The Slimming Effect
The New York Times has a (fairly pointless) meditation on weight loss reality shows like “The Biggest Loser” and their cultural implications, which includes this nod to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and other politicos:
Now that kind of journey is engrained in the culture as Americana, an escalator-age version of a Horatio Alger story, from fat to thinness. Early in the 2008 campaign the dark horse who emerged as a Republican favorite was Mike Huckabee, a preacher and former governor of Arkansas who won over primary voters with his tale of huge weight loss as spiritual salvation. On talk shows Mr. Huckabee would hold up his campaign pledges and the bannerlike size 50 pants he wore in his previous life. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made herself likable by invoking Weight Watchers, while the naturally slender Senator Barack Obama has to watch how much he watches his carbs or risk alienating working-class voters.
And incidentally, it is pointed out to me that today is Gov. Huckabee’s birthday—born this day 53 years ago in 1955. Cheers to the gov.
