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As the 2012 Republican presidential field was assembling, veteran GOP political consultant Ed Rollins gathered the remnants of his crew together in hopes of reprising their 2008 campaign with the same candidate -- Mike Huckabee.

The former Arkansas governor-turned Fox News host was intrigued, but uncertain, and as he weighed his options at AJ Maxwell's, a New York City steakhouse, Rollins insisted on one prerequisite: "Mike, I've put all these things together for you, but you’ve got to do something for me -- you’ve got to lose 40 pounds.”

Rollins added, “Look, I’m a fat man, you’re a fat man, but I didn’t write a book about how I lost 100 pounds. . . . You’ve got to get back to running and back on the diet.”

Huckabee’s response was to order a large steak with carrot cake for dessert, and he did not run for president this time. Judging by their svelteness while commentating on Fox this past Saturday night, both Huckabee and Rollins have been dieting and visiting the gym. That’s good for their health, but the results of the South Carolina primary suggest that Rollins may have been giving his client the wrong advice.

The last time a fat man occupied the Oval Office was exactly 100 years ago, and it was not without its tribulations for the president in question. William Howard Taft’s obesity contributed to his sleep apnea, which resulted in him routinely falling asleep in public. His portliness also necessitated the construction of a larger, custom-made White House bathtub and fueled numerous jokes at the president’s expense. (“Taft is the most polite man in Washington,” went one. “He gave up his seat on a streetcar to three women.”)

But “Big Bill” Taft was a jolly fellow, who eschewed negative campaigning and generally didn’t even reply to his critics. Today’s presidential candidate of great girth, Newt Gingrich, is an angry politician running for national office on the politics of resentment. Can this work?

South Carolina’s Republican electorate is particularly conservative in a very conservative state, so perhaps it’s not a true test, but last Saturday, Gingrich clearly outdid three thinner men. Presidential primary elections are not purely popularity contests, and this is not high school, but in attracting more votes than Mitt Romney, Gingrich bested a candidate who is not only in better shape, but better-looking, more physically graceful, and younger.

Such a result is not unheard-of, but it defies the odds. Political consultants and presidential scholars will tell (not to mention psychologists, corporate headhunters, and Madison Avenue hucksters) that in social competition, physical qualities matter. Generally speaking, tall beats short, dark hair beats gray, agility beats klutzy, handsome beats homely. And trim definitely edges out pudgy, as any overweight kid ever called “fatso” on the playground can attest.

There’s even an old Jethro Tull song about it:

Don’t want to be a fat man,
People would think that I was just good fun.

Would rather be a thin man,
I am so glad to go on being one.
Too much to carry around with you,
No chance of finding a woman who . . .
Will love you in the morning and all the nighttime too.

Finding women is not exactly Newt Gingrich’s problem -- a brief comment on that in a moment -- but the question of the hour is how being overweight translates to seeking positions of leadership as an adult. As it happens, there is a wealth of social science on just this query.