Media double standards: Obama’s daughter caught smoking weed — “how cool!” by Brian Anderson.

Making Daddy Proud: Malia Obama Caught Smoking Weed

President Obama is as famous for his pot smoking as he is for his lying. As it turns out, the bud doesn’t fall far from the plant. Malia, eldest daughter of Barak and Michelle, was caught smoking weed recently as she attended the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. It must be a proud moment for the president to pass his dope-smoking legacy on to a new generation like this. …

To be honest, I don’t really care that Malia was smoking pot. …

I actually find the Secret Service response, or non-response, to this to be kind of disturbing. They were supposed to be protecting Malia and didn’t even notice she was hitting a “J.” What else did they miss?

So Malia’s indiscretion is all over the news and used to embarrass her father and the Democrats generally, right? No, it’s in a minor publication and the mainstream media choose not to cover it (how would it help Hillary?).

The contrast with Jenna Bush, daughter of President George W. Bush, is like night and day. She was caught underage drinking at age 19. The issue was a big deal in 2001, with the usual high rotation through several news cycles to maximize the damage to the Republican president. From the Guardian:

Only last month Jenna was arrested at 1am in a nightclub in Austin because she was holding a bottle of beer. She turned up in court in a low-cut black shirt, pink Capri trousers and a toe ring. She was fined $51.25 (£36) and sentenced to eight hours of community service and six hours of alcohol awareness classes. The charge read: “Glass of beer – drank from it.” …

So far the girls seem the most appealing of the Bushes. They are not overly concerned with their father’s career. They are not humourless advocates of his cause. They are spirited and ordinary and looking for the party.

But what does this latest “incident” mean politically? The press reports that Jenna has “embarrassed” her father. And people may try, in various subtle and not so subtle ways, to use this and future “embarrassments” against him. But that is a tactical mistake.