Rightly or wrongly families have been made fair game in today's environment (in my opinion, wrongly). You need look no further than David Letterman or The Family Guy to see instances of families being dragged through the mud for comic effect. Few on the left had any qualms with the trashing of Sarah Palin's children in these instances. On the contrary, the right was further lambasted as "not having a sense of humor". I would venture to say that Michelle Obama is far more of a political figure than Trig or Willow Palin.

As far as mocking physical characteristics - Mike Peter's (Mother Goose and Grimm) often portrayed Bush as a big-eared moron in his political editorial cartoons. It's just the kind of comparison that cartoonists make - they focus on facial characteristics and exaggerate them. The comparison of the Obamas is no different. Barack definitely does share some commonality with Curious George and it's funny. Michelle. likewise, shares some simian characteristics. It's all just a fact. The fact that others in the past had used these comparisons in a racist way does not affect that.

Well - there you go. The comparison with Barack and Curious George did indeed generate an outcry of racism. This was the case even though the comparison was accurate and likely had nothing to do with his race. It was simply a case where his characteristics matched the cartoon character's. Again, this is the same issue as the comparison between Michelle and a chimp. Her race is secondary to the fact that her bugged out eyes and pooched out mouth bring about the obvious comparison (see http://wisiwib.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/michel...

I think part of the problem is that it is, unfortunately, quite true. If he had compared her to something that didn't hit quite so close to home, I don't believe that it would have been an issue.

Similarly, had he compared Barrack to Curious George, I'm sure there would have beed an outcry.