Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee knows a thing or two about obesity. Huckabee, who lost more than 100 pounds after learning in 2003 that hew had diabetes, says fellow Republican Sarah Palin maybe doesn't get it when it comes to First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign against childhood obesity.
Huckabee, a once and possibly future presidential candidate, told New York radio host Curtis Sliwa that Obama is on to something important. "With all due respect to my colleague and friend Sarah Palin, I think she's misunderstood what Michelle Obama is trying to do," Huckabee said. "Michelle Obama's not trying to tell people what to eat or force government's desires on people. She's stating the obvious: that we have an obesity crisis in this country."
On a recent episode of her reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska," the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee joked that she was going to make s'mores for a family camping trip, "in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert." Obama has urged Americans to find alternatives to fattening desserts.
Huckabee said the obesity problem is real and has ramifications, even for national security: He noted that "25 percent of the people trying to get into the military today can't do so because they are grossly obese."
Huckabee, who has a Fox News talk show, is widely believed to be considering a 2012 presidential campaign. His friend Palin, the former governor of Alaska, has acknowledged that she too is thinking about a White House bid in two years. And both former governors would likely appeal to religious conservatives in the GOP base.
Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and host of a program on WABC News/Talk Radio, reminded Huckabee that "you were overweight. You were a rockabilly -- you could play the guitar. . . . But you went out on a mission not only to lose weight for yourself, which you did -- you're very svelte -- but you also promoted it in the schools and every town in Arkansas that both the adults and the kids had to live a healthier life and that it had to start with diet."
Listen to his conversation with Huckabee below, courtesy of YouTube and the "Radio Equalizer" with Brian Maloney.
Good for Huckabee. That the GOP now stands for withholding health care for 9/11 first responders, deporting immigrant kids who want to go to college and serve in the military, and childhood obesity is a pretty sad commentary on how nutty they've become.
