27-year-old Chelsea Clinton took to the campaign trail in support of her mother and MSNBC's David Shuster accused her mother of "pimp(ing) her out".   Obama was severely rebuked by the press for letting his daughters appear in a light interview with their parents on "Access Hollywood".

If Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are to be admonished for exposing their children to the harsh glare of the national media in perfectly safe settings, then Sarah Palin should be excoriated.  It's bad enough that she has kept her 7 year old out of school for the better part of the past month, flying back and forth to her mother's campaign events in the Lower 48.  To have little Piper represent her mother at an indoor rally in Anchorage, while Sarah campaigned in California, address the crowd at a rally in Florida and sent out into the crowd, accompanied at one point only by sister Willow, to shake hands in Missouri.  But what she did last night, as reported on the Fox News blog, is reprehensible:

"The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee said at an earlier fundraiser that she would stop some of the booing from the rowdy Philadelphia fans by putting her seven year old daughter, Piper in a Flyers jersey. She said, “How dare they boo Piper!”  The intensity and ferocity of the boos was apparently lessened somewhat by the appearance of Piper on the ice.

But the Flox blogger was generous in his appraisal of the audience reaction to Palin.  I watched the video.  The boos were so loud they roared over the music - which volume was turned up full-blast in an attempt to ameliorate.

I remember my first hockey game.  20 years of attending pro baseball and football games did not prepare me for the crowd's behavior.  And from what I have heard and read, these fans were tame in comparison to the Flyers'.   A Flyers' biographer wrote: "(they have) a reputation as the roughest, toughest, most vocal and unruly fans in sports".  They threw projectiles at the very popular and likeable Beyonce Knowles, and even at Santa Claus.

Using her 7 year old as a literal "human shield" in attempt to reduce the number or loudness of boos she might receive (or number or size of objects which might be hurled in her direction) was a risk that no hockey mom, soccer mom or any other mom I know of should or would take.  It's almost like putting your kid in the middle of the highway in a Teamsters cap and telling your friends, "Nobody would dare run over her...".

Thank goodness Piper Palin received no worse than a chorus of boos.  But as another blogger suggested, how might this hostile reception affect young Piper psychologically?  Children need protection from harm - not only physical, but emotional.

Like the Philadelphia Flyers' fans, I give Sarah Palin's appearance last night, in her choice to use her little girl in this ultra-cynical way, a big thumbs-down.