In what may be the the most absurd example of It's OK if you are Republican (IOKIYAR) the New York Times has a front page article (yes you heard that right - front page!!!). On how great, great, great Jeb Bush's Paleo diet is. Now for those of you not constantly struggling with weight the Paleo diet is one that suggests we are fat because we started eating like agricultural dweebs. If we just eat like the original caveman without any carbs or sugars we will lose weight like you can't believe. The Paleo diet has been receiving a great many criticisms of late as a fad, quick fix diet with possibly really bad consequences. As somebody who has tried every diet in the world (well almost) including the Paleo I can attest to what they say. First time the pounds melted away. But there is no way to maintain it and you gain back even more weight even more quickly. The second time you lose less and gain back more. There also may be health considerations.
Now the New York Times, especially some of their excellent writers on food and diet have done great work making people aware of the possibilities but also the dangers of fad dieting in general but also Paleo style diets in particular. It is at the very least a controversial form of losing weight (as opposed to eating a bit less and exercising a bit more). They also, if I remember correctly, made some fun of other politicians (mostly democratic) who engage in these fad style diets. But now he-man Jebbie. He is a true caveman engaging in a caveman diet - right on the front page. He shows what extraordinary discipline he has. (There is something subtle here as well, a day after a front page article on how the Clintons are greedy bastards who have no self-discipline a front page article on how Jeb Bush denies himself and shows extraordinary discipline - Bill Clinton gets big speaking fees and Jeb Bush passes up on the garlic bread!!!!).
So it is a ridiculous IOKIYAR. But in order to do this they are heavily promoting the caveman goodness of a fad diet they have often criticized in their own pages. How many people are going to read this article and think - yeah I should do that. Unless I miss my guess, we are going to have a lot of thin Republicans in Iowa, and a lot of even fatter Republicans during the general election.