When You Make Campaign Speeches You Might Get Criticized

Today on Good Morning America, Barack Obama attacked the Tennessee GOP for running an online political ad against his wife.

Sen. Barack Obama ripped into a Republican ad today that targets comments made by his wife, Michelle, and called the GOP tactic "low class" and "detestable."

[...]

... a GOP Internet campaign in Tennessee has an ad featuring Michelle Obama's comments during the long Democratic campaign that "for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country."

Michelle Obama was asked about the ad on "GMA," but her husband said, "Let me just interject on this."

"The GOP, should I be the nominee, I think can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record," Obama said. "I've been in public life for 20 years. I expect them to pore through everything that I've said, every utterance, every statement. And to paint it in the most undesirable light possible. That's what they do."

"But I do want to say this to the GOP. If they think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful. Because that I find unacceptable," he said.

Obama praised his wife's patriotism and said that for Republicans "to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her I think is just low class ... and especially for people who purport to be promoters of family values, who claim that they are protectors of the values and ideals and the decency of the American people to start attacking my wife in a political campaign I think is detestable."

Obama would have a point if Michelle Obama had not given speeches on the campaign trail in favor of her husband. If this Tennessee GOP ad had targeted Obama's daughters, he would have a legitimate gripe. But the fact that Michelle Obama gave these speeches clearly makes her a part of her husband's campaign, and therefore she is fair game for criticism. You could argue whether the particular line of criticism actually makes sense, but you can't argue that she should be free from criticism. Just another example of whining from Barack Obama.

This is a presidential campaign, the proverbial big leagues of American politics. Being overly sensitive to criticism is not something anyone should want in a president. If Obama wants to be president, it's time to act like it. Stop these juvenile games and get on with it.

(Hat tip: Hot Air)