just a couple of simple observations.
If Palin were black and running for the opposite party, would her family still be off limits? Limbaugh and even John McCain told nasty jokes about Chelsea Clinton's looks, after all.
Imagine the outrage, then, if the Clintons had brought her up on stage, pregnant and unmarried. There would have been no stopping Dobson, Falwell and rest from proclaiming this an affront to the family and a hideous image for youth.
And the Clintons aren't even black.
Think also of the months of outrage over Michelle Obama's comment that she'd never been as proud of her country as she is now. It's still in McCain ads.
So imagine if she'd not only made a dumb statement, but belonged to a separatist group advocating splitting part of the country off for blacks. And that Obama had not been a member of it (maybe), but had praised the group.
Would that be off limits because it's only her family? Hardly.
Yet Palin's husband has been a member of just such a group of Alaskan separatists. One she's spoken to and praised. Yet we've seen only the initially brief report, the correction that he and not she was a member, and then nothing. Families are off limits, the republicans say, and the media backs off.
There's more media attention to Obama serving on the same board as a reformed separatist from the 1960s than to Palin's husband being such a thing quite recently.
Now, there are very good reasons for pointing the attention back to McCain. But I am frustrated that the media lets republicans have this double standard.
If she keeps saying America first, someone at the debate needs to ask "But your hubby says Alaska first. Which is it?"