Kathleen Parker Compares Barack and Michelle Obama to Ward and June Cleaver

Columnist Kathleen Parker is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group, but she was very rarely in the Post before she started her religious-right-bashing crusade against Sarah Palin. (The Post published her wacky theory that McCain picked Palin because he had the Monica Hots for her.) On Friday, the Post published her again – as she compared Barack and Michelle Obama to Ward and June Cleaver, their ultraliberal views on social issues be damned:

You want Ward Cleaver? Meet Barack Obama. Michelle is June Cleaver with a law degree. Family values don't get more traditional than those of the Obamas, who ooze marital bliss and whose adorable daughters make feminist cynics want to bake cookies and learn to smock.

Though we may perish of boredom, the Obamas may do more to elevate the American family than all the pro-marriage initiatives conceived by those who claim to speak for the deity. As a family unit, they're not significantly different from the Bushes, but they can be an inspiration in particular to African Americans.

Parker then sounded conservative for a few paragraphs as she noted that the welfare state helped create widespread fatherlessness in the black community, which she thinks the Obamas can inhibit by the power of their example:

Obama's example could have society-altering effects, especially in the African American community. By his example, he telegraphs the following messages: Being smart is good; education is good; being a good father is essential. Being an egghead is cool.

But what about the messages that the Obamas don’t merely signal in a photograph? What about the actual legislation and judicial picks they will make on social issues? African-Americans are also more likely to get abortions. How does supporting the killing of a baby after it survives an abortion qualify you as Ward Cleaver?