how the republicans will politicize 9/11 (again)

this afternoon's reporting on the two presidential candidates visiting ground zero to honor the victims of 9/11 began with images of barack obama and new york city mayor michael bloomberg standing and chatting; john mccain had yet to arrive. this was, of course, a chance for obama and mccain to come together, symbolically at least, just as the country had during the days following september 11, 2001.

when mccain did arrive, it was with wife cindy in tow. my first thought was, "why is cindy mccain there?" and wolf blitzers first thought? "why isn't michelle obama there? where is michelle obama?" to his credit, msnbc's david shuster followed "why isn't michelle obama there?" with, "or maybe i should say why is cindy mccain there?"

think michelle obama's absence won't be mentioned elsewhere? wait.

UPDATE 4:42 pm – shuster is now reporting that michelle obama was in chicago with the couples children, but was invited.

UPDATE 10:14 pm – was i wrong?  conservative columnist and blogger michelle malkin questioned mrs. obama's absence, but didn't really.  abc news' jake tapper said his readers had asked.  other than that...people seemed a little more interested in this.