Is being fat a bar to the highest political office? Skinny liberals beware: many Americans equate being thin with elitism. Undoubtedly, some of this exaggerated concern over weight is supremely modern, and owes its importance to the visual media, especially television, and changing social mores, as well as our improved knowledge of the health risks associated with obesity. But other nations, and many members of the American voting public, especially ethnic voters, perhaps, don’t appear to buy into the US beauty myth, at least not when it comes to politics.