Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
The battle against obesity makes for some strange bedfellows. The Daily Caller reports that in the food fight between Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama, possible presidential contender Mike Huckabee has taken Obama's side:
Speaking with New York radio host Curtis Sliwa, Gov. Mike Huckabee rejected Sarah Palin’s mocking of Michelle Obama’s childhood nutrition campaign.
Huckabee tells Sliwa that "Michelle Obama is not trying to tell people what to eat, or to force the government’s desires onto people...She’s stating the obvious: we have an obesity crisis in this country."
I'm all for healthy eating and living--and, as I understand it, Huckabee is too--but in fairness to Palin, Obama has done more than state the obvious.
On her show "Sarah Palin's Alaska," Palin has taken aim at Obama's Let's Move program and Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, saying, "Where are the s'mores ingredients...This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert."
Speaking on the Laura Ingraham show, Palin has also said:
Take her anti-obesity thing that she is on. She is on this kick, right. What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat...
Instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician's wife's priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.
Palin's argument, very simply, is to keep government out of our lives.
Huckabee, however, at least acknowledges that we have an obesity crisis and wants to do something about it. He says, "health care costs are staggering, with 80% of health care costs going toward chronic disease, a lot of which is caused by obesity. So the first lady's campaign is on target."
Who do you think makes the stronger case--Huckabee or Palin?
I don't see the harm in some sort of non-legislative, cultural campaign--get MTV and facebook on board--that promotes healthy eating and exercise. Perhaps that's what Huckabee should be very specifically promoting.
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Comments:
Aug '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Coming from Huckabee, this does not surprise me.
Whatever Huckabee might say, I see no reason to trust him to not legislate or regulate the issue if he gets the chance. He's just that kinda guy.
May '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
I want to like Huckabee. Really, I do. But then he's doing this kind of thing. He's like Bloomberg, who can't eat salt, so wants to outlaw salt in New York.
Yes, Huck, they are legislating what foods kids can eat. At least, they're giving themselves the power to dictate that, and if you think they won't use that power you can have two more guesses, then try to smoke in a New York bar.
No cupcakes for you, Butterbean.
Sep '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Huckabee never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Federal interference has worked wonders in education and I'm sure that 20 years of federal obesity legislation will give the nation a surplus of 900 lb balloon people laying prostrate in the fast food aisles in McDonald's.
May '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
I agree. Huckabee can't be trusted. It's none of their business what me or my kids eat.
So much for, "Let them eat cake."
Edited on December 22, 2010 at 4:19pmRe: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
I guess I have no problem with privately generated anti-obesity campaigns either, but I am not sanguine about their prospects. People kind of know that obesity isn't good for them, do they not? It's not as if it's some secret.
I'm not sure this isn't a manufactured conflict between Huckabee and Palin, but if this is some informal poll, I'll vote for Sarah.
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
But do you all agree that we are facing an obesity crisis in this country? If so, what can be done about it?
Sep '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Obesity is caused by a few social factors, some individual, some family.
(1) Breakdown of the family and out of wedlock births as well as excessive urban entertainments mean that family meals prepared from scratch are becoming rare.
(2) Increasingly sedentary population that goes everywhere by car.
(3) Diet far too high in starchy carbs that causes a massive sugar release and insulin dump which causes the body to accumulate fat. Once the fat passes a certain percentage of bodyweight it changes your body and enzyme chemistry making it tougher to take off.
(4) Bad food (food that is bad for our body chemistry) is highly addictive and is formulated that way (ask any food scientist who's worked for a major cereal company).
(5) People don't know how to cook tasty food that's good for you.
Aug '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
This nonsense is a good example of why I could never support; Huckabee. He's just another big government nanny state squish. He also has displayed a tendency to pardon convicted murderers who then go on to murder again. He's got bad judgment
It's my opinion that Huckabee cannot be trusted to uphold conservative values. He, David Brooks, and David Frum would probably get along just swell.
Edited on December 22, 2010 at 4:31pmNov '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
I am with Palin all the way.
This is the way real Americans eat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js1jfYZxCvs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7PKZaBCQYE&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKzNlADtck8&feature=channel
If I have to ride the handcart to hell, I am greasing the wheels with white lard and bacon fat. You betcha!
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Huckabee's record in Arkansas is not reassuring. Scratch the surface and what you find is what I call "a managerial progressive" -- someone on the whole favorable to the market economy who nonetheless believes that in every aspect of our lives government can be a force for good if only that government is in his hands. He can no more be trusted than Mitt Romney.
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Perhaps we should bombard every citizen with images of slender, attractive people having fun so better to reinforce the idea that it's good to be slender? Or saturate the media with diet and exercise advice?
Really, how much more pressure could the government put on people to lose weight than is already on them?
Aug '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Well, for one thing, have you looked at the list of food typically covered by, say, the WIC program? (I have -- someone recommended the program to me once when I was struggling.) All the sugary "fruit" juices and cereals you could want are WIC-eligible, but not, as far as I know, fresh produce... Also, as Mona Charen points out, food aid in this country is so generous as to be practically shoveling the stuff down the gullets of the oppressed masses.
Beyond the gargantuan government largess, I think the problem is cultural: loss of food rituals. Social rituals around food help us moderate both our animal appetites and our neuroses, reining in both self-starvation and self-inflation. When food culture is lost, is it any surprise that half the culture balloons while the other half goes anorexic?
Anyhow, we should still remember that our obesity crisis is a crisis that many nations would be glad to have. People want to come to America "because in America, even poor people are fat."
Nov '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Why does anything have to "be done about it"? That is the way liberals think. In a truly free society, people have the right to screw up, even if that means living on nothing but a diet of deep-fried Twinkies.
"Foamy the Squirrel" sums it up brilliantly:
(WARNING: Naughty Words and Generally Foul Language)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn-MlHlDhHs
Jul '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
So this weekend event thingy, we'll be serving deep fat fried twinkies and chocolate mousse?
PS: Dang! The Lady got there first on the twinkies. I'm off to console myself with a chocolate cream pie and some custard-filled donuts.
Fru-fru, anyone?
Edited on December 22, 2010 at 4:53pmMay '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
I'm not a big Huckabee fan but it strikes me as a canny move. It's one thing for Sarah Palin to pick on Michelle Obama, but she remains hugely popular and how churlish would it be for Huck to pick on the first lady. He could have done it better to be sure, but the guy used to be obese himself, so he has some conviction around the importance of the topic. This is a cultural side-show that conservative pundits should avoid other than to poke occasion fun.
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Perhaps we should bombard every citizen with images of slender, attractive people having fun so better to reinforce the idea that it's good to be slender? Or saturate the media with diet and exercise advice?
Really, how much more pressure could the government put on people to lose weight than is already on them? · Dec 22 at 7:40am
But we're talking about children. Are children reading those magazines and watching those diet/exercise shows? If a Republican like Huckabee wants to reach children with his "let's be healthy" message, he should use pop-culture and make being healthy seem cool.
May '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Lady Kurobara
Why does anything have to "be done about it"?
I think this sums it up perfectly. Even if I were to assume something has to "be done about it," I think the government is the last on the list of entities that should be the "doing." After all, the government is always the most efficient and successful "doer" of these types of things, isn't it?
If we don't have the right to be fat, what's next? Will we not have the right to be stressed about unemployment, our future in which Iwe've paid a handsome sum into a social security system in which we will almost surely get nothing out of? I would argue that those stresses may have an effect on those individuals that is at least comparable to obesity. What to we do about those items?
The general inclination is always to do something. The irony of situation is that probably the most effective solution to obesity is increased personal responsibility. Given the Left's stance on that item however, I'm not holding my breath that we may actually solve the obesity problem. It's always somebody else's fault.
May '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
That sells me every time. Thanks for introducing me to Foamy the Squirrel.
If the government wants to intervene then use a reward system (i.e. fast food operations that have healthy food options get a tax break). They use a positive system in Sweden to get people to recycle. As soon as my friend told me the government wants everyone to recycle I used words for what the government could do with my soda cans that Foamy the Squirrel would appreciate. Then I discovered it was a positive reward system and I recycled every piece of trash I had. If I'm told what to do I'll do the opposite...an attitude shared by most Americans.
May '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
I'm from the party of Hell, No, so don't try any of those "we all agree, right?" tricks. Honestly, a crisis?
Nov '10
Re: Huckabee Sides with Michelle Obama Over Sarah Palin
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed.
If a Republican like Huckabee wants to reach children with his "let's be healthy" message, he should use pop-culture and make being healthy seem cool.
Do you honestly believe that kids are going to tune into Mike "Exciting-as-a-cucumber-sandwich" Huckabee because he makes healthy eating "seem cool"?
You would have better luck with Zombie Captain Kangaroo.