You may remember when President George H.W. Bush said this: "I do not like broccoli and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm president of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli." But maybe you didn't know this:
Soon after the quote, America’s schools stopped serving broccoli, and children all across the country began to protest their broccoli servings at family dinner tables. In fact, it was reported that broccoli sales dropped significantly in 1990, all because of the president’s personal dislike of it.
Not only was the broccoli industry upset at the quote, but they were also upset at the fact that Bush Sr. Had literally banned broccoli from being served anywhere the president happened to have been eating, especially the White House and Air Force One. This also upset nutritionists all over the country as the presidents messages basically told children that vegetables were bad for them.
Of course now broccoli has been sucked into the great ideological divide along with everything else. President Obama, who had previously listed his favorite foods as chili, chips and pork chops, apparently fell under the evil spell of Michelle last year and declared his new favorite was broccoli. So there you go -- Republicans: broccoli bad; Democrats: broccoli, yum!
Now Michelle herself has gotten into the act, sharing a food confession with Rachel Ray:
Gotta go with Rachel on the liver -- love it, especially with bacon instead of onions. But I agree with GHWB on the broccoli and Michelle Obama on the Brussels sprouts yech and double yech. Boy, I'm politically all mixed up today.
(The liver/Brussels sprouts story comes from USA Today, always going the extra distance to give us the truly important stories of the day.)
