I don’t know whether Michele Bachmann is physically fit enough to be president or not. As others have said here, she has other problems that concern me more.
But her aside, running for and holding public office takes an awesome amount of physical vitality. I’ve always sort of marveled at it. And I’m not talking just about the pace of a president, with the astounding schedules they keep (which is why they age so much in office). It’s true right down to county council.
Yeah, you can see out-of-shape slackers in public office, especially in some of the less visible offices. But I don’t notice them as much as I do the people who just never seem to stop. Since I wouldn’t want to run for office without knowing I’d do it well, I’ve always found the idea of going to all those night meetings — governmental, neighborhood associations, etc. — sort of overwhelming. I like to work hard all day, but then I like to rest. The idea of having to put in an appearance at all those events can put you right off of political power.
You wouldn’t mistake Joe Wilson, for instance, for a triathlete — or consider him to be a legislative dynamo, either. But he is EVERYWHERE. And always filled with enthusiasm, just thrilled to be there. Ditto with lots of legislators, and others you don’t hear about as much.
Some of it is personality type; getting a charge from something that would fill others with boredom. But there’s something physical there as well.
This morning, I got a late start on my day because I turned on the TV at about 7:20 to check something I’d tried to record last night on a new DVR, and there was the House of Commons grilling David Cameron, live on CSPAN2, about the hacking scandal. A remarkable exhibition of energy. (Not up to Tony Blair standards, but pretty good.) It went on for hours after what I saw.
Actually, that’s one thing I think I could do, and not get tired during the event itself. I’ve always liked fielding multiple questions from a crowd on a topic with which I’m well familiar, even when the crowd is trying to trip me up. It causes the adrenaline to flow, and I can feel my brain getting into the zone. It’s actually pleasurable. I’m not crazy about conventional public speaking, but I love taking questions, to the point that it’s hard to shut me up on the answers.
But after that exhilarating experience, he has to sit in a debrief on the South Africa trip, or a meeting with a constituent group, or a state dinner, or all of the above, plus grinding stuff I can’t even imagine. That’s what I wouldn’t have the energy for.
You ever sit through a city council meeting that goes on and on for hours? I know some of you have. I certainly have, in spades. When I was young and full of energy, I had days when, on account of having a beat covering five counties, I would attend three or four such meetings in different towns, then stay up all night writing about them. It was an afternoon paper, so deadlines were in the morning. I’d get to work at 7 a.m. Monday morning, work through deadline, then start with the meetings and interviews, finishing them by 10 or 11 p.m. then write in my office all night, and file multiple stories Tuesday morning, finally slowing down around lunchtime on Tuesday. Then I’d go home for a nap and start again. Then I’d probably take off later in the week, say on Friday.
Spread that out a bit, with more regular sleep time, and make it 7 days a week, without any real vacations, and you have the schedule of a POTUS.
So yeah, you have to be in freaky-good health.
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