Radio host Rush Limbaugh recently took to the air waves to criticize first lady Michelle Obama’s eating habits.
According to a report by Vail Daily, the First Lady dined on a pickled pumpkin salad, arugula, braised ancho-chile short rib with hominy, wild mushrooms and sautéed kale while visiting Vail, Colo. with daughters Sasha and Malia.
During his Feb. 21 radio broadcast, Limbaugh called Obama a hypocrite for eating short ribs amid her “Let’s Move” campaign targeting childhood obesity. Limbaugh inaccurately calculated the short rib to be 1,500 calories; Vail Daily later reported the ribs to be about 600 calories.
“If we’re supposed to go out and eat nothing, if we’re supposed to eat roots and berries and tree bark, show us how,” Limbaugh said. “The problem is—and dare I say this—it doesn’t look like Michelle Obama follows her own ‘nutritionary’ dietary advice.”
He went on to critique the First Lady’s physique, saying her body is not like models on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine or baseball player Alex Rodriguez’s girlfriends.
Criticism of the appearance of the president’s wife has surface in other quarters..
BigGovernment.com, a news blog, recently posted a cartoon depicting an overweight Obama gorging on hamburgers and demanding President Obama “shut up and pass the bacon.”
However, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is defending Obama.
According to a CNN blog report, Huckabee told reporters, “I do not think she’s out there advocating that the government take over our dinner plates. In fact she’s not. She’s been criticized unfairly by a lot of my fellow conservatives.”
He also supported the first lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign.
“If you really want to talk about obesity, let’s talk about it as a national security issue,” Huckabee added. “It’s an economic issue, but it is a national security issue because at the trend we’re going, we better hope we don’t have a war with anybody because we’re not going to have anybody who can pass the physical to wear the uniform. That’s pretty scary. So, rather than us condemn Michelle Obama, I think we ought to be thanking her and praising her for what she’s done.”
