The growing controversy over New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s weight hit a new high this week when Christie told a doctor to “shut up” over her criticism of his weight.
Reverend Al Sharpton knows a thing or two about weight loss as well, having lost more than half of his all-time-heaviest body weight. On Thursday’s PoliticsNation he expressed his dismay over the cultural acceptance of obesity he’s experienced. “When I was over 300 pounds, people we’re slapping me on the back ‘Hey, Rev Al,’” he says, “When I lost weight, people send me tweets ‘Are you all right?’ I’m healthy now, they should have been asking that when I was obese.”
Sirius XM radio host Joe Madison shared his similar experiences, having lost a comparable amount of weight to Sharpton. He pointed to his doctor’s own advice as evidence that Christie will need to address his weight, should he choose to run for president.
“Stress and overweight do not go together, and there’s no one that understand the presidency of the United States that can say you’re not going to be under stress,” Madison said. He insisted that the doctor, who was interviewed for a TV segment, did Christie and his family a favor.
But Dana Milbank of the Washington Post says Christie’s weight won’t crush his political ambitions–since the governor has handled the issue “brilliantly” so far, he’s practically turned it into an asset.
“The real problem Chris Christie is going to have is not the size of his belly, but the policies in his brain,” Millbank said.
Morgan Whitaker