OPPOSING JUST TO OPPOSE

Eating the messenger
By Kelvin Wade
February 24, 2011

Did Rush Limbaugh really call Michelle Obama fat? If Rush Limbaugh cut himself, I suspect he might bleed Krispy Kreme. As someone who commands way too much gravity myself, I would never step into a fight over healthy eating. Well, perhaps I would, but I'd be on the side of the double cheeseburger.

Limbaugh criticized Mrs. Obama for taking her girls out to a restaurant for a rib dinner after a day of skiing in Vail. The First Lady is heading a campaign called Let's Move to combat obesity. The plan is to get Americans to eat a more balanced diet and get more exercise.

On his radio show this week, Limbaugh went on to say, '. . . our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you.'

The owner of the restaurant pointed out that the meal came in at 600 calories, not the widely reported 1,500. It also came with a side of sautŽed kale that was grown by a local elementary school class. Sounds like a nice meal to have after spending all day exercising on the ski slopes. One wonders what Rush had after a day of sitting behind a microphone.

Why would someone of Rush Limbaugh's proportions dip a pudgy toe into this debate?

What's next? Is Britney Spears going to chastise Miley Cyrus for going from a squeaky clean kids' TV star to a shameless pop tart?

Is Michael Jordan going to tell Kobe Bryant he needs to pass the ball more?

Will Michael Vick become president of PETA?

Is Charlie Sheen going to advise Lindsay Lohan that she needs better impulse control? OK, that last thing actually happened. That's the kind of through-the-looking-glass world we're living in.

But this is a concerted right-wing attack on the first lady. By depicting her as a hypocritical food cop, they can weave it into their meme of the Obamas as big-government-socialist-nanny-state meanies who want to control your lives so much they want to yank the Happy Meal out of your child's mouth. To those of us without tin foil on our heads, it just seems like the first lady wants us to be a healthier nation.

The Let's Move program doesn't require Americans to eat a certain way. And she's stressed that moderation is key. It doesn't mean one can't splurge. She's often mentioned that her favorite food is french fries but she can't eat them every day. How does anyone have a problem with that? Even Sesame Street's Cookie Monster is now eating fruit and telling kids that cookies are a 'sometimes' food.

The government isn't restricting what we eat. Look at us! Stand outside the entrance of Walmart on payday and its like Mastodons lumbering to a watering hole. And I'm first in line.

This teapot tempest isn't about the First Family's eating habits. It's about attacking the Obamas, period. If Michelle Obama's cause was adopting puppies from the pound to give to children with cancer, you can guarantee the right-wing noise machine would cook up some reason to oppose it.

The first lady is trying to make a difference. Her critics are just making noise. Peace.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

ADDITIONAL NOTES: Can we stop pretending that the Obama Administration is a totalitarian government? Disagree with the administration's policies but why does everything have to be some Hitler-Stalin-Nazi-Socialism-Communism hyperbole? Everyone can look around and see that we're a nation of fat bastards. Michelle wants to do something about it. Why does it have to be a plot to control Americans' lives? Can't it just be that the woman wants to get people to improve their health? Isn't there enough other stuff to attack the Obama Administration on if you're inclined to do so?

And it wouldn't matter what cause Michelle Obama supported. The professional right would criticize it. It's a shame.