The National Enquirer headlines, OBAMA SEX PERV SCANDAL. In it they sensationalize the possibility that Barack Obama was mentored in his youth by a man who may have turned out to be a pedophile.
James Joyner links to the blogosphere storm before commenting:
Obviously, one hopes that young Barry wasn’t the target of such a horrible experience. Regardless, he is who he is. Obama didn’t have his father around growing up and was a biracial child who looked black being raised by his white grandparents among Asians and Pacific Islanders. The black role models he found were, in a few cases, spectacularly bad. Yet, he managed to grow up to be, as John McCain put it recently, “a decent family man, a citizen, who I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”
To the extent there’s a “scandal” here, it’s [accused pedophile Frank Marshall] Davis, not Obama, who is scandalized. The “sex perv” in question ain’t Obama, after all.
Radley Balko has little to say but singles out Dan Riehl, “who manages to find not just political opportunism, but humor in child rape.”
I had mistakenly come to think of the National Enquirer as something of a legitimate news source. This crass sensationalistic exploitation is despicable.
LATER: Remember The Choirboy. A sensitively-told disturbing story of a public person who spent years living with ghosts.