WSJ: Is slenderness elitism?
August 1st, 2008 at 09:08am Pat Cunningham
Amy Chozick of The Wall Street Journal set a new standard for inane political journalism this morning with a PIECE (headlined “Too Fit to Be President?”) that begins as follows:Â
Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn’t give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track.
“Listen, I’m skinny but I’m tough,” Sen. Obama said.
But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.
 The candidate has been criticized by opponents for appearing elitist or out of touch with average Americans.
We’ll probably soon see a John McCain campaign ad that says: “See! Obama’s not like us! He doesn’t eat the stuff we eat! He thinks his body is some kind of sacred temple! He’s not a real American! Oh, and don’t forget…he’s a celebrity, too!”
UPDATE: I couldn’t readily find a photo of Amy Chozick, so I don’t know if she looks like this:
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Or this: Â
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13 Comments Add your own
1. LD | August 1st, 2008 at 9:40 am
That does it, I just can’t vote for a guy who says no to supersizing his freedom fries. Thank you Amy for this insightful article, I bet your journalism professors are very proud.
2. hokumboy | August 1st, 2008 at 9:45 am
Those jerks at WSJ always were Taft Lovers!
3. Orlando Clay | August 1st, 2008 at 10:36 am
Man, if the right-wingnuts are this unhinged with just less than 100 days to the election, what in the world are Fox News and the WSJ going to look like come late October/early November? Yikes!
4. Milton Waddams | August 1st, 2008 at 10:45 am
I am so sick of hearing this elitism crap… Jon Stewart has had the best commentary on it yet. Actually, he has better commentary on most things this election cycle… Go <a href=\"http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=166074&title=headlines-gaffe-in\">here</a> To skip to just the elitism commentary, skip to 7:10 in the video…
5. Milton Waddams | August 1st, 2008 at 10:46 am
Sorry, bad link…
Try this again
6. Pat Cunningham | August 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am
Milton: Great stuff. I remember when it first aired.
7. Mike Carroll | August 1st, 2008 at 11:39 am
Hold the outrage folks. That piece, fairly inane I’ll grant you, appears in the Weekend Journal section of the WSJ. For those not familiar, that is the equivalent of Parade Magazine with movie reviews, wine recommendations and other similar hard hitting features. It isn’t the news or the editorial section.
Boy, you people have thin skins.
8. Pat Cunningham | August 1st, 2008 at 11:48 am
Mike: If we have thin skins, we must be elitists.
9. Pat Cunningham | August 1st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Furthermore, Mike, Amy Chozick covers politics for the WSJ. She’s not a humor columnist, nor was this piece written with jocularity. Rather, she belabored the same “elitist” narrative the McCain camp is seeking to exploit. And in the last paragraph of her article, she seizes on the theme of Obama as The Dreaded Other when she writes that his ability to quit smoking without gaining weight “adds to Sen. Obama’s somewhat superhuman persona.”
Superhuman? Why, he probably thinks he’s the Messiah. Yeah, that’s what they say about him on Fox News.
Well, of course they do. Fox News and The Wall Street Journal are owned by the same outfit — Rupert Murdoch’s Right-Wing Noise Machine.
10. Menlo Bob | August 1st, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Obama would see his weight go up if he stopped smoking.
11. Pat Cunningham | August 1st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Bob: According to the article, there’s no “if” about Obama quitting smoking, and it’s not unheard of for people to quit without gaining weight. But Amy Chozick thinks it’s “superhuman,” or at least that’s the attitude she discerns from one of the people she interviewed.
12. Orlando Clay | August 1st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
“Thank you Amy for this insightful article, I bet your journalism professors are very proud.”
I doubt that her journalism professors are beaming with pride, LD. But I’m sure it pleases Master Rupert and she gets to keep her job for at least another week. Can you imagine the crap thats going to come out of Fox and WSJ the week before the election? We’re going to see the GOP in full desperation mode!
13. Craig Knauss | August 2nd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I wonder if this Amy Chozick person weighs about 400 lbs. If not, wouldn’t she be “elitist” as well? Maybe she should be given the William Howard Taft bathtub test. It all sounds damn pathetic to me.
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