Liberal columnist Margaret Carlson informed MSNBC viewers last night that the child of a prominent politician,18-year-old single mother Bristol Palin, should be considered “fair game” for personal attacks because she was “paraded” around at the Republican Convention.
With Keith Olbermann mindlessly “mmhmm-ing” in the background, Carlson also asserted that Bristol’s parents chose to publicly voice their displeasure over David Letterman’s now-infamous jokes because they “obviously hunger for this kind of melodrama.” Right, because their motivation couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that at least one of their teenage daughters was the subject of several crude and nationally televised jokes.
Gee, if we only knew how MSNBC cult-hero Barack Obama would react if a member of his family were attacked . . .
Ah-ha. So according to The One, criticizing a grown woman — who, in her official capacity as a top campaign surrogate, had declared her own country to be “downright mean,” demanded that Americans “give up a piece of their pie,” and taken thinly veiled shots at a political rival’s private life — is off-limits. Even political attacks featuring her own words are out of bounds.
Care to revise your “fair game” standard, Margaret? Or at least concede that the Palins may have been within their parental rights to object to a comic’s verbal assault on their child?
I won’t hold my breath.