PRESIDENT-ELECT COVERAGE CAN JOG AN OLD MAN'S MEMORY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 4, 1993                   TAG: 9301010084
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Ben Beagle (staff)
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
PRESIDENT-ELECT COVERAGE CAN JOG AN OLD MAN'S MEMORY<
You have to wonder what CNN would have done if it had covered presidents-elect who didn't get up early in the morning and run.
President-elect Clinton is shown regularly running. One morning he was shown stretching his leg muscles, which wasn't all that pretty a sight.
Clinton does not, in my opinion, have a very convincing stride when he runs, but we want this man to be president of the United States, not a running back.
No, I'm not going to mention the time Jimmy Carter got faint while jogging or suggest that Gerald Ford played football without his helmet.
Let's get on with it here, though, if you don't mind.
I can see and hear the news director at CNN now.
"Listen, Charlie, we've got to get somebody over to Springfield to get Lincoln jogging."
"But, Arnold," the underling says. "He doesn't jog. He's still asleep, having all these perfectly terrible dreams about coffins and stuff like that."
"Yeah? Well get over there and get him sleeping. We gotta put something on the air."
So, the crew gets some shots of Lincoln, just out of bed and wearing a humble nightgown and carpet slippers, for use with an item about his transition team.
If that sort of thing had been possible, Lincoln's place in history might have been different. They don't build monuments to tall, ugly guys shown getting out of bed on television every morning.
I don't know what the network would have done with William Howard Taft, whose waistline was well, ah, um, let's say heroic.
There was a guy who would have touched off dangerous harmonic motions within his own tissue had he been a jogger. Lincoln probably had less trouble getting out of bed than Taft.
Teddy Roosevelt was the kind of president-elect the television people would have loved. He was always running up and down mountains and shooting animals.
But, for CNN, he would have been a problem. Teddy didn't shoot bears or storm San Juan Hill every morning. Besides, it would have been bad for his image to be shown shooting bears.
What worries me is that out there somewhere is a person who would make a great president who is watching all this jogging coverage.
When the time comes to accept the nomination, however, he or she refuses.
Later, the former nominee will explain the refusal to friends: "I look funny when I run, and I look dumb in shorts or sweats. Furthermore, I figure that a person ought to be able to stretch his or her leg muscles in private."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB