On radio this morning, Glenn, Pat, and Stu had a field day picking apart Michelle Obama’s recent Good Morning America interview. The First Lady visited the program to promote her new cookbook, but could not refrain from imparting her wisdom. Mrs. Obama came out in support of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed soda ban.
It should come as no surprise that the First Lady – who has made federal overreach and the enforcement nanny-state policies her mission – supports the Mayor’s inane proposition. But the way Mrs. Obama justified her support of the ban is a little suspect.
Glenn played a portion of the interview this morning:
MICHELLE OBAMA: You know, mayors, local communities should make the decisions that they think are best for their community because there's no one size fits all. What works in New York may not work in another city and vice versa. You know, their approach is not something that's going to happen that we're going to, you know, be pushing at a federal level but, you know, we applaud anyone who's stepping up to think about what changes work in their communities…
Let’s get this straight, the First Lady is suddenly pro-states’ rights? Never mind the fact that the signature policy of her husband’s first term is a bill that nationalizes our health care system. And we should just overlook the fact that the First Lady has infiltrated our schools at the national level, banning French fries, bake sales, and whatever else she deems ‘unhealthy.’
“Wait a minute. Hang on just a second,” Glenn said. “I'm just trying to get my arms around this one. So the woman who is for universal healthcare says that everyone should have local control?”
“Because what works for New York may not work elsewhere,” he continued. “Now, the sodas, the sodas get very complex. That's very – we’ve got to leave that in local control because that gets so unbelievably complex. Healthcare, heart surgery, brain surgery, we got that. Hey, can we do that? That's just a blanket, that's a blanket policy. Everybody gets the same. Oh, okay.”
The interview continues with Mrs. Obama praising the communities that are making the truly tough decisions… on where to build sidewalks. After all, we all know putting some concrete on either side of the road requires serious planning.
MICHELLE OBAMA: New York is one example but there are many communities that are doing, you know, things like figuring out how to build more sidewalks so that, you know, people can actually ride their bikes, you know, how to take public space and turn it into play spaces. Many ways that leaders can get involved, one of the efforts that we have through Let's Move is Let's Move Cities and Towns...
“Hang on just a second. Whew, I have been – I have been struggling with how to build more sidewalks,” Glenn joked. “Do you put it next to the street? Do you put it in the middle of the street? Do you put it in the houses? Where do you put the sidewalks?”
“Dallas hasn't figured it out yet,” Pat said sarcastically. “There's not a single sidewalk in the Dallas metroplex. Not one in the DFW area.”
“I heard Miami tried to pour cement in the middle of the ocean, but it sinks apparently when you do that,” Stu added.
While Michelle Obama’s utopian dream of joyously fit children riding bikes on lump free sidewalks while not drinking soda might sound good in theory, she might want to check back with Mayor Bloomberg on that one – riding bikes on the sidewalk is illegal in New York City. Oh well.