Why is the media ignoring Obama's drug use?

Columnist Linda Chavez wonders why the media is trying so hard to dig up dirt on Sarah Palin and her family, but has given Barack Obama a free pass on some aspects of his troubled past, including admitted drug use.

It's not like the media has to work hard to find out more about Obama's use of drugs and alcohol. It's right there in his books.

From Chavez's latest column:

In his memoir "Dreams from My Father," Barack Obama describes his troubled teenaged years. "Pot had helped, and booze, maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack though," he recalls, though he admits he came close to trying heroin at the urging of a friend who shot up in front of him. He was deterred by the image "of an air bubble, shiny and round like a pearl, rolling quietly through my vein and stopping my heart," he says. "Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man."

Obama's drug use went on for at least a few years, though he is noticeably vague in describing exactly when it began, how extensive it was, or when it ended. At least one of his friends was arrested for drug possession; another had a mental breakdown after one too many acid trips. But Obama has been reticent to reveal the extent of his illegal activities -- and the media haven't cared enough to pursue the question.

It's clear we're witnessing another example of liberal media bias.

Chavez writes:

The double standard is shocking -- but perhaps not to Sen. Obama. In his memoir, he gives the most telling explanation of how he has gotten away with avoiding discussions of his drug use. It was the same technique he used on his mother when she confronted him in his senior year of high school: "I had given her a reassuring smile and patted her hand and told her not to worry, I wouldn't do anything stupid. It was usually an effective tactic, another of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves."

With two months left to Election Day, it will be a test of the media's integrity to see if they devote as much time delving into Sen. Obama's drug use as they did into Bristol Palin's sex life.

Read the full column, "The Unexamined Life," at Chavez's Web site.