Given that Palin obviously made an excuse for Limbaugh, whose stab at humor was nothing resembling satire, means that her “teachable moment” via Emanuel was really using her child as a political tool.

Celebrities who embrace causes are valuable players in raising awareness and advancing policy. That said, the degree to which one uses another’s circumstances to achieve those ends requires a studious self-awareness that seems lacking in the equation of Trig and his mother.

Perhaps the erstwhile governor still thinks in first-person plural, viewing Trig as part of herself. But he is also a separate individual deserving of privacy, if unable to say the words she needs to hear: “No more, Mama, please.”