Proud Owner of the Wii Fit
In a speech to the American Medical Association in Chicago yesterday, he had the following dig:
The second step that we can all agree on is to invest more in preventive care so that we can avoid illness and disease in the first place. That starts with each of us taking more responsibility for our health and the health of our children. It means quitting smoking, going in for that mammogram or colon cancer screening. It means going for a run or hitting the gym, and raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside.
OH NOEZ, HE’S ATTACKING TEH GAMZ!
Or is he? Follow me into the jump, if you can drag your fat ass over there.
I’m a big Obama supporter. There, I said it. McCain-inites can now commence the flame attacks. The Obama family has a Wii at the White House, a refreshing change of pace from John McCain’s gramophone and newfangled black and white television (okay, last McCain attack, promise). Is this hypocritical of him? Is he truly coming after video gamers? Should we be running out to Walmart and buying up every video game system to go lock ourselves away in a fallout-style bunker, or start a new Montana militia that lives and dies by the slogan “You’ll take my controller from my cold dead hands” or some such?
I’m thinking no. During the election campaign, Obama ran on not so much an “anti-gaming” platform, per se, but more of a “put the controller down, tank ass, and play some kickball” campaign. In other speeches, he linked video gaming to poor academics, and now with this speech which he is tying in with health care reform in America (see also: America’s obesity epidemic). It’s not the first time, but I’m fairly certain it’s his first time since taking office.
Let’s face it, he’s not wrong. I couldn’t tell you how many Monday mornings I found myself mysteriously too “sick” to go to school after a 72 hour gaming orgy with my boys on a long weekend. And those gamefests would undoubtedly have loads of junk food, pizza, pop, etc associated with them. I was not exactly a healthy kid. Right there, I managed to fit into Obama’s stereotype of a lazy and poorly academically motivated child. Guilty.
Just like everything, it needs to be done in moderation. I don’t think we’ll ever have an American kid die at his keyboard from grinding out levels for six days straight without eating. I mean, come on. Americans are never ten feet from a snack. Hell, I remember my old Everquest days when you could type /pizza and bring up a browser to order a Pizza Hut pizza (which I thought was pretty whizzer at the time).
It comes down to Obama wanting to help us. Again, this is my pro-Obama leanings talking, but it makes sense. He wants Americans to be healthy and competitive with European and Asian countries. How wrong is that?
And again, all of this is just rhetoric right now. He can give as many speeches as he wants about how we need to get out and go running more, but until the government steps in and starts dictating how I can spend my free time, it’s really just hot air. As a gamer and someone who values his spare time greatly, let’s hope it stays that way.
I’m well aware I could use some exercise, but the last thing I need is my gaming console shutting itself off after two hours of non-stop gaming due to government regulation, and then not be able to turn back on until I plug in my Nike/Run numbers into my iTunes and show that I went on at least a three mile run.
What an interesting concept…terrifying, but interesting.
Popularity: 1% [?]
WHATEVER Obama can kiss my bootay. I hate him. I grew up gaming and was always very in shape and skinny…until I had kids.
He should tell people to stop having kids. That’s what makes you fat. Not gaming.
Oh Jax, hate is such a strong word. Why hate an intelligent man trying to fix the country? And having kids doesn’t make you fat, my wife is right back to her weight only 4 months after having the baby. A good balance of gaming and exercise is needed. It is true that many gamers are fat and they need to hit the gym more.
Ron Paul 2012!
He can’t win. Don’t jizz yourself.
He;s GOT A CHANCE!
Jax 2012!
free beer for everyone?
Free beer for all!
Called it way back in November on Episode 61…
He’s not attacking games, he’s attacking popular culture that makes kids stay indoors. Suppose if there was another activity that made kids stay indoors all day, he’d mention that. Gaming is alright, but 72 hour fests, now thats unhealthy. And btw games + politics = nonsense, so why bother in the first place
Games are a multi-billion dollar a year industry, don’t think politics is going to stay out of it.
Games + politics= nonsense?
How about Games+ popular US President trying to make all kinds of changes+ anti-”gaming” stance= maybe not so much nonsense
If Obama said that everyone should eat healthily, it wouldn’t mean “ban burgers” would it?
Nobody should be gaming in every spare minute, you’ve got to get exercise. That’s just common sense. Is it something for the President to say? Well, he’s in charge of all aspects of the nation’s health I guess…
As much as I dislike Obama You have to admit alot of people play way to much and other stuff I’m not getting into.
*cough* http://tinyurl.com/msezgg *cough*
yeah, but there is also another problem with that… not everyone lives on a ’safe’ enviroment. I rarely go out cause in the area I live is all drugs, drunken retards, poeple going way too fast on cars for the area, and guns…. so I’ll stick to the indoors thank you…
ya i dont like Bama very much. all he is doing here is trying to buy the votes of the parents and others who are upset over videogames. he’s doing the same thing with the supreme court judge nominee Sonia Sotomayor by getting the latino vote. he’s just like all politicans, buying votes. he doesn’t give a **** about us. i didnt vote for him ill tell you up front
Yeah, I was a devout Obama supporter during the campaign, but his recent policies and all the bailout noise is starting to grate on my nerves.
Granted, I doubt McCain would be doing any better at this point; I’m sure the bailouts would have been even larger with less oversight.
Yeah, the gamer comment is probably pandering to voters.
I am a conservative American, but I’m not going to let that make me ignorant and hateful to everything Obama does. I used to be fat ass, because all I did was play videogames. Then, I got exercise, and I lost a lot of weight. Obama is right, you can’t disagree with him without making yourself look ignorant. Just give up your pro-gaming ideals and republicanism for one second, and you will realize that he’s not telling people to stop gaming. He’s telling them to do something besides that.
i don’t think obama is knocking video games, it sounds like he means instead of going solely on video games give it a break and get some exercise, the people barrack is proberly directing this towards is the gamers who do non-stop gaming, like world of warcraft users who get over-obsessed with the game.
Everything is bad for you IF you do it too much and this counts for video games as well, some people need to calm down and not assume that every time somebody says “don’t play too much videogames” they really mean “VIDEOGAMES ARE SATANIC! STOP PLAYING THEM OR BURN IN HELL!”
During the NFL season I see commercials where pro-players tell kids to put down the controller, turn off the tv and get outside and play for at least 60 minutes. That must mean THE NFL HATES VIDEO GAMES AND PANDERING TO THE ANTI-VIDEO GAME CROWD!!!!
no it means that NFL players need at least 60 minutes to kidnap kids LOL!
Awesome.
I dislike the comment simply because it enforces (albeit unintentionally) many parents’ views that video games are devoid of any merit.
Why doesn’t TV get a mention? You’re more inactive watching television (both physically and mentally), and it’s far easier to snack on unhealthy food when you have both hands free and ad breaks to fill in.
To society at large, video games are like junk food and kids would be better off without them. I disagree.
OH and isn’t this the same guy that had his face plastered all over my Burnout Paradise billboards?? HYPOCRITE!
of corse he did fat @$$ lololololololololol