For the Men It's Not The Clothes, It's The Belly Fat

In responding to my last post, my friend Susan(thanks feefs!) pointed me towards a Huffington Post article that essentially predicts 'Belly Watch 2008' promoting watching Al Gore's belly for signs of shrinkage, the idea being that as his waistline contracts, the probability of his entering the narrowing field of presidential hopefuls grows.

Can a fat man not get elected? I mean, male public figures are not always svelte i.e men like John Goodman, John Travolta and even Denzel Washington when promoting American Gangster, etc. One thing that is great about this is that the men's bodies are popular subjects, while the women seem to finally be off the hook, at least a little bit. The articles says:

This focus on appearance is, of course, nothing new. Ever since JFK took the country by storm, with Jackie and her glamorous Oleg Cassini wardrobe by his side, personal style has been an important component of a candidate's appeal. But the celebritization of politics has reached new heights. With Election Day 2008 a little less than a year away, we've already had breathless stories about Obama in a bathing suit and endless mentions of first female speaker Nancy Pelosi's Armani-filled wardrobe and love of Tahitian pearls. And Mitt Romney has been the object of a veritable media man crush, with Chris Matthews gushing about "the perfect chin, the perfect hair" and Politico's Roger Simon swooning over Romney's "chiseled-out-of-granite features" and "shoulders you could land a 737 on." Who says metrosexuality is only for liberals?

Read the whole thing.