Did President Obama Exploit Mentally-Impaired Woman, Brittany: “A face of one of the 47%”?

Actually, I don't think so.

If Brittany wrote the letter to the Obama campaign herself, and it's a nice letter, then she should be treated just as any other Obama supporter. And the president's campaign shouldn't feel that there's anything wrong with using her letter in a campaign pitch. To do otherwise would be to treat Brittany unequally, which is clearly not what she wants, as evidence by her comments at the letter. (Or, at least she doesn't want to be treated as a welfare dependency freeloader.)

But see Charles C.W. Cooke at National Reviews, "Brittany vs. Julia":

There is so much that is heinous about Brittany being used for political gain in this way, but let’s start with the obvious thing, which is that neither Mitt Romney nor anybody running for office under the Republican banner is suggesting doing anything that would hurt her.

Continue reading.

Well, the really obvious thing, really, is that if Mitt Romney would have posted a comparable letter from a Down syndrome supporter he would have been raked over the coals of an inquisition the likes to make Tomás de Torquemada proud. But these are Democrats doing this, so even the outward inclination toward impropriety is suppressed, because progressives are oh so f-king tolerant.

That said, Ann Althouse wrote a passively acceptant post on this, just a tad ambiguous, suggesting that because she's a woman she found the story "affecting." She gets ripped in the comments, for example:

This is absurd. Obama's use of a retarded girl to counter Romney's 47-percent argument is a complete non sequitur. Althouse acknowledges as much, but goes on to say, in effect, that she doesn't care. Why? Because she's a woman. Which is even more of a non sequitur.

Just vote for Obama already. Waving the bloody shirt of an exploited retarded girl makes you look, um, retarded.

Lots more comments at the link.