Can someone explain why the president's 13 year old daughter is in Oaxaca, Mexico on spring break without her parents?  Needless to say, the 7.4 earthquake which hit the Oaxaca region should cause alarm and consternation for the Obamas and the parents of the 12 friends Malia has taken along with her. What were they thinking when they planned this trip?

Besides taxpayers footing the bill for 25 Secret Service personnel  the drama surrounding the now you see it, 'now you don't' press coverage is enough to make even Obama zombies wonder if the First couple are just political hacks using Malia to appease the Mexican government.

After all Obama's State Department came under fire for its most recent travel alarm urging Americans to avoid almost half of Mexico's states. The State Department issued a travel warning Feb. 8 suggesting travelers to "defer nonessential travel" to 14 of Mexico's 31 states due to drug-related violence that has cost more than 47,500 lives since 2006.

Mexico's top domestic security official responded by calling the warnings "ridiculous" and 'out of proportion." Alejandro Poire from Mexico's Interior Department told reporters in February "these alerts overstate or misstate the standards and security situation that exists in our country."

Oops. With Mexican President Felipe Calderon scheduled for an April 2 summit in Washington the Obamas may have decided to send little Malia, along with 12 of her friends sans parents, to Mexico to counteract the negative publicity generated by the State Department warning.

If anyone thinks the Obamas are above such antics, they need only look back over the past couple of years. A week ago Mr. Obama referenced his daughters in the Sandra Fluke contraception controversy, apparently managed by Anita Dunn's PR firm.

Before that "as the father of two daughters" Mr. Obama spoke about the Plan-B morning after pill. How about when Mr. Obama identified with the father of the American aid worker rescued by Navy Seals, '"I cannot imagine what he went through -- given Malia and Sasha -- and for him to be able to stay strong," the president said."'

He brought his girls up again last month in a visit to a Master Lock factory in Milwaukee making a joke about being the father of two girls soon to enter high school. Last year at the National Prayer breakfast he prayed as a father whose oldest daughter would soon be "going to dances where there will be boys."

Mrs. Obama even went so far as to bring up her daughter's weight when she launched her anti-obesity campaign in 2010. The children's pediatrician "cautioned me that I had to look at my children's BMI" and that "he was concerned that something was getting off balance."

It seems so long ago when then-candidate Obama promised to keep his children out of the limelight after he was pounded by the media for a July, 2008 Access Hollywood spur of the moment  interview including the girls. When asked by reporters if he regretted exposing his 7 and 10-year old to a wide audience instead of protecting their privacy Obama said "we wouldn't do it again and we won't be doing it again...I don't think it's healthy and it's something we'll be avoiding in the future."

So how did the Telegraph get the most recent story about Malia's visit to Mexico? Did the same White House that just admitted asking news agencies to pull the story give the go-ahead to publish the trip? Seems there's nothing that happens in the mainstream liberal media concerning the Obama family without the President's team pulling the strings.

Making the personal political is rule number one in the leftist playbook and no one plays it better than the Axelrod/Dunn  PR machine who put the One into office. If most Americans can't fathom a First Family sending their 13-year old to Mexico without parental supervision they need only remember this is good PR for a recently quarantined Mexico; and even the president's children are not off limits.

Read more M. Catharine Evans at Potter Williams Report