Remember in 2008, when journalists claimed that Sarah Palin was using her children as props–that is, when they weren’t claiming they weren’t her children to begin with? Now, Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod is exploiting his own daughter’s epilepsy in an attempt to defend Obamacare–and raise campaign bucks—proving again that nothing is sacred–and everything is political–to Barack Obama and his Democrats.
An email sent today from the campaign reads:
Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling was very personal to me.
Thirty years ago, my daughter Lauren, then just seven months old, began having grand mal seizures. They wouldn’t stop for 18 years.
Lauren’s epilepsy robbed her of her childhood, some of her capacities and, very nearly, her life.
We were young parents then, just starting out, with lousy insurance I got from my job. And we very nearly went broke paying for Lauren’s uncovered care and medication.
I was moved to tears when the Supreme Court affirmed the Affordable Care Act, because I know that other families won’t have to face the terror and heartache we knew.
And that’s because of a president who had the courage to defy the politics and all the obstacles in order to fight for people like my Lauren.
Say you’re standing with President Obama…
[link to donation page]
The media is not just guilty of hypocrisy vis à vis Palin; they’re also letting Axelrod have it both ways. Earlier this month, Axelrod appeared on Steve Edwards’s show on WBEZ (the Chicago NPR affiliate) on the apparent condition that Edwards not ask Axelrod any political questions. Axelrod devoted the segment to talking about his daughter’s illness, and the charitable work he had pursued outside politics as a result of that experience.
Today, with the country outraged about Obamacare, and Mitt Romney running up the fundraising numbers, Axelrod is hawking his daughter’s condition to rake in the cash for his boss. There’s no boundary between the personal and the political for the Obama camp. Every puff piece about Michelle’s faux garden (also featured on NPR), every “personal” interview is a political setup. And it’s time the media stopped playing along.