June 23, 2002




What the hey am I doing up at this hour??!


Reading Maureen Dowd: As I sit in my office, munching Pirate's Booty, sipping my caramel macchiato and watching a sweaty President Bush on TV extolling the glories of exercise and nutrition, I have four questions: Why is the most fitness-crazed president in the nation's history sometimes so short on stamina?

Why does someone who bench presses 185 pounds still have an aura that's more scrawny than brawny? ("The chair," one Republican moaned, "has a way of swallowing him up.") Why does the leader of the free world, a man with limitless opportunities for stimulation, seem to get really jazzed only when he can run his 6:45 miles? Does it ever occur to Mr. Bush and his aides to vacate the gym and nail down a Middle East policy?

On Thursday at the White House Fitness Expo, Mr. Bush said that exercise helped him with stress and mental agility, so he hoped it could do the same for his staff. Yet, the most striking thing about watching the president on his recent trip abroad was that he had so little stamina — especially compared with the hyperactive traveling style of his father.

After staying up with Vladimir Putin two nights until midnight, W. was exhausted and cranky in Paris. What is the point of going to bed nearly every night at 9:30 and working out maniacally if you get the wind knocked out of you so easily?

- - Snipped from her article in The NY Times .



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