I was making the same point Jonathan Martin makes in his lead just the other day:

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Three years before he ran for president in 2008, a newly slim Mike Huckabee peddled a book with a title that doubled as a lecture: “Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork.” Now, as he considers a second White House run, he has written another book with a decidedly different but equally direct title: “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy.” Mr. Huckabee’s earlier effort delivered a “12-step program to end bad habits and begin a healthy lifestyle,” as the subtitle had it. It is almost unthinkable that an aspiring Republican presidential candidate would do the same today, given conservatives’ strenuous opposition to Michelle Obama’s healthy eating and exercise campaign.

If the Obamas were for it—either of them—Republicans were against. Cap-and-trade, bringing down the uninsured rate by throwing billions of dollars at the health insurance industry, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants: All were supported by Republicans, two were Republican proposals (the conservative health insurance reform proposal now known as "Obamacare"), and all came in for vigorous Republican opposition/obstructionism after Obama got his Kenyan/Marxist/Muslim cooties all over them. Likewise, Michelle Obama's efforts to encourage healthy eating and exercise were held up as a damning example of the Obamas' elitism, their anti-freedom agenda, their nanny-statism. I mean, encouraging children to eat well and exercise—telling you what's best for your kids—that's not something Republicans do, right?

Arnold Schwarzenegger's first political appointment was as chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, on which he served from 1990 to 1993. He was nominated by George H. W. Bush, who dubbed him "Conan the Republican." He later served as Chairman for the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor Pete Wilson.

Healthy eating and exercise: Republicans were for it before they were against it. Mike Huckabee was out there telling Americans to eat better and get off their fat asses back when Michelle Obama was the unknown wife of a newly minted Illinois senator whose middle and last names—to say nothing of the color of his skin—would prevent him from seeking higher office. But the GOP base today, after having been fed a steady diet of anti-Obama hysteria over the last eight years, wouldn't stand for it today. So Mike picked up that knife and fork again. But will he get the GOP nomination before he finishes digging?