Michelle Obama sat down with Mike Huckabee to talk about her efforts to combat childhood obesity on Fox News.
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The Obama-Fox News standoff might finally be starting to fade.
In an interview that aired Saturday night, first lady Michelle Obama sat down with Mike Huckabee to talk about her efforts to combat childhood obesity in her first appearance on Fox News, the network that the Obama White House said was basically an arm of the Republican party.
The 20-minute interview, taped in a Philadelphia classroom, is part of Obama's media tour to highlight what is becoming her signature issue. But "Huckabee," the Fox News show hosted by the former Arkansas governor and potential 2012 contender for the Republican presidential nomination, seemed like an unlikely venue..
The Obama White House has been among Fox News's harshest critics--President Obama said the network had "a talk radio format," and his communications team vowed to treat Fox News, which it and others have frequently accused of right-wing bias, as an opponent.
But there was none of that strident language in Huckabee's interview with Obama, and not even a hint of the dust-up. Instead, there was lots of laughter, and even a little blushing.
The first lady talked about the importance of exercise, healthy eating and eliminating food deserts, meaning poor rural and urban areas without grocery stores.
Asked why she chose to focus on childhood obesity, Obama replied, "because we can really fix this."
"You know, this is a solvable issue because it's community based... it doesn't require new technology or new research; we have the solutions in our hand," she said. "But it takes a coordinated effort. It's going to take all of us: government, business, our coaches, our teachers, parents all working together. So my hope is that I can be one component in helping to pull that cohort together."
Huckabee, who moved into the Arkansas governor's mansion tipping the scale at 300 pounds, was one of the earliest and most vocal supporters of the first lady's focus on childhood obesity. He later chronicled his weight loss in his 2005 book, "Quit Digging Your Own Grave with a Knife and Fork," but has since put some pounds back on.
He alluded to the harsh tone of some of the criticisms leveled at the Obamas, saying, "so many vile and hateful things said about your husband, said about you."
The network had been one of Michelle Obama's most vocal critics during her time on the campaign trail, drawing fire from some circles for referring to her as "Obama's baby mama" in an on-air graphic. An anchor also referred to the on-stage fist bump the couple shared after Obama secured the Democratic nomination as a "terrorist fist jab."
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