The scrawny senator from Illinois would love to pump more iron, but the pillow supersedes the dumbbells, he recently told Men’s Health.

“I wish I was getting a 90-mintue workout,” Barack Obama said. “There’s always a tradeoff between sleep and working out.”

When you’re describing a condition contrary to fact, like exercise that’s not happening, you’re using the subjunctive mood. That requires the verb were, rather than was. (Remember Tevye’s wistful anthem, “I wish I were a rich man.”)

If your sentence begins with the clause “I wish,” you’ve slipped into the subjunctive. (We lovingly offer that tip to Joe Biden as well.)

Next up, a Men’s Health interview with John McCain. The subject: how not to die.