WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, who only Sunday was told to get his cholesterol levels down, has already broken whatever pledge he might have made.
That should surprise precisely no one who follows Obama's penchant for everyman-food when he's out on the road relating to average Americans doing their normal thing.
In Savannah, Ga., on Tuesday, Obama nonetheless stopped for lunch at a not-health-restaurant called Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room.
The president, who only Monday ditched his motorcade to walk back to the White House from a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, citing his cholesterol numbers as a motivator for the exercise, ordered sweet tea and a plate of Southern food.
The set menu includes fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, collards, cream corn, biscuits and corn bread, macaroni salad, turnips, green beans, BBQ pulled pork, blueberry pudding and banana pudding, according to the pool reporter assigned to travel with Obama, Tangi Quemenera of Agence France-Press.
For all the handwringing about how the president loves cheeseburgers and anything the White House pastry chef serves up, he and his wife have long been into a healthy eating routine at home. That's reflected in his physique and the latest doctor's analysis of his body mass index.
Still, the president in Savannah said "I don't want any lectures about my cholesterol. Don't tell Michelle."