Is Obama Asking America for Too Much Snackrifice?

Today’s commentary on President Obama’s address to the nation yesterday missed what I thought was one of the key passages, highlighted below, in which the president practiced tough-love by asking America for greater snackrifice in the days ahead.

Excerpt from the prepared text of President Obama’s address to the nation, February 24, 2009:

“We have come through an era where too often, short-term taste was prized over long-term weight-gain; where we failed to look beyond the next snack cracker, the next cheese puff, or the next pork rind. A surplus of late afternoon hunger became an excuse to transfer a jumbo bag of Cool Ranch Doritos into our mouths, instead of an opportunity to invest in a nice apple or a banana. ‘A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips’ became our new national motto. And look at the results: we’re in a debilitating recession and our asses are huge.

Diets were gutted for the sake of the quick snack, the annual raise — or rather raisin cookie. Too many of our appetites were ruined by eating right before dinner, or by filling up on bread. People ate snacks they knew they didn’t need, sold to them by unscrupulous convenience stores who just relabeled soda pop as energy drinks and candy bars as protein bars. And all the while, critical sit-ups and difficult jumping jacks were put off for some other time on some other day, after Lost, after American Idol, after basketball season.

Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our snacking future is here. America, I stand before you today as your newly elected president. And as your president, it is my sad duty to tell you that, yes, those jeans do make your butt look big. And not in a good Michelle way.

America, we can do better! We haven’t always been ‘big-boned.’ Now is the time to act boldly and wisely — not only to rescue our nation’s debauched taste-buds, but to build a foundation for lasting snack prosperity. America, have you tried Baked Lays? They’re not bad. Multigrain cookies? Pita chips? I recommend the Tuscan Herb. It’s time for America to rediscover fresh fruit, and even, dare I say it?, the quiet dignity of hunger. In short, it’s time for the country I love to stop stuffing its yap.

God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.”