# Our President Looks.....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 20, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727 "2003-03-20T04:16:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/1 "2003-03-20T04:16:56Z")
… gaunt, doesn’t he? His face doesn’t show the life that it once did and one can see it has grown narrow and the worry lines are evident.
This is as it should be, of course. Right or wrong, he has made a decision and he shows the burden of having made that decision. I wouldn’t give you 5 cents for a President that would smile or offer false bravado in a time like this.
Just an observation from a German-American citizen who loves the USA and is grateful for the opportunities he’s been given here.
I am in a very unique position in that I also love my home country and I am not in agreement with their stance in this conflict. Are there any other German-Americans on SDMB who have these mixed emotions?
Thanks and may our young people come safely home soon!
Quasimodem
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### Author:  [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/2 "2003-03-20T04:30:02Z")
This is not an insult: He has always looked like a faintly worried/puzzled monkey to me. I don’t know why.
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/3 "2003-03-20T04:33:09Z")
To be honest, **E-Sabbath** , I always feel like the press often uses a picture of him while talking or something, which doesn’t make him look all that great. I wonder if it’s a subtle bias.
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### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/4 "2003-03-20T04:33:11Z")
I’m not German-American **Quasi** , but I feel your angst. Yep, I think Dub’s taking this seriously, as he should. And it _does_ show. Not happy times.
It’s going now; let’s hope we bob up right.
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### Author:  [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/5 "2003-03-20T04:55:19Z")
It’s not just that, asterion, I was watching his speech about 48 hours, and that was all I could think of. It wasn’t what I _wanted_ to think of, it was just all I could think of.
He doesn’t look good. That comment I made a while ago about being President is a worse job than cleaning up vomit encrusted bathrooms wasn’t entirely a joke.
The entire world is second guessing you. That’s just bad.
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### Author:  [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/6 "2003-03-20T05:00:30Z")
Not many are cut out to continuously look good while performing the job tasks of “Leader of the Free World.” Check before and after pictures of any twentieth century US president who survived the ordeal. Not pretty.
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### Author:  [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/7 "2003-03-20T05:01:35Z")
Doesn’t look _healthy_.
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### Author:  [@IDemandBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IDemandBeer)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/8 "2003-03-20T05:55:33Z")
They should hire me to be President. I’d be the mack-daddy pimp-o-da-free-world. Replete with velvet fedora and aquarium-heels. 😉
Nah, in all seriousness…I dunno how I’d deal with the stress. My comparitavely laid-back job now leaves me with knots in my neck and shoulders, and I drink heavily. 'Course, I drink heavily anyway, but I digress. Lord knows what’d happen if I was “Leader of The Free World.” Prolly have a stroke or some shit.
He’s a bigger man than I, in certain areas. Given some of the things he says, that pains me to say; the man has a gift for mauling the gift of speech, regardless of his point. However, he’s my President and, whether I completely agree with the motives or not, I will support ‘im. Poor bugger. I sometimes feel as if he’s tryin’ ta fill Daddy’s shoes. Yet again, I digress. He’s steppin’ up and doin’ something that _I_, nor the bulk of the popuation, would consider doing - running the damned country. Badly? Perhaps…but that’s what the Vote is for. We DO remember that we put him in office, yes?
Healthy? Probably not. The pressure has to be extreme beyond words at this point. I feel for 'im. Hell, I feel for all of “Da Coalition” - the political pressures alone have to be weighty beyond comprehension.
Certainly not a set of shoes I’d want to be in.
(PRE-POST-EDIT) Ummmm…yeah, it seems I rambled quite a bit off of topic there. Sorry about that. To sum up - Yah, I agree, he didn’t look well. So there. 🙂 My apologies for the wanton divergence off of topic there.
–IDB
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### Author:  [@Lure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lure)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/9 "2003-03-20T07:14:00Z")
At least I’m not the only one.Tho I never paid much attention to how he looked the few glimpses I got of him he seemed more confident in his bearing.Most of these shots I’d see when he’s getting off a plane at whatever speechstop he was going to.
Ever since this whole Iraq thing stated in earnest,about 6 mos.ago,he sees to be progressively more beadyeyed,and tight faced.Like he’s delivering lines he’s straining to make sound sincere/believable.Like a kid earnestly pleading his case to an elder,but either not finding,or uncomfortable with,the right words.
Maybe it’s me but he seems soo desperate for approval.From who,I can’t figure out.But he sure has a weird look to my eyes,something I’m not used to seeing in a politicians delivery (they are the past masters of delivering bullshit wth a straight face.)
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### Author:  [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/10 "2003-03-20T07:30:39Z")
Mr Blair looks like crap these days too.
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### Author:  [@AveDementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AveDementia)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/11 "2003-03-20T07:31:57Z")
I’ve noticed the decline of each president in office ever since I can remember.
Starting off they tend to look fresh, and enthusiastic.
Then the hair begins to change- starts looking more coiffed and tended- and less natural.
Then the posture stiffens- they look less relaxed, and more formal.
Then the face gets lined- skin becomes somewhat gaunt- and there’s a stressfulness about the expression, especially the eyes, that just seems to magnify as time goes by.
By the end of term in office, they each have a kind of “sick and tired” look about them, as well as looking like they’ve rapidly aged.
Four years as president seems to count for twelve. And eight years seem to count for twenty.
YMMV, of course.
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### Author:  [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/12 "2003-03-20T09:15:02Z")
I watched George W on television giving his final ultimatum and he looked totally perplexed. Maybe it’s the way he scrunches his eyebrows and purses his lips, but he did look puzzled indeed.
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### Author:  [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/13 "2003-03-20T12:11:48Z")
if you think bush has aged you should see blair these days. you’d be amazed at the change in the man.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/14 "2003-03-20T12:37:10Z")
I’ve always seen this happen to presidents. They go in with dark hair and bright eyes, and within two years they are gray-haired and buggy eyed. I think it goes with the job.
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### Author:  [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/15 "2003-03-20T13:03:17Z")
I think Clinton was one of the most extreme differences I can find in photos. He went in and as I recall he was noted that lots of the ladies of the nation thought he was very attractive, with some grey hair on his head, and by the time he left 8 years later his hair was full grey and he had aged 20 years physically.
The job comes with extreme weight, can you imagine being put at the head of a country, any country for that matter. The USA is high profile, we can’t blend into the countries around us, like Central America or some of Asia, we’re the one everyone watches and looks at. It comes with the territory, being considered THE superpower, one of the top countries militarily, being the top country economically and being the one everyone either loves or hates is a lot of stress for the person who runs it.
There is no indifference towards the USA, it’s either love or hate I think, which means the President is leading a country with few associates, only friends or enemies.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not calling France or any of the countries who did not join us going to Iraq enemies, I still consider them friends, but imagine what Bush went through trying to get it all passed and get the world to see the threat he and his cabinet saw. The frustration when you’re at the head of X billion people and you’re watching out for them when it seems like most of the world doesn’t see the same threat.
He’s indeed showing stress and weariness. I would not be surprised to see him go to Camp David or something to relax and escape the public for a while as we continue to assault Iraq.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/16 "2003-03-20T13:15:33Z")
GWB’s presidency has certainly aged me. I walk around with an unnaturally stooped posture and a lot of tension in my shoulders and back. My face, like his, looks worried, puzzled, and down most of the time. Every time I see him on TV I get worse.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/17 "2003-03-20T13:25:48Z")
My bro claims (facetiously) that all world leaders get supplied with a pharmaceutical cornucopia of primo stimulants at times of crisis, to allow them to skip sleep, etc.
Looking at Bush and Blair over the last two weeks, I’m starting to think there might be a grain of truth to this…
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/18 "2003-03-20T22:37:23Z")
Ford didn’t change quite as much, but you’re right, all the others I can think of got old and worn-out in a hurry. LBJ looked like a walking corpse towards the end; Nixon and Carter hunched and shrunken and bitterfaced. Reagan tired and old old old. Clinton – whoo boy, inverse fountain of youth effect, practically Dorian Gray portrait material.
'course many of them have given _us_ some grey hairs too…
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### Author:  [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/19 "2003-03-21T03:57:11Z")
Randomly, I got this link.
[http://www.webdesignlab.co.uk/niksthings/masking.html](http://www.webdesignlab.co.uk/niksthings/masking.html)
Apparently, I’m not the first person this has occured to. I think it’s the eyes and ears.
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-president-looks/162727/20 "2003-03-21T06:22:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jjimm \*
> \*\*My bro claims (facetiously) that all world leaders get supplied with a pharmaceutical cornucopia of primo stimulants at times of crisis, to allow them to skip sleep, etc.
> \*\*
JFK apparently had a hell of a pharmacy at his disposal, according to an [article](http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/12/dallek.htm) I read recently.
> [@](#):
>
> Kennedy was taking an extraordinary variety of medications: steroids for his Addison’s disease; painkillers for his back; anti-spasmodics for his colitis; antibiotics for urinary-tract infections; antihistamines for allergies; and, on at least one occasion, an anti-psychotic (though only for two days) for a severe mood change that Jackie Kennedy believed had been brought on by the antihistamines.
>
> \
>
> He also received injections of procaine at “trigger points” to relieve back pain; anti-spasmodics—principally Lomotil and trasentine—to control the colitis; testosterone to keep up his weight (which fell with each bout of colitis and diarrhea); and Nembutal to help him sleep.
>
> \
>
> Jacobson, whom patients called “Dr. Feelgood,” administered amphetamines and back injections of painkillers that JFK believed made him less dependent on crutches.
>
> \
>
> His physicians administered large doses of so many drugs that Travell kept a “Medicine Administration Record,” cataloguing injected and ingested corticosteroids for his adrenal insufficiency; procaine shots and ultrasound treatments and hot packs for his back; Lomotil, Metamucil, paregoric, phenobarbital, testosterone, and trasentine to control his diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, and weight loss; penicillin and other antibiotics for his urinary-tract infections and an abscess; and Tuinal to help him sleep.