How Bill Put the Fizz in the Fight Against Fat

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Whatever the merits of the deal, the way it came about is one more step in the always unfolding narrative of the man whose presidency was as much about his personal weaknesses as his political deftness. For all the bonhomie with which Clinton bore the fat-man jokes thrown at him, it's hard to imagine they bounced off as easily as he made it seem they did. He was widely mocked for his oversize--and overwhite--thighs in the infamous jogging shorts, and there was no end to the snarky media remarks about his ballooning girth on the campaign trail. The heart blockages that probably would have cost him his life without his 2004 bypass surgery were a long-in-coming slap in the face, waking him up to his problem and to the way he could parlay it into some public good. If it took an old red hunter like Richard Nixon to go to China, perhaps it would take an old chowhound like Clinton to go to war against junk foods.

Last September, Clinton and adviser Ira Magaziner--one of the architects of the ill-fated 1994 health-care-reform plan--began approaching food and beverage companies about voluntarily controlling what they sell to kids. Of all the unhealthy foods students consume, sugary beverages were the obvious place to start. First of all, kids drink tons of the stuff. The average 11-to-14-year-old consumes almost twice as much soda as water; 15-to-19-year-olds pour down an average of two 12-oz. servings of soda every day--in the process consuming 1.5 lbs. of sugar each week. The benefits of dialing back the sugary drinks would accrue not just to the kids but also to the beverage makers. Even before the Clinton announcement, 43 states had enacted or introduced legislation to improve school nutrition, raising the specter of a crazy quilt of local rules the companies would have to learn and meet. One uniform standard would be in everyone's interest.

Above all, the beverage firms were happier to have a newspaper photo op with Clinton rather than headlines about their fending off lawsuits. Michele Simon, director of the Center for Informed Food Choices, along with a team of other health groups and lawyers, had been in negotiations with the beverage companies for a similar health-conscious agreement as the threat of litigation loomed. When Clinton came calling, those talks broke off. "Apparently Coke and Pepsi were shopping for the best p.r. opportunity," she sniffs. "It looks much better to have President Clinton at your side than a bunch of lawyers." Exactly.

Magaziner pressed the argument for a common standard to the manufacturers and also stressed that cleaning up the vending machines would be easier now, if only because the drinkmakers had already introduced so many healthier options, like mineral water and low-sugar juices. The beverage companies at first pushed back against restrictions in the high schools: Magaziner says they argued that if these kids were almost old enough to fight in Iraq, why should they be denied their choice of soda? The companies ultimately relented, but with so many product lines and so many portion sizes, working out the details took time. Says Magaziner: "We negotiated drink by drink with them, literally." Most of the time it was Magaziner who did the jawboning. Only when things got stuck would he bring in Clinton to give the participants a presidential push.