Slate' asks: Would it help if Mitt Romney were fat?

An article in Slate by fashion commentator Simon Doonan seriously entertains the notion that if Mitt Romney were fat, he'd be doing better in the polls:

Back in the day, heft was associated with gravitas and power, leadership, and trust. Fat blokes, by their very physiques, projected monumental indestructability [sic]. ...

Would Mitt Romney’s ratings improve if he packed on a few pounds ... ? Might a little girth give him a dash of much-needed gravitas and halt his downward spiral? It might be worth a shot. His current retro-wholesome matinee idol shtick—I associate him with Rock Hudson’s wooden character in that strangely artificial Douglas Sirk movie The Magnificent Obsession—could use the realness of a beer belly.

[Slate]