Why do Fat People Vote Bush? Can Kerry Target Obese Voters?

I posted this in General Discussion, but it may actually be more relevant to this forum. I was looking at the CDC's discussion of the obesity epidemic in the United States (individuals with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight, while individuals with a BMI of 30 or more are considered obese). Overall about 1 in 5 people are obese. One thing that I noticed was that the regional map for obesity looked similar to the electoral map with states with high rates of obesity generally leaning toward Bush. Links to the polls and the CDC are listed below.

http://www.electionprojection.com/elections2004.html

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/index.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/prev_reg.htm

Of course, there are some exceptions, Colorado (Republican) has the lowest obesity rate at 14.4%, while Michigan (Democrat) has a high obesity rate of 24.4%. However, Bush does seem to have a definite advantage overall in states with high rates of obesity. Is there a way that Kerry and the Democrats can target the obese vote and obese states?

Would programs designed to combat obesity, such as physical education funding and nutritional education, offend residents in the Republican obese states?

Or, is it too controversial to confront the obesity epidemic? I can see any attempt to confront obesity being characterized as an elitist crusade against the large portion of the population, particularly since more than 60% of all Americans are either obese or overweight.

i am obese and i cannot vote for bush. his economic policy is out to get me and my family just like his military policy has been out to get saddam. i am a bush democrat(meaning a normal republican voter who is so pissed off that they will vote for any body but bush).xview

:hi:

:yourock:

No matter what your state of health may be, you have the absolute right to vote. Call your county Board of Elections or Democratic Party HQ and ask for someone to bring you -- or even mail -- an Absentee Ballot.

And don't accept any dumb-ass excuse why they can't do it.

Good luck!

--bkl
BMI 40.6

perhaps some factor other than BMI is play?

I am not discussing causation, just correlation. If you contend that there is no correlation, then we disagree, since the cdc and polling data seems pretty clear to me. However, I do agree that there is no causation, i.e., obesity does not cause people to vote Bush.

In Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, she discusses the causation between poverty and obesity. Her thesis appears to be that the working poor don't have the time or the resources to prepare healthy food. On the other hand, Fat Land by Greg Crister appears to describe obesity as the result of marketing efforts by America's food industry.

Although this shouldn't be a classic liberal/conservative issue, I just found it odd that the cdc obesity map is similar to the electoral map. Is there correlation, and can or should a campaign market towards that's correlation?

although the properties of obesity and support for Bush may occupy similar geographic areas, since the level of support for Bush is not approached by the frequency of obesity, even a correlation is denied unless you want to also claim that the mere presence of an above-normal number of obese people somehow influences the remainder of the population to vote for Bush.

Nah.

A coincidence I think.

You write: "unless you want to also claim that the mere presence of an above-normal number of obese people somehow influences the remainder of the population to vote for Bush." This is causation, which is defined as "the act of causing something to happen." Correlation does not imply causation, and I don't think that obesity causes people to vote for Bush or that voting for Bush makes one obese.

However, is there a third variable that influences both political affilation and incidence of obesity? This is the question I pose.

education levels and obesity, and with the exception of the very wealthy, there exists a similar link between education levels and politcal affiliation.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040531/dem001_1.html

"This new data also illustrates that individuals with lower levels of education have higher rates of tobacco use and obesity. Specifically, data show that people with high school general equivalency diplomas, or GEDs, are nearly four times more likely to use tobacco and much more likely to be obese than people with a college degree"

This is one possible explaination.

like Jewish people and African Americans, obese people don't necessarily all vote the same way. :-)

For instance, if a candidate started advocating an aggresive new initiative of physical education at public schools, I think that Colorado (with the lowest rate of obesity in the Union) would care less, while Mississippi (with the highest) might take the program a little more seriously.

Unlike race or religion, the cdc has characterized obesity as an epidemic that needs to be addressed. I would think that voters who are affected by such efforts might consider these efforts in who they decide to vote for.

... it's that fatheads vote for Bush.

:headbang:

Throw in miltary installations...

so might be overweight

and might live in areas where people work 2 + jobs to support family and don't have much time or money to follow alternate news sources

and might go to conservative churches that have them only consider abortion and homosexual marriage ------- ie vote against their social, educational, financial best interests

sort of an endless circle

:eyes:
I am not sure I have read as offensive a thread in a while.

My point is that there is a recent epidemic of obesity, which according to the cdc and several books, which I refer to in other posts, is causing significant problems to those afflicted. I never blamed Bush. Once again, there is correlation, not causation. Voting for Bush does not make you fat, and being fat does not make you vote for Bush, as I said in this thread once already.

However, with one in five people being obese, shouldn't this be an issue? More people are suffering from obesity than benefitting from Bush's tax cuts. While McDonald's and other food industry corporations may hope that public ignores the problem because some people deem it "offensive," I would disagree.

By deeming the topic "offensive" are you disagreeing with the CDC's numbers?

...

1. Yes, some do seem to be a little heavy
2. Many seem to have a fuller head of hair
3. The female Repiglicans seem to have masculine charactistics.
4. They wear suits - remember rush limpbag's audience when he used
to have a look at that show? It's funny actually.
5. They seem to speak with a southern accent, not matter where they are.
I've heard northern Wisconsin residents fall into this pattern- deliberately
I think.



I'm sure there are more. I'd like to see a composite pic of a repiglican. Anybody out there that can do this? Maybe combine rOVER, bu$h, asscrack, rummy, scalia, rehnquist, cheney, frist, hastert, delay, z. miller (He's a repiglican, for sure), LIEberman, raygun, limpbag, hannity, o-LIEly, etc.

Probably looks something like that beelzebub guy...

This is an inflammatory thread that insults an entire group of people.