The company that makes Beanie Babies has introduced two new dolls, named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia.Awwww, ain't that cute.
Hey, wait a minute, aren't Sasha and Malia the names of the Obama daughters? Yes.
Really? Can't say I've been paying attention.
Coincidence? Ty Inc., the company in Oak Brook, Ill., that makes the dolls, said yes and no. "They are beautiful names," Tania Lundeen, a spokeswoman for Ty, said in an interview with The Associated Press. But, "there's nothing on the girls that refers to the Obama girls," she said.
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink
But what about the fact that in addition to sharing unusual names, Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia are slender brown-skinned and brown-eyed dolls that bear a resemblance to the 7- and 10-year-old darlings who just moved into the White House? "It would not be fair to say they are exact replications of these girls," Ms. Lundeen told The A.P.
The girls are much taller than the dolls.
But the first lady, Michelle Obama, who has publicly described her role as "mom in chief," apparently was not amused. "We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes," Katie McCormick Lelyveld, Mrs. Obama's press secretary, said in a statement on Saturday.
Hey, Michelle, they - and you - stopped being private citizens when your husband/their father started running for President. Sorry 'bout that.
Better get used to it - you now live in a fishbowl and are considered public property. Have fun now, ya' hear?
Pic of the dolls at the link. Pic of the girls at half the magazines in town.