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Come November, hot peppers, one-on-one basketball and sweating on the stump might play as great a role in determining who gets to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as such hot-button campaign issues as Iraq and the economy.
For in the political marathon that is running for president – a marathon that can involve 20-hour days of shaking countless, germy hands and sampling exotic local cuisines, day after day, week after week for upward of a year and a half – the outcome could rest on who still has gas in his or her tank come Nov. 4.
Seeking the highest office in the land ages the body, no doubt, but the candidates and their handlers know it’s no good to let the stress show. Look overly tired and someone might accuse them of being human.
Just consider the typical day of presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, the 71-year-old from Arizona. Press aide Crystal Benton says McCain gets up between 6 and 7 a.m., eats a quick breakfast and gets his media interviews out of the way. Then he heads out for a string of campaign appearances and meetings interspersed with phone calls and, finally, a town-hall meeting in the evening.
His scheduled day usually wraps up by 8:30 p.m., after which he meets with advisers and makes more phone calls (campaigns cost money, you know). Benton says it’s not unusual for her boss to put in 16- to 20-hour days.
“I’m 26, and I have been exhausted trying to keep up with him,” Benton says. “It’s definitely rigorous.”
So how do they do it? How do these candidates manage to keep a pace that would plant most of us on the couch by noon?
The candidates tend to be tight-lipped about their nutritional and fitness regimens. Richard Nixon didn’t get a bump in the polls when he admitted his love for cottage cheese with ketchup. Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama didn’t prove any physical prowess with his bowling escapade.
“Those are details that are very intimately personal,” says Carly Lindauer, the North Carolina spokeswoman for Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
But it’s hard to keep many secrets when you’re constantly in public view.
Obama is obviously more at home on the basketball court than in the bowling alley. He stays fit by getting in a game of pickup ball whenever possible.
Obama, 46, is the only overt fitness fanatic among the remaining presidential candidates. In addition to hoops, the senator also tries to get a 45-minute workout in during the day – in the hotel workout room or in a local gym.
Clinton is a dedicated speed walker. That might sound nerdy – especially if it conjures images of Olympic speed walking – but, according to the National Sporting Goods Association, nearly 90 million Americans are exercise walkers, making it the most popular form of exercise in the country.
Injuries McCain suffered when his plane crashed and he was taken prisoner during the Vietnam War – he broke both arms and a leg and was not properly treated at first, leaving him with no cartilage in his knees and unable to lift his arms above his shoulders – make it difficult for him to do a traditional workout. Instead, he relies on the rigors of constantly being on the go to stay in shape.
It’s a strategy that makes sense to Laura Buxenbaum, a Greensboro, N.C., registered dietitian with the Southeast Dairy Association. She has studied the health effects of campaigning.
“They may not actually be going to a gym,” she says, “but they’re probably fairly active and they’re always moving. When I see them on TV, they look healthy to me.”
Eating right on the campaign trail is a bit trickier. First, there’s all that goodwill noshing, gladly consuming the regional cuisine du jour, be it deep-fried Twinkies at the state fair or a kielbasa brimming with oily peppers and onions.
How do the candidates weather this gustatory onslaught?
“Typically, you don’t see them eating the whole thing,” Buxenbaum says. “You never see them eat a whole meal with these people.”
Two words, she says: portion control.
The wise candidate, says Buxenbaum, tries to avoid the pitfall of most Americans – consuming empty calories.
Thus, she likes Clinton’s nutritional stimulus package.
“She packs a cooler with naturally nutrient-rich foods,” Buxenbaum says. Nuts, for instance, which are a good source of protein, and bananas, grapes and apples.
Clinton’s ultimate survival tactic, though, is those hot peppers, which have been credited with relieving bad headaches and arthritis.
“I eat a lot of hot peppers,” Clinton told “60 Minutes” last year. “I, for some reason, started doing that in 1992 and I swear by it.”
Some health issues can prove especially touchy. How do the candidates shake all those hands and hug all those constituents and still manage to avoid the plague? Or at least a cold?
Hand sanitizers. Benton, McCain’s aide, deftly handles the question.
“The senator doesn’t worry about that,” she says, then adds: “Most who travel with him do use hand sanitizers.”
