Some criticism as Obama girls get flu shot

They weren’t, the White House says. But that hasn’t stopped complaints that President Obama’s daughters got preferential treatment.

“You definitely think there’s some favoritism going on,’’ said Vernon Stanley, who stood for hours in the snow this week to get his 6-year-old granddaughter vaccinated near Salt Lake City.

Because of production delays, thousands of ordinary citizens and their children have had to wait in line for shots, sometimes only to find that supplies ran out.

Snarky comments began popping up on blogs and other online sites after Tuesday’s announcement that the Obama girls were vaccinated by the White House doctor last week.

Many doctors and public health specialists have a different take.

For one thing, children are one of the high-risk groups the government says should get the swine flu vaccine first. Even then, the Obama girls weren’t rushed to the head of the line, receiving their vaccine only after it became available to other Washington schoolchildren.

And no vaccine shortages have been reported in Washington’s schools.

Announcing that the girls have been vaccinated “is a great example for all families,’’ said Dr. Judith Palfrey, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“It’s an important statement about how important vaccines are.’’

Dr. Mark Dworkin, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, suggested there is good reason to give preferential treatment to the presidential daughters, 11-year-old Malia and 8-year-old Sasha.

“If his children get sick with a high fever, that’s very distracting for any parent, and we all want his attention focused on all the issues before him,’’ Dworkin said.

Also, Obama could catch the flu from them.

“That’s a guy I don’t want to see out sick,’’ Dworkin said.

The president and Michelle Obama are waiting until priority groups are inoculated to get their own swine flu shots, the White House says. Besides children, these include pregnant women and people with chronic health problems.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In excerpts of his new book published online yesterday and in the new issue of Time magazine on newsstands today, David Plouffe writes that Obama said “if his central criterion measured who could be the best VP, she had to be included in that list. She was competent, could help in Congress, would have international bona fides, and had been through this before, albeit in a different role.’’

As the list was winnowed to six finalists, Obama “continued to be intrigued by Hillary,’’ Plouffe writes in “The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory.’’

He and senior adviser David Axelrod were not as enthused about an Obama-Clinton “dream ticket,’’ which many Democrats wanted. “We saw her obvious strengths, but we thought there were too many complications, both preelection and postelection, should we be so fortunate as to win.’’

Obama eventually crossed Clinton off his list, telling his top aides, “I think Bill may be too big a complication. If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship,’’ Plouffe says.

Obama eventually picked then-Senator Joe Biden and put Clinton in his Cabinet as secretary of state.

Plouffe also says that Republican John McCain’s pick of then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate was “a bolt of lightning, a true surprise.’’ It provided an initial boost in enthusiasm among the GOP rank and file, but that eventually reflected poorly on McCain as many Americans decided Palin was not qualified to be president.

“She was such a long shot, I didn’t even have her research file on my computer,’’ Plouffe recalls. “I also thought it was a downright bizarre, ill-considered, and deeply puzzling choice.’’

McCain was contending that Obama didn’t have the experience to be president, but “with the Palin pick, he had completely undermined his core argument against us,’’ Plouffe writes.

Obama was of like mind, Plouffe says, telling him: “When voters step back and analyze how he made this decision, I think he’s going to be in big trouble. You just can’t wing something like this - it’s too important.’’

GLOBE STAFF