No political motivations here! Devoting a full story to President Obama calling birth-control activist Sandra Fluke for the sake of his daughters, Times reporter Jackie Calmes (and her headline writer) on Wednesday gave the president the benefit of the doubt by not questioning the propriety of dragging his young daughters into the debate over Fluke, who was called a "slut" by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show: "Obama Call Was a Lesson For His Girls [1]."
President Obama, speaking publicly for the first time about Rush Limbaugh’s slur of a law student on his radio show last week, said on Tuesday that he had called the woman, Sandra Fluke, in part to set an example for his daughters.
“I thought about Malia and Sasha, and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on,” Mr. Obama said at a televised news conference at the White House. “I want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way, and I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens.”
Mr. Obama confirmed what had been known about the call only from Ms. Fluke’s account, which she has repeated since the Friday conversation to multiple reporters and television shows. He declined a reporter’s invitation to pass judgment on the sincerity of Mr. Limbaugh’s subsequent apology or on his loss of advertisers in the controversy.