Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has given children’s health and the “chronic disease epidemic” a prominent role in his campaign. Diagnoses of a variety of chronic conditions in children have increased in recent decades, but likely not to the extent that Kennedy claims or for the reasons he gives.
Former President Barack Obama falsely claimed that Let’s Move, an initiative of former First Lady Michelle Obama, “helped bring down America’s obesity rates for our youngest kids for the first time in 30 years.”
Ben Carson erroneously said that 71 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds who apply for voluntary military service “are rejected for physical, mental or educational reasons, the vast majority being educational reasons.”
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told David Letterman that “for the first time in the history of the world, more people will die from overeating than under-eating this year.”
Mike Huckabee cited a bloated statistic, claiming obesity disqualifies three out of four young Americans from military service. The actual total is closer to one in four.
The former Arkansas governor (and possible GOP presidential contender in 2012) was on "Fox News Sunday" on Feb. 27, explaining why he has defended First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign against attacks by some fellow Republicans.
Huckabee: What Michelle Obama has proposed is that we recognize that we have a serious obesity crisis,