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.
Good post pointing out the REAL issues of the campaign. I personally couldn’t care less if Huckabee currently weighed over 300 pounds, had bariatric surgery, or hair transplants. It’s his stance on the issues that have been wrong and will destroy the country (and what’s left of the party).
Deliverance
Why the cover-up on his medical records?
I think this shows he's a pretty tough fighter, to keep the moral high ground, yet shoot one across Romney's bow. I believe he actually did decide in the final hour.
All he showed is hypocrisy.
FUNNIEST POST ON FREE REPUBLIC!
Thanks for the laugh, oh my gosh.
It was called Optifast, I used to work for the Houston branch, and it was not at all a good or healthy weight loss plan.
He should show his scans from the hernia surgery the year after, to see if it really was the rare kind of hernia he SAID it was, or the more common post-bariatric surgery hernia that it PROBABLY was. But he won't. Why, he would be MOST MOCKING about the insinuation! "Cross?? I don't see no stinkin' cross!"
"Aw, heck, Ah know Huckabee's game and Ah been playin' it long before him!"
“Mike Huckabee is finding ways to ensure that the ad will be shown. I heard earlier today that Fox News was going to broadcast the ad as part of its coverage. Mike Huckabee is not about better angels.”
QUESTION: Did Romney lie or misrepresent anything about Huckabee or McCain? I mean, other than saying Huckabee was a good man, which Romney clearly got wrong.
“All he showed is hypocrisy.”
The Huck also exposed himself as a liar.
I live in Arkansas and as far as I know Huckabee did not have surgery. He was in the care of Doctors at UAMS and did a special diet available, Liquid and low calorie food, and got on a exercise program I think with a personal trainor. He lost all that weight on his own and it took roughly a year. People can do it and he did. I can assure you that if he had had surgery it would have been reported.
“I live in Arkansas...”
What’s the deal with Hope, Arkansas?
He's another Star Jones. Her book did the two- step around her miraculous weight loss. It took two years for her to finally admit to it. And she did it in conjunction with a publicity tour for her new show, after she was canned from "The View".
This guy is a piece of work. Just happened to have abdominal surgery right around the time of his weight loss. How convenient.
This is totally wrong. If you are grossly overweight losing 2 pounds a week through diet and excerise is the norm not unusual. In fact, early on it is not unusual to lose up to 4 pounds a week. As you continue to lose weight it gets hard and hard to lose the remaining pounds though. I lost 50 lbs. in 6 months using only a stairmaster and a supportive wife who helped keep me on a diet. It was not a complicated diet either, I just stayed away from anything that was "crunchy, creamy, dairy or fried."
He's putting the weight back on slowly, in case no one else has noticed..meow!
sw
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