Fit Factor: The body politic

Come November 4th, 2008, a new President will be elected into office in the United States. This much we know almost with certainty. What is not known, however, is who that person will be. While I would love to wax on about my political beliefs and who I think the next person will be to sit in the Oval Office, I have no interest in causing a war of words -- polemics aren't really our thing here on That's Fit. Things concerning the human body? Yeah, that's more our speed.

To that end, there are very specific physical traits that many of our past Presidents have possessed, some of which may serve as a predictor of who will win the race for the White House. Newsweek recently used this criteria to create a physical feature-by-feature breakdown of how John McCain and Barack Obama may fare come November.

Here's a summary of their findings...

HEIGHT: Four of the last nine elections have been won by the shorter candidate, giving the 5'7" McCain a fighting chance against the 6'3" Obama. However, in most of those cases the height disparity was not significant, whereas in this case McCain is giving up 6 inches to Obama. The last time anyone overcame such a blatant difference in height was in 1852. What's more, we haven't had a shorter-than-average President since the 5'6" Benjamin Harrison. Advantage: Obama

EYE COLOR: 38 of our 43 Presidents have all had blue, gray, or hazel eyes. Only Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon had brown eyes, and both had troubled Presidencies. This is likely because light eyes used to be far more common than they are today. But even as the incidence fell from 50 percent to 16 percent over the last century, the eyes of our Presidents have stayed 89 percent non-brown. Advantage: McCain

HANDEDNESS: Since 1974, 66 percent of our Presidents have been left-handed, including Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton -- compared with only 10 percent of the greater population. Somewhat amazingly, both McCain and Obama are also southpaws. Advantage: None

BALDNESS: The U.S. has only elected five bald presidents, and none of them were elected into office during the TV age (Gerald Ford wasn't elected). Advantage: Obama

MELANIN: Every U.S. President thus far has been white. Advantage: McCain

The Winner? None. A tie. So much for physical appearance helping us to predict who will be the victor on November 4th. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to rely on the results from the polling stations (you know... because they're always so accurate).