Will we ever elect an obese President?

[pbrower2a]

I had to ask.  Obese Americans make up just over 25% percent of the population, much more than Hispanics or African Americans.  Overweight Americans including the obese are already at 64%.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060206185213/www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity_trends.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#Prevalence_by_state

Try 1908.

Taft was fat, but not obese.

After he left the Presidency a physician ordered him to lose weight or expect to not live much longer. Such indicates pathological obesity. He took the advice seriously.

Obesity was fashionable until about 1910 as a signal of success -- which meant that one was so rich that one never had to miss a meal. After the Progressive Era, in which the words "fat cats" was applied to rapacious Gilded-Age plutocrats, obesity lost its symbolic evidence of success. By the 1930s it became a marker for arrogant, selfish, inconsiderate people other than Santa Claus. Sidney Greenstreet, anyone?

Obesity has slipped socially, devolving to those who overeat as a salve for stresses of life.    

[pbrower2a]

Here's a map of the top 15 most obese states (over 27.7% of the population)

Yikes! Except for Michigan, those states usually vote Democratic in Presidential elections (and 2020 is unlikely to change that assessment). 

Donald Trump is obese.