Sports Sharpen the Presidential Image

I once saw a film of John Kennedy's golf swing. You can rest assured he was no athlete.

Those who have excelled in sports in high school or college -- especially Division 1 athletes -- are nearly always successful in later life. In the job market, employers know that someone who is an accomplished student athlete is more likely to be a team player with focus, discipline, and good time management skills. That's true of both men and women, so it's not surprising that presidential candidates want voters to know (or think) they have all of those positive qualities.

Don't forget Obama with basketball, Rubio with football, and Trump's doctor writing that absurd letter.

So Truman bowled in a suit? Looks uncomfortable. But interesting to note that he was left-handed...

Dwight Eisenhower probably was the most athletic of the Presidents. At West Point he played football. And, if memory serves,some historians contend that he played minor league baseball before entering West Point.

How about governor of Minnesota?

Teddy Roosevelt may have been athletic, but he absolutely refused to allow any photos of himself playing tennis to be published. Tennis was too "effeminate." And as for John Kerry's windsurfing, the problem was not that it symbolized his shifting positions but that it symbolized the gap between his interests and the interests of ordinary Americans, who supposedly have little use for such unmanly sports. (Parenthetically, it continues to amaze me how much golf is played by American presidents - not just Eisenhower.)

I'd rather one who plays chess and walks in the woods.

And look at the example of:

Dixon High School Drum Major, Eureka College guy cheerleader, Ronald Reagan.
Andover Prep guy cheerleader, George W. Bush.
Cranbrook Prep guy cheerleader, Willard Mitty Romney.
Texas A&M guy cheerleader Oops Perry.
Ole Miss guy cheerleader Trent Lott.

It can only be coincidence that all five dodged WW II and the Viet Nam draft.
Manly men, doing manly things.
The republican version.

And what does this prove? That Americans worship sports heroes more than they care about substance?

This isn't surprising considering that a professional wrestler came in second in Iowa.