That's me just finishing my first triathlon last year
I'm fat.
Like 350 pounds fat.
I used to weigh 600 pounds.
I've been backsliding a bit, and I'm guilty as all hell about it.
I'm also a triathlete. I'm slow as hell (yeah, I usually finish last) but my fat ass is off the couch and passing everyone else up who isn't.
For the longest time, I had to listen to people tell me what I should and should not do about my weight. Friends, family, strangers. Oh yes, they meant well, but it WOULD. NOT. STOP.
Hello, assholes, you think I don't know I'm fat? You think I don't know what I need to do?
Morons.
So yes, I would lash out irrationally in anger. Even at the ones I loved most.
Which brings us to Chris Christie.
He has every right to be angry at this doctor person.
But I'm not going to defend him.
In fact, I'm going so far as to tell him, one fat guy to another, to STFU.
I'm not going to defend him because first and foremost, Chris Christie is a POLITICIAN. Chris Christie knows damn well he's fat. He knows DAMN WELL what he needs to do, and what he needs to work on. And I'm sure that first as a US attorney, then as a Governor, he has all the benefits of sweet sweet government health care.
I'm not defending Christ Christie because as a politician he knows how to use his weight to his best advantage. First he gives an interview with Oprah, no less, where he talks candidly about what it's really like to struggle with weight issues. And yes, that interview has honesty and candor. He said true things. He talks about the struggle that losing weight really is.
Then he invites reactions:
Then he makes jokes:
And then, he goes for the political kill, so to speak:
Seriously? Can you get any more flip floppy? What, are you trying to be Mitt Romneybot 3.5?
Christie reminds me of the Penguin from Batman Returns:
"I've played this stinking city like a harp from Hell"
Weight loss is NOT repeat NOT a political tool. It is a serious struggle millions of us go through every day. We have victories and defeats and it is NEVER easy. You want to take the lash out irrationally part, fine. You want to take the sensitive part, fine. You want to take the class clown part, fine. But DO. NOT. PLAY. US. FOR. POLITICAL. GAIN.
You have to win elections on your own merit. But then you're a Republican. That's not in your nature, is it?
11:42 AM PT: And a quick shout out to Melanie in IA from the comments. This says it all and should be OUR watchword here at Daily Kos:
Everybody should shut up already about Christie's weight, and Michelle Obama's figure, and Hillary Clinton's hair, and Boehner's "tan." SHUT UP already about how people look! There's plenty to say about these people that has NOTHING to do with how they look.