Obama v. Palin: America Picked the Right Family

John Ridley, HuffingtonPost.com: From the time that "Family Values" became an empty phrase regularly trotted around the political arena with all the reverence of the last surviving soldier of a war that was never actually fought, the totality of the family which occupies the White House has reached the same level of curiosity as the quadrennial question of whether or not a presidential candidate can bowl above one hundred.

The shocking, never-saw-it-coming implosion of the forced relationship between Bristol Palin and self-described "f***in' redneck" Levi Johnston underscores the fact that America sent the right family to Washington.

With regard to Bristol and Levi, regardless of how loving, committed, devoted and generally available a parent is, no parent can guarantee how far an apple will fall from the tree. However, knowing that, no parent should seek higher office on the rhetoric of abstinence only/ sanctity of marriage/gays-are-ruining-family-for-us so let me impose my "values" on you for you. Especially when the empirical evidence is those "values" do not work beneath the very roof from which they are being espoused.

But the unfortunate choices of Bristol and Levi are the least of it.

What family values does one represent when he or she socks it to the taxpayers for government presidiums when staying at home, or chisels supporters out of tens of thousands of dollars in upscale campaign trail wardrobe?

What family values does one represent when one doesn't stand up to potential in-laws who are facing six felony counts of misconduct involving controlled substances, including the distribution of those substances?

And what kind of family values are represented when one's spouse quietly belongs to an anti-American secessionist organization to which you send a taped video welcome to their convention wishing them all the best?

And then there are the Obamas. The occasionally thrown "terrorist fist jab" seems quite tame in comparison.

Politically, those of us who are true Americans of any persuasion hope that President Obama succeeds.

As a First Family, the Obamas already have.