I'm glad Richardson is illuminating the fact that obesity has morphed into a serious health condition in the U.S. This has long been an overlooked issue and yet many of us are obese. The American people need to seriously start a debate on this issue and get this problem under control. It is not healthy to even be slightly obese. The medical profession will certainly corroborate this as fact.

You're kidding me. This is a joke, right?

Thankfully this silly person will be weeded out during the primaries.

I think everyone should be covered by the ADA. I think everyone should be able to park in handicapped spots. Everyone has his or her own problems. We should all just agree to give up and come together for a group hug. Anyone know how to play Kumbaya? :) Just because you CAN do something does not mean that you should. How can Richardson pander so shamelessly? Richardson can promise obese people that they will not face heartache or discrimination and they might feel good enough to vote for him. However, he will never deliver what he promises. Being obese is a health problem. An obese person can improve their health with diet and exercise. No law is going to change this reality. Richardson does a real disservice to himself and obese Americans by ignoring this fact. This kind of manipulative politics is destructive, and Richardson knows it.

While obesity is a serious health condition Americans suffer from, it is self-induced and therefore controlable. I disagree that persons who are obese should be protected under the ADA. This is not like blindness or deafness yet Americans seem to take a blind eye and deaf ear to their personal health.

He's been listening to too many Jay Leno jokes or he's throwing a dart at Hillary.

Amen to Sean and Clark's comments. While it's true that SOME people have little to no control over their weight, the vast majority of us choose our weight by choosing how we treat our bodies. If we label the consequences of our actions a disability, and allow the government to regulate how we will be treated because of it, we'll be opening the door for the government to categorize and track us even more than it already does - in effect giving our government the right to discriminate against us.

He's out of his mind. Becoming fat is largely that person's responsibility. How can anybody waste Federal tax payer's money to protect them???

How can one be so heartless as to suggest that the obese are somehow responsible for their sorry plight in life? It's all the fault of those eeevil Republicans and their Neo-con acolytes. They overeat out of the desperation borne of a hopelessness gestated in the womb of Red-State America! Reparations for the fat!

So you should be protected because you have spent a lifetime abusing your body, eating trash and not exercising? Obesity is a preventable thing and deserves no protection. Actually it is becoming the status quo to say it is ok to be fat. Well guess what it is not! It is not healthy and there are many studies proving the impact of obesity on health, productivity and its impact on the people around them who have to deal with it. A better topic would maybe be how to ban food with no nutritional value and marketing to children for junk food. It is no wonder the rest of the world thinks americans are pathetic whiners.

Ok I get it...America is so full of fat people that he thinks making this comment is going to get him more votes...

Ignorance is bliss, because obesity is a very serious problem in America. Next time when you are out at the mall or in restaurants take a notice of how many Americans are over weight or have fat around mid-section. It is eye opening. Obesity leads to very serious diseases such as cancers, diabetes, other disabilities, not joke or something to laugh at, this is serious health problem. Governor Richardson removed junk food from the public schools in New Mexico to stop the risk of blood sugar and other diseases to our children and believes teaching how to live healthy should be part of our children's education program. It is of the upmost importance that we not only improve health care and access but also aggressively improve prevention, cure research and cost, our future is depends on it because good health is part of one's long term wealth.

Although I favor the Richardson's Health Plan (no new taxes required and not mandatory) over most of the Democrats and Republicans candidates running to date, I must say the Democrats as whole seem to be better at tracking this issue with the economic reality and needs of the future well being of Americans than the Republicans. Some realities, a little over half of American have a private health insurance, while the rest do not. Those residents in the United States regardless of citizen status, that do not have a health insurance policies are entitled to medical help in hospital emergency rooms because of the legality and ethics of our system. Such cost to treat the uninsured is passed on to those with health insurance with increased premiums each year, so in saying that, under a free-market Republican plan this issue of passing the cost of the uninsured would not be controlled regardless of plan. Today, private companies that provided a benefit of health insurance to their employees pass this cost on to the consumer or their customers. It is estimated that the 1/3 of the price tag of a American automobile pays for health care for auto workers in Detroit. So this not unusual for businesses to amortized the cost of health care in the price of products and services. The economic problem that lies ahead is the large number of the baby boomers that are going to retire and come of age to require more medical attention in their senior years thus placing a higher service capacity and cost on our current health care system. Not to mention, is a system that is under-capacity with skilled labor and affodable technology. Also, it is important to factor in the cost variance of the projected inflation assumptions to health care cost along with consumable inflation, in economic terms, will require action to be taken now to offset. If we hold the current course and do nothing, the critical path will have a disastrous outcome for our country's future economic health.

Great, give them more funding so they can fill up the shopping cart with more chips & cola.
People are responsible for their own bad eating habits, not the rest of us.

I believe that the Federal government and consumers need to apply more pressure on the food industry to put intelligent caps on how much grams of sugar and sodium are used to processed the foods we eat. It is true that we are not responsible other's poor eating, drinking or smoking habits but if you have a health insurance policy, then one certainly pays for the systemic causes of obesity with increased premiums each year. So you may not be responsible but you are paying the price, regardless of you habits. And the Governor's point is that obesity should be taken seriously as a disease and can and does lead to disabilities. We need to first acknowledge problem and then act to in ways that manage this disease not only with the fiscal impact on health care in mind but also in ethical and respectful manner that does not ridicule the subject.

As an American fat guy, I've seen what Federal protection has done for mob informants and I want no part of it.

"This is an issue of basic civil rights," said Richardson...

This guy has fallen prey to that mindless claim put forth by so many connected with the Democrat Party.

That claim is "I have a right!" Not one of them can tell you what a 'right' is or from where 'rights' come, as if by simply saying the phrase, that 'right' will come true.

Exercise more and stop eating everything that doesn't move. There, I just saved millions of dollars in unecessary obesity research. Next issue.

Health education for our children?

Back in the day (before the NEA took over) I had basic health and nutrition every year in grades 1-6. The majority of people become obese by choice not by some rare function of body chemistry.
For crying out loud, how many reality TV shows do there have to be that show these people simply eating and sitting around before we wake up to the fact that the majority of fat peeople are that way due to their choices!?

"As governor of New Mexico, he banned junk food from being sold in vending machines in schools, he worked to ensure that children have access to a healthy breakfast, and he put a new emphasis on physical education."

The Governor's actions speak louder than his words...