Posted on 12/31/2007 6:00:00 PM PST by Checkers
Jonah, that Powerline blogger you link to does make an excellent case that Huckabee's 110-pound weight loss in a year, and other physical changes are more consistent with bariatric surgery than unassisted diet and exercise. I had wondered about it, but am always happy to believe it is possible to do it without the surgery. From everything we now know about obesity, however, while it is possible to overcome, it is pretty difficult for someone with the dread "fat gene" to keep it off for a long time without constant vigilance. (Indeed, recent pictures suggest that campaign life is taking a toll on his waistline. Or was that just the hunting jacket?)
So, if Huck had the surgery, I for one, would not blame him or think any less of him. (That would be true even if I thought highly of him.) I regard it as a radical but increasingly common solution to a persistent problem. No more or less. Nor do I really think it is anyone's business, though, like plastic surgery, it isn't so easy to hide and unless you are exceptionally vain, you will probably be happier admitting it. At least that applies in private life. It's a different ballgame now that he wants to be president. In that case being honest is warranted, since it is a serious operation, with ongoing health implications.
Even if he did it for pure health reasons, he would have had to consider the fact that his career could not progress without the weight loss, however effected. Because, as is clear, fat is the last taboo in the upper reaches of American power. The days of 300-lb. presidents — Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft — are over, if only because whatever intelligence, wisdom, and energy they might bring to the task, the ubiquitous, angle-loving camera would do them in before they got off the ground. And, in our morally challenged culture, physical fitness is considered a proxy for moral fitness, regardless of the individual truth of the matter, or the general justice of the equation.
In Huckabee's case, acknowledging the surgery (if true), would also, unhappily for him, deprive him of moral credit for what is, in his own telling, his signal personal accomplishment. He has made much of his victory over the flesh, and spent much time cajoling the population of Arkansas — and the rest of us — to follow suit. His health care policy, for heaven's sake, is based on having all of us lose weight and get exercise so we don't need insurance or medicine. If he had the surgery, his preaching is based on a deep deception about the road to health. Not so good.
Same link as my first one.
NRO, the Corner.
Show me someone who has shown a greater ability than Mike Huckabee to communicate, convince, and draw Americans to “the better angels of their nature.”
Thats ridiculous.
That makes about as much sense as it would if someone came out demanding proof from a Dr. that Mitt Romney doesn’t dye his hair.
You mean like when he asked whether the Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers? That statement was a cheap shot aimed at exciting religious bigotry. After pulling that stunt, he lost any credibility he had to talk about drawing Americans to "the better angels of their nature." His little stunt with the ad that he commissioned, then decided not to run, then showed to the press so that the ad would get full exposure, and then couldn't pull in time because some stations already had the ad slotted is another example of his failure on the "better angels" measure.
Mike Huckabee wants to play Christian charity with the taxpayers money in giving scholarships to illegal aliens after we've already given them K-12 schooling for free. Maybe you think that kind of policy represents "better angels," but I see that kind of policy as typical entitlement liberalism. The liberals also used to prattle about "better angels" as they insisted that we needed to fund all kinds of social programs.
Again, Mike Huckabee might be a good pastor and a good enough governor for Arkansas. He doesn't have the right stuff to be president regardless of whether he's had bariatric surgery.
Bill
I would agree if Romney had wrote a book about how to turn hair black naturally, had a policy called Hirsute Mass, in which he chastised Bay Staters for not doing enough to have luxurient hair growth, made it part of his Presidential resume, had roots showing, and was getting consulting fees from Clairol.
Really? Do you know this?
I haven't heard that it ran on a single Iowa station. It was not shown in any decent, reproduceable fashion in the press conference either, from what I've seen and heard.
For whatever it is worth once upon a time i lost 80 lbs in about six months all at Diet Center
Happy New Year!
“His health care policy, for heaven’s sake, is based on having all of us lose weight and get exercise so we don’t need insurance or medicine. If he had the surgery, his preaching is based on a deep deception about the road to health. Not so good.”
as we start out on a new year we all have our resoulutions can explain this quote to me, meaning the part about the deep deception.
At least Huck’s daughter looks like him and not uncle Web.
h
Exactly. A simple release of medical records showing he still has a normal gut and stomach will lay this to rest.
Failure to do so must, on the other hand, be seen as part of a coverup.
I don’t mind if he had the procedure, but if he did, he lies about it, and then has the nerve to write “healthy living for me and thee” books, the man is worse than a mere liar.
wow...I hate to say this, but I wouldn’t want that family as the face of America. Sorry.
“Given the rate of adult and childhood obesity in this country, they already are the face of America.”
Speak for your own family!
laproscopic surgery simply means it is done by putting trocars through 4 small incisions to do the work inside instead of gutting you like a fish... but it's STILL bariatric surgery if he he had a gastric band put in or gastric bypass done
Unfortunately, you are right. I live in a town where, I’d say 70% of the people are overweight. It’s incredible to me.
Slime, what an idiot
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