Ubiquitous Todd

The private lives of candidates are frankly not of much interest to me. I don't really care where they grew up, or whether they had a dog, or if they played high school sports. I'm very pleased that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are happily married, but only because it seems to make them, well, happy. I'm also pleased that we don't see much of Michelle Obama or Jill Biden, and that even Cindy McCain seems to have better things to do than to tag along on her husband's campaign trail. All three of those women are well educated and relatively articulate public speakers, and have held some of their own events, but by and large they are trying to maintain a level of normalcy in their families' lives, and keeping the political appearances confined to those who should be making them: the candidates themselves.

So has anyone else noticed that Todd Palin and his stupid goatee are all over the place these days? There are more pictures of him in today's Times than there are of Biden, and last I checked his uneducated ass isn't running for anything! Given the presumably difficult time his eldest daughter is going through, and given his oldest son has just shipped out to Iraq, and given the school year is just starting, why isn't he lending support to his children rather than waving to Sarah Palin's adoring throngs? Doesn't the Republican party claim the mantle of "family values"?