Is Michelle fair game?

From the Courant...

Michelle Malkin, the popular conservative blogger, called her "Obama's bitter half."

Even the relatively liberal online magazine Slate piled on. In a piece subtitled "Is Michelle Obama responsible for the Jeremiah Wright fiasco?" the contrarian Christopher Hitchens blamed her for her husband's pastor troubles since she was a member of the church first.

First I want to point out that while the paper acknowledges that even the Liberal media are pointing out her influence, the title of the piece reads, "Conservatives Train Sights On Michelle Obama".

Well, is she fair game? Laura Bush as well as Barbara Bush were left out of the media, but I can recall lots of unfavorable comments in old news stories about Eleanor Roosevelt. And I'm assuming I don't have to remind anyone how much attention Hillary got.

The assumption has always been that when the first lady refrains from comments on politics, then they are left out of political scrutiny, but once they enter that arena, they've joined the game and are considered to be fair game for political scrutiny. Ironically Hillary has set the precedence that a first lady can indeed place herself within the realm of legitimate scrutiny and criticism.

Posted by Danny Carlton at June 12, 2008 7:35 AM