What’s Wrong with This Story?–WSJ: Obama Says Palin’s Family is “Off Limits”

HUH????

You know, the cynic in me is saying that Obama is being so magnanimous so that people don’t go snooping into his fuzzy family history…I keep thinking about Bill Clinton’s references to the “Constitution” before and during the Convention…

Anyway…

So, after lifting nary a finger to express his concern over the misogynist references to Hillary Clinton by the media and his followers, and, indeed, GIVING her the finger, Obama is being “classy” and telling the hounds to lay off Sarah Palin’s daughter. (Funny, I don’t remember any concerns about the Schuster “pimping Chelsea” comments on MSNBC.)

The Wall Street Journal, Washington Wire

September 1, 2008, 3:48 pm

Obama Says Palin’s Family Is ‘Off Limits’

Amy Chozick reports from Monroe, Mich., on the presidential race.

Barack Obama had harsh words for reporters asking about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter: Don’t go there.

“I think people’s families are off limits and I think people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president and so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories,” Obama told reporters after a Labor Day BBQ in Monroe, Mich.

The response comes after Palin and her husband, Todd, released a statement that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, is five-months pregnant. A rumor circulating the blogosphere claims someone inside the Obama campaign leaked the pregnancy to the media. An unnamed McCain aide said the same to Reuters, according to the news wire service’s report.

Obama said he was “offended” by the accusation.

“We don’t go after people’s families, we don’t get them involved in the politics, it is not appropriate and it is not relevant. Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be. And if I ever thought it was somebody in the campaign that was involved in something like that they would be fired,” he said before getting into his campaign bus visibly disturbed by the question.

Obama had gathered reports to release a statement about Hurricane Gustav and the latest efforts to make sure evacuees have adequate facilities and can return safely to their homes as soon as possible. But the brief press conference quickly shifted to Palin’s daughter — the buzz of the day on both campaigns.

Obama and wife, Michelle, have tried to shield their two young daughters from the spotlight. The Democratic nominee came under criticism earlier in the campaign cycle for saying his wife, who actively campaigns on his behalf, was “off limits” to media scrutiny.

By the way, this story omits a comment by Obama that was shown on FOX; he said that “after all, his mother had him at 18.”

So, let’s take this WSJ story one underlined comment at a time.

Obama thinks children should be off limits and he’s shielded his two kids?  What was that party all about with all the video that was released?  Oh, yeah, he decided it was a mistake after it had been shown.

As for his comments about Michelle…well, I wrote a piece about this victim business (Politico’s Jim Vandehi Shills for Michelle “Camille” Obama)  Seems to me that the Obama camp went into “victim” mode after Michelle had shot her mouth off a few times and got some flack. Let’s see, she called Hillary a “bitch,” wanted to “tear Bill Clinton’s eyes out,” and said that Hillary if couldn’t manage her own marriage then she couldn’t handle being President.  Of course, any criticism of the delicate Michelle was “off limits…”

And now, we see that Obama is “offended” by the accusation that this his campaign pushed the story.  Gee, haven’t we heard this line this before????

And if I ever thought it was somebody in the campaign that was involved in something like that they would be fired,” he said before getting into his campaign bus visibly disturbed by the question.

Followed by the outrage and SHOCK that such a thing could even be suspected, of course.  Which, again, puts him into the wounded victim mode we’re used to seeing at the same time he appears “above it all.” Meanwhile, his surrogate Donna Brazile thinks Bristol Palin is “fair game.” So, when does she get FIRED?

Frankly, if the McCain camp thinks the Obama crowd got this thing going, then I’m inclined to believe them. It also shows that the McCain camp knows exactly the sort of game the Obama campaign likes to play and is willing to bring it up.

There’s one other thing that is striking about this whole business. McCain and Palin certainly didn’t try to hide Palin’s daughter in the attic and there are pictures around which do show her with a fairly large abdomen.  It’s not as if they tried to pull a “John Edwards denial.”  I give McCain credit for not using this sort of thing as an excuse to eliminate Palin from consideration, and I give Palin credit for telling McCain about it.

It’s also interesting that while the McCain camp thinks the story about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy was leaked by the Obama campaign, they make no such accusation relating to the initial rumor that Sarah Palin was the mother of her young baby born this past spring.

The McCain campaign was outraged by the blog rumors.

“There’s no doubt that liberal blogs such as one called www.barackoblogger.com and some in the mainstream media were pushing a false story about Gov. Palin’s most recent pregnancy with fervor,” said senior McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace.

A senior McCain official said its camp had no evidence that the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama was pushing the story, but said the blog rumors circulating on websites that appeared to support Obama had the effect of being “a real anchor around the Democratic ticket.”

This indicates to me that the McCain camp isn’t into wholesale accusations but is willing to differentiate between what are campaign actions versus the actions of supporters.  I think this is worthy of some respect.

As for Obama…I’m back to my original thoughts…it’s easy for him to say the story is “off limits” even if his campaign didn’t bring on the game.  Perhaps they view the quick declaration that the story as “off limits” and his “understanding” of the situation as a necessary thing…after all, we wouldn’t want to start people to start thinking about Obama’s own background, right? But, I guess no one from the mainstream media will be “filling in the details” about Obama’s birth and his comment about his mother having him at 18 is probably the end of the story. Meanwhile, I’m still wondering why he didn’t bring his wife and kids to see grandma in Hawaii and why no one ever commented on how odd that was. (Wasn’t the excuse “security,” or something like that?)  I may be way off base with my take on the Obama reaction and denials, but I don’t trust a thing that comes out of that campaign…

And I sure wish BIll Clinton would let us know what he’s thinking about the Constitution these days…