Some people think that Chris Christie is much too out of shape to effectively hold office...

[MADem]

91. Good? Bad? It was what it was.

It was a different era, with different sensibilities and different attitudes about what constituted fair play. The opposition likely figured it would make them look like shits to make an issue of it.

The paradigm back then was that public figures had a right to a zone of privacy around themselves.

Nowadays, in this paparazzi world, that zone is gone.

Very few people know, contemporaneously with FDR's Presidency, that he was confined to a wheelchair. Those who were aware of his story (later glossily done in that Sunrise At Campobello epic) believed that he had largely recovered and had some ability to move about on his own. The odd person who saw him in a chair thought "Oh, he's a bit tired, having a bad day," but it was believed by most that he could walk with braces and he did nothing to dispel the notion. The fact is, he could barely stand with braces. He would stand at the back of a train, hanging on to the arm of Eleanor or an aide, and wave to crowds, and he also did occasionally give "standing speeches" to perpetuate the myth that he could walk, and he did so up to his last term:

While campaigning for his fourth term in August 1944, FDR gave a speech at the Puget Sound Naval Base in Bremerton, Washington. For about the previous year, he had delivered speeches from the sitting position because of his polio-weakened legs. On this occasion FDR decided to speak standing up, to dispel rumors of failing health.
Unfortunately, in the year since he had last used his leg braces, FDR had lost considerable weight. As a result, his braces no longer fitted him and gave him little or no support at the podium. FDR compensated by using his arms for support, but this required a tremendous amount of arm effort. By the time the 35-minute speech ended, FDR was having severe substernal pain, radiating to both shoulders.

http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g32.htm

The press colluded with him, as they did with other public figures.