I keep holding out hope that Obama will be a rational and calm leader. For one thing, many of the people who dismiss him sound petty and whiny, and for another I kind of like the idea of him. But ideas and reality are not necessarily the same, are they? And every now and then he says or does something that send little shivers of alarm up my antennae.

There was the almost-St.-Peter-like-I-never-heard-anything interview about Jeremiah Wright, with Anderson Cooper. As if you'd never know what your closest friend and mentor was really all about in twenty years. The Nile is in fact only a river in Egypt, after all.

Now there's this noise about the press should leave his wife alone. Excuse me? It bothers me more every time I think about it. Partly it's just silly but it makes me wonder what reality he's living in.

I agree that it's perfectly reasonable for a public figure to ask that his or her children be left out of the coverage. In fact the press has been good about it, cover (well, lack of coverage) of Amy Carter and both Bush girls - before they became adults - being proof. But Obama handed his two daughters out for a press interview the other day. Didn't that seem odd in itself? I mean, first he says "hands off my wife and kids" and then suddenly it's "here, talk to the girls." And just when you shrug and figure no one's consistent but obviously he's loosening up a little, he flips out when Fox's Sean Hannity talked negatively about Michelle.

But how can he say "hands off Michelle" with a straight face. Why should his wife be protected from the clutches of media coverage? What makes her more delicate than anyone else? None of the other candidates ask for special treatment for their spouses, goodness knows. Cindy McCain's hair and clothes and medical history are fair game as is Bill Clinton though I suppose his status as a former president lets him in for more than as a spouse. Laura Bush was examined in every petty detail and goodness knows Jackie Kennedy may have gotten more publicity than her husband. Lady Bird wasn't immune from press attention and may actually have softened Johnson's legacy. The list goes on and on. And anyway, Michelle plopped herself right into the fray by giving speeches on political subjects rather than on flowers or statues and other niceties.

Doesn't everyone know that a political campaign is a scorching free-for-all where many people get seriously burned? Obama had to know, especially after the primaries and recent previous elections. And he cannot seriously or honestly have thought the campaign - let alone the presidency itself - would be only about him and his thoughts. Therefore one has to wonder whether there's something about his wife that he wants to hide. Otherwise, I have to ask, what the heck is up with him?

Labels: 2008 election, good people