EXCERPT:
JANSING: “Is the president fit? And I want to read part of it. ‘In the modern history of American presidents, no occupant of the Oval Office has evinced less interest in his own health. He does not smoke or drink, but his fast-food, red meat-heavy diet, his aversion to exercise and a tendency to gorge on television for hours at a time put him at odds with his predecessors.’ I mean, is this ultimately in keeping with the personality that is about a lack of discipline, Ben?”
STRAUSS: “Yeah, you’re absolutely right. You can do go through the history of presidents and go back to Teddy Roosevelt, the Bull Moose, who used to take walks through Rock Creek Park, you know, all the way through Franklin Roosevelt, who, you know, did serious upper body work even though he was in a wheelchair. And Eisenhower and Kennedy — this has been a really important thing for presidents.”
JANSING: “Obama was fanatical about his workouts.”
STRAUSS: “He was fanatical and George Bush before him —“
JANSING: “Yeah.”
STRAUSS: “— ran seven-minute miles. And so, not only is this important for their own health but this has been an important sort of optical way to see the president, the most important political body in the world, and to treat it well and to evince this sense of — of self and you know, a well-put-together person leading the free world.”