The reason the Malia/FreeRepublic story may not go too far is Barack/Michelle will let it sink. . .

[wndycty]

. . .unlike Palin who took a tasteless joke and sought to gain political advantage out of it, the White House will let it sink as it should.

The quiet dignity of pulling Malia and Sasha aside and telling them that they don't deserve crap like this, let them know that it will unfortunately happen and letting them know that they are loved not only by their parents but many million of folks world wide.

Also, I am sure that the the White House/Secret Service has ramped up their monitoring of the hate site that is Free Republic and a quiet message has been sent to media outlets throughout the country letting them know that this shit will not be tolerated.

[lindisfarne]

1. They might ignore, but when has that ever stopped idiots? n/t

[monmouth]

2. They need to be shut down. Plain and simple...n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I hope so

Actually a dignified no response as you suggest is the only way to go with this. Yeah, the Schuster interview may cause the curious to go to that site, but I predict most will be appalled and it will drive away people who aren't already hateful racists and bigots.

[nyhuskyfan]

4. Agreed

You express outrage - you put your kids in the news. There's no way around it.

Regarding the whole Letterman flap - how many people would have ever thought that joke was about Willow unless Sarah herself got in front of cameras and told everyone that? I hadn't even heard the joke until she made it an issue - nor would I have. It would have just been another example of late night comedian snark pushing the envelope.

And you'll notice that Alex Rodriguez never expressed outrage - if you contend that the joke was about Willow, he'd be portrayed in a rather unflattering light as a child predator/rapist. But Alex Rodriguez didn't have any need to play the victim.

[customerserviceguy]

6. ARod simply wants to keep down any news about him

that is not directly related to baseball. And he knows his actions have done a lot to get people talking about other things, otherwise that joke would have fallen flat.

[Caliman73]

5. i agree

Although the impulse to use power to crush bigotry and reprehensible behavior is strong. The best way to render it impotent is to let it be forgotten. I think that at times we want to expose, challenge, and crush ideas, speech, and behavior that offends us; but by moving past the hate with strength and quiet dignity it shows who the better person is.

[PretzelWarrior]

7. It's quite possible Sasha and Malia know nothing of this particular hateful topic

since they aren't at school and in the kind of "bubble" of summertime activities with parents, etc.

However, being they are black in America I am sure the Obama's have had general chats with the girls about hateful speech and how they can handle it.

[Cha]

8. Mission Accomplished if

the SS has been made aware of their site and it goes viral on the net.

[LynneSin]

9. As much as I want to expose those fuckers for what they have done

I'm not sure it's worth the cost of repeatedly showing the vile words they said about Malia. Sure Michelle & Barack protect those girls, but a schoolmate might see the story and repeat it to the girls.

I saw an interesting comment on HuffPost criticizing the Vancouver Sun for publishing the story mainly because it did reuse the same vile words that the freepers used.

[wndycty]

10. I saw that too

:kick: