As one who tries to keep up with events, but still seeks perspective, I feel tugged between extremes. An overdose of current affairs leads to despair because the fog of news hides the sunshine of hope. Living in the clouds, however, detached from what is actually happening, is a path to obsolescence. So, I too frequently drift from the tyranny of “things are awful” toward the bliss of “things will be fine.” Well, a news story just out forces me, at least momentarily, toward Dante’s “All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here.”

According to Eliana Johnson at National Review Online, Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana and possible Republican hopeful for the land’s highest office, has made a conscious effort to gain at least 13 pounds for his run. The precise nature of the number (I guess decimals were not available) is somewhat comical, but Jindal, who is spare of frame, either wants to be healthier for the campaign, or he wants to look less like a He-Man villain. We also find that Chris Christie is losing weight, as are Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush.

While comment seems unnecessary, we should always consider the extent to which such factors have zero, zilch, nada to do with the president’s ability to be, well, a good president. President Obama has a magnificent speaking voice and he looks to be the epitome of cool. There is no doubt these qualities propelled him, to a degree, into the presidency, but even he would admit those things are not sufficient for executive success. In fact, one might argue that for the last several presidential elections, the most conventionally attractive man won the contest–not that I have a firm handle on the matter, mind you.

How would Abraham Lincoln do in today’s political climate? Would Jefferson survive his lisp? Would George Washington’s taciturn demeanor move the focus group needle? I can just hear a housewife in Omaha commenting about our most foundingest of fathers, “well, he seems a bit of a cold fish to me.” And, of course, we will not even get into the difficulties that might be had for poor William Howard Taft.

Such is life in the land of politics. Time to read a novel.