Jonathan Chait has written a snotty little piece for the LA Times. Proving there isn't anything the press can't find fault with when it comes to George W. Bush, Chait lowers the boom on The President for being too fit.

When asked by the president of the United States how often he exercised, Wilkinson impressively responded that he runs 3 1/2 miles a day. Bush urged him to adopt more cross-training. "He warned me of impending doom," Wilkinson told the New York Times.

Am I the only person who finds this disturbing? I don't mean the fact that Bush would vet his selection for the highest court in the land in part on something utterly trivial. That's expected. What I mean is the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy.

Chait manages to turn what was probably casual small talk into part of the vetting process, then goes on to sneer about Bush's focus on something "utterly trivial" being "expected." What a sorry premise for a column. But Chait is content to run with it.

Bush can bench press 185 pounds five times, and, before a recent knee injury, he ran three miles at a 6-minute, 45-second pace. That's better than I could manage when I played two sports in high school. And I wasn't holding the most powerful office on Earth. Which is sort of my point: Does the leader of the free world need to attain that level of physical achievement?

Chait must be pining for those delightful shots of an overweight Bill Clinton jogging down to the local McDonald's or riding in a golf cart with Vernon Jordan (I have neither the time nor inclination to look for links to those images). Moreover if Chait couldn't manage a 6:45 mile in high school, his two sports must have been shot put and bowling. Not content to imply that Bush exercises to the exclusion of doing his job, Chait goes on to turn it into a character flaw. Not content to leave it as a character flaw, Chait then goes on to remind us that Dubya once had a drinking problem:

My guess is that Bush associates exercise with discipline, and associates a lack of discipline with his younger, boozehound days.

Get the subtle twist? Going out and exercising every day isn't actually discipline; Bush just thinks it is. What follows is probably my favorite line of the piece.

"The president," said Fleischer, "finds [exercise] very healthy in terms of … keeping in shape. But it's also good for the mind." The notion of a connection between physical and mental potency is, of course, silly.

As a runner working in a business built around problem-solving, I can attest that running clears the mind and allows one to approach problems from new perspectives. So Chait's statement is, of course, silly. Much like the entirety of his column.