Comments on: Rudy’s Daughter is For Obama

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:10:44 +0000

I thought it was pretty innocent. Obviously 17 isn’t 18 but she’s headed off to be a freshman at Harvard — I think she’s mature enough that we can poke fun at her political leanings in a good natured way. Although Dan is right, posting the screen-grab likely took it a step too far…

By: Dan Weinand

Dan Weinand — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:32:41 +0000

They shouldn’t have included the screenshot of her profile. Just with that information, I was able to track down her profile in less than 30 seconds. While I don’t have access to her profile, I can send her a message (what more do you really need to harass someone) and view all of her friends (and send them messages). Maybe that’s enough to protect slate legally, but on an ethical level you’re opening this girl up to a ton of potential harassment from both the right and left.

At first glance it seems like kind of a cute story of ruby with pie on his face, but it is starting down a pretty bad path. With the pervasiveness of Facebook and Myspace and other social networks, you can bet there are a lot of politician’s kids using them. Do we really want to get into a gotcha kind of politics where each side tries to track down the kids of their opponents online to try and humiliate their parents?

I hope this doesn’t become a trend.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:24:35 +0000

I thought this story was pretty funny until I saw she was 17. Its not news that Guilliani is a horrible father and that his kids hate him. This poor girl has suffered enough with what Guilliani did to their family.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:50:56 +0000

I agree with elmer. But there is no doubt that Giuliani’s family will be an issue in the campaign. I thought this was also very cute from the West Branch, Iowa Times:

After a brief stop at a Little League game in Beranek Park, where Emma Claire mentioned that her softball team’s name is the Hawkeyes, the family ventured on to Tipton to rejoin their favorite candidate. Oh, but that’s not entirely accurate — or at least it wasn’t on Saturday. When the Edwardses visited the Cedar County Democrats’ tent, Mrs. Edwards asked her daughter which of the presidential candidates she liked best.

Did she point to dear old Dad? No, she pointed to Hillary Clinton. One strange political event, indeed. http://www.westbranchtimes.com/article.php?viewID=1847

By: elmer benson

elmer benson — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:02:16 +0000

I thought kids were off-limits?

I mean, this story is kinda cute and not that offensive, but I don’t really like where we’re headed when we start going down this road.

I’m just sayin’.