Obama Goes "Serious" on Libby

In this partial transcript of a speech given at Howard University, it appears that Barack Obama has removed Paris Hilton from his stump speech and gotten more "serious." Along the way, the Democratic presidential candidate said:

And yet they go largely unnoticed until people finally find the courage to stand up and say they're wrong--until someone finally says: It's wrong that Scooter Libby gets no jail time for compromising our national security while a
21-year-old honor student is sitting in a Georgia prison for something that was not even a felony.

It is somewhat newsworthy that it takes "courage" to be critical of the Libby commutation as, in the past, such criticisms have required little more than tunnel vision, hypocrisy, partisan animosity and a willingness to manipulate facts and bank on the ignorance of others. But it is certainly fun to see Libby's supposed crime identified ("compromising our national security") while the Georgia student's actual crime (aggravated child molestation) is not. The Georgia student has a positive characteristic ("honor student") while Libby ... well ... he is clearly just a socially advantaged, scum of the earth, neo-con, Republican operative.

Yes, that is what quality political rhetoric is all about. It just sends the thoughtful into a mind numbing stupor. Meanwhile, I am sending a memo to Patrick Fitzgerald that he has prosecuted Libby for the wrong crime! How did the media miss this?

But, I can out Obama Obama ... "It is not right that one of the six brightest students in America (Edward Fretwell Prichard) had to go to prison and Libby did not!"