Up With Huckabee

Since Iowa, the vote count for the former Arkansas governor has been earthbound, but it hasn't lowered his expectations.

"We really need to take America up and not down," Mike Huckabee said when he moved into the top tier of candidates and now, as he faces a moment of truth in South Carolina that could foreshadow his fate on Super Tuesday, he is still looking in that direction.

Before his third-place finish in Michigan yesterday, he told supporters that "what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards."

It's no surprise that Huckabee is keeping his spirits up but, as his political fortunes fluctuate, his weight seems to be heading in the same direction.

Famous for losing over a hundred pounds and writing a book about it, in recent appearances, Huckabee has been looking more and more like Al Gore.

Last month, he admitted to gaining a dozen pounds on the campaign trail but seemed optimistic that he could trim down for the Boston marathon in April.

Between now and then, his ecclesiastical and dietary resolve will be tested by the political marathon.

Weighty Matters

“You can never be too rich or too thin,” said the Duchess of Windsor, the American woman for whom the King of England gave up his throne.

More money and less weight have always been high on the national wish list, so it was inevitable that self-help books would get around to promising both together.

A mother-daughter team has written "Rich and Thin: Slim Down, Shrink Debt & Turn Calories Into Cash," complete with a "Money Calorie Counter," to remind dieters how much they can save by investing the money not spent on unhealthful foods. A doughnut a day, for example, can cost $179.40 a year and 46,800 calories.

For those with a sociological bent, there is New York Times science writer Gina Kolata’s “Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--And the Myths and Realities of Dieting,” which reveals that our society's obsession with weight loss is less about keeping trim and staying healthy than about money, power, trends, and impossible ideals.

Just in time to round out all this is the paperback edition of revelations by “Park Avenue diet doctor Jana Klauer” titled "How the Rich Get Thin."

As a magazine editor and book publisher, I found that diets and diet advice can certainly make you rich. Thin is optional.

Two Cheers for the Plan B Lifestyle

The surging sales of the morning-after pill evoke mixed feelings. While the new contraceptive certainly gives women (and men) more freedom of choice, its popularity raises qualms about how far we’ve gone toward becoming a Plan B society.

Marry the wrong person? No-fault divorce. Stuff your face for years? Try diet pills and, if they don’t work, surgery. Run up too many bills? Go bankrupt.

In a society that believes in second chances, it’s hard to argue against the right to correct mistakes, but whatever happened to pay as you go, look before you leap or plain old think twice?

More to the point, there is still no totally free lunch. Uproot your children’s lives, tamper with your body chemistry, lose your credit rating, the “delete” button won’t solve everything.

At the risk of sounding like an old scold, one thing more: Get into the wrong war and try to find a Plan B pill for that.

Maybe we should be taking a longer, harder look at the Plan A’s in our lives.