Oh, that New Puritanism, as spotted by Byron York:
During her visit to South Africa, First Lady Michelle Obama stopped by the University of Cape Town for an event with young people. She told the audience how she came from modest circumstances and was able to attend top schools and build a career at a big law firm, saying they too can achieve their dreams if they try hard enough. After her speech, she was asked a series of soft questions like, “What advice can you give the youth today?” But at the end of the session, one young person in the audience asked Mrs. Obama, who has devoted much of her time in the White House to promoting nutrition and healthy eating, what her favorite foods are.
“My favorite?” Obama said. “Oh, this is a tough one. “It is tough, you know, because if I say something not healthy, people will be, like, you aren’t really committed to health. If I say something healthy, you know — I do — honestly, I like all kinds of foods.”
Obama mentioned Indian food, and then Mexican food, and then said: “No, if I picked one favorite, favorite food, it’s French fries.” The audience began to laugh. “Okay? It’s French fries,” Obama continued. “I can’t stop eating them.” As the students laughed more, the First Lady quickly returned to her role as advocate of health eating. “But eat your vegetables,” she said, to still more laughs. “And exercise.”
Mrs. Obama wants us to eat differently than she does — just as Michael Bloomberg’s office was reported by the New York Times as having “all the junk [food] in the world up there,” including, “free Coke, Pepsi, orange Fanta, ginger ale and Mountain Dew — exactly the types of drinks Mr. Bloomberg this week said he wanted to prohibit poor New Yorkers from buying with their food stamps.” As an employee of the Gray Nanny told the Gray Lady, “I mean, you can gain 15 pounds in a hurry” working there.
And of course, it’s not like the Obamas’ identical Nanny Statism wasn’t predicted — right down to the “eat your vegetables” part:
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