The Nancy Reagan Jab

The other day Barack Obama said this in his first press conference:

"Obviously, president Clinton -- I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances. I have re-read some of Lincoln's writings, who's always an extraordinary inspiration."

I thought it was funny, but maybe a little careless, considering that Nancy Reagan just broke her hip. But the right-wing blogosphere proceeded to call Obama classless and a lightweight. A little overboard don't you think?

So I was glad to see Andy McCarthy on the National Review's blog "The Corner" say this:

C'mon folks, let's not be a bunch of mirthless wusses here. Mark Steyn's cover story for NR's April 21 edition on Mrs. Obama's America was laugh out loud stuff, and we all howled over the unintentionally hysterical New Yorker cover that depicted Michelle as a militant. First families and their eccentricities, real or imagined, have never been off-limits. What Obama said, whether you think it was funny or not (I thought it was kinda funny) was not offensive — it didn't come close to John McCain's infamous joke (at a 1998 fundraiser) at Chelsea Clinton's expense, and I don't recall too many protests around here about our candidate's occasional low-brow jape. Let's not act like a bunch of Lefties just looking to be aggrieved over this or that slight. This is likely to be a tough stretch, and we'll need to be able to laugh — at ourselves and at the other side — to get through it.

It's good to hear some sanity from the right. It's going to be tough 4-8 years for them, and bitterness and pettiness will not help them remake their party and message.