Washington's moral maze

Barack Obama has his wife and two kids on display in Denver. Sarah Palin has her husband, four big kids (plus the fiance of her pregnant daughter) on stage in St Paul while she cuddles her Down's syndrome baby for the cameras. Obama says families - 'especially children' - are off limits to the media.

But can politicians use their children as campaign props when it suits them, and then claim privacy when it doesn't? It's a true dilemma for journalists and code constructors, so wander this moral maze for yourself. Where does off limits end and anything for a quick vote begin?

By the way: forget Machiavellian calculation, shameless manoeuvring and all the other alleged sins that go into the mix when Rupert Murdoch chooses which politician to back. In this month's Vanity Fair he tells interviewer Michael Wolff who he's gunning for: 'Obama - he'll sell more papers.'

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