes, politics aside being fat (Christie), as opposed to a few pounds overweight (the Clintons) is an anomaly.

But I don't think it would hurt Christie for three reasons. First, he's comfortable talking about it, which makes him seem genuine. Most pols don't like addressing their faults. Second, while he's overweight, he doesn't appear to be in poor health (Churchill made it to 90). Finally, all of these personal attacks on his weight, including some classless comments on this comment thread, will create a backlash of sympathy from voters who don't like personal insults in political races - especially when many voters are themselves overweight.

Despite all the religious bloviating, this is a body-conscious culture from top to bottom -- and right, left and middle. So bodies and their attractiveness are always going to be part of the American mindset and popular conversation. Does anyone imagine that Sarah Palin would have the same political appeal if she were dumpy and homely? Does anyone really believe that the intensity of opposition to Obama is not fueled by his skin color? And, yes, fat is also on the list of body characteristics that affect our perceptions. In this culture of glamor how could it be otherwise?

It is also true that obesity and the junk-food diet are currently front and center in our national conversation. What is more, this is a problem that lends itself all too easily to symbolizing the current unhappy state of American life. Thus the rash of moralizing about Christie.

The only real solution to the problem of judging people by their body types is to begin to see ourselves and others as primarily manifestations of consciousness. Only then would our desperately absolute identification with our physical shells begin to abate. But are we ready for that? I don't think so. Maybe check again next week.

Valid points here, but a couple of observations:

1. "Morbidly obese" is a medical term, not used just to stigmatize here. And Christie certainly qualifies.

2. Not sure I would argue this is a liberal thing. A morbidly obese Democratic candidate would be savaged by Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media.

The reference in this piece to Dan Savage reminded me of the post in the 2008 Slog by Stranger employee Lindy West calling out Dan on his anti-fat remarks--it elicited over 1,000 posts http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/02/11/hello-i-am-fat

Far worse than the weight of Governor Christie are the nicotine addiction of Obama and all the revealed drug isues and health issues of JFK. Both were able to hide their health issues by a complicit fawning media.

Excellent piece Knute, spoken as a FFP (former fat person) whose brothers teased mercilessly and taunted with new name to fit initials: Chubby Tubby Blubberton.

Thanks for the article. The point that disturbed me the most was the anchoring of negative perceptions to weight. This has the same type of connotations that stereotyping African-Americans, gay people, or someone that is homeless. It is based on non-facts, biases and the lack of imagination. I know this is the news of what the distractors are saying but isn't this like spreading a rumor just because someone else says it, it is still a rumor, just as malicious.

While the overt prejudice behind these attacks are obvious, is this not just another example that our politics is infected with a preoccupation that glorifies personality and eschews legislative capability or the merits of his or her ideas? I lay this firmly at the feet of, first, the growing and pervasive anti-intellectualism in our culture as well as a media culture that deifies youth (and all outward characteristics and the follies that come with inexperience) and spectacle.

America: this is the bed you have made. There's no progression past this point until we address our culture's fundamental hypocrisies with regards to economic inequality, violence and the indoctrination inherent in our institutions.