This is just too convenient. Palin’s family has now announced that 17-year old daughter Bristol is 5 months pregnant. This was explicitly disclosed to quell rumors about Bristol having been the actual mother of 4-month old baby Trig. The glove don’t fit, so you must acquit.
This may be the actual truth, but it still seems suspicious, maybe entirely because it’s so convenient. It’s about the only story which ends the debate on Trig. The math of the story obviously doesn’t work for Trig to be Bristol’s. And no one can, or should, start digging through Bristol’s life to determine how genuine the pregnancy is. She’s just a kid, and either she is really pregnant or she just was 4 months ago. Either way, she has way more than enough going on in her life. Leave the kid alone. Besides, sometime right after the election we’ll know the truth based on whether or not she actually has a baby. But I’m not the only one who will be less than surprised if she somehow “loses” the baby along about the second week of November give or take.
In the mean time though, Sarah is fair game. Let’s accept her statements as fact. We still have issues with a woman who’s judgment we are supposed to trust, who’s values are unassailable, and who values the sanctity of all life. This woman, already in labor, boarded a plane for a 13 hour flight. This was against airline rules and certainly against the advice of any competent doctor. Further, this champion of the family now has a home with a 4-month old special needs baby and a pregnant teen daughter planning a wedding. In the midst of this, she’s going to run an aggressive campaign schedule which allows precious little time for family. All of this to hopefully win an office which will require her to move over 5000 miles away. Will Bristol and her new hubby and grandson move as well? Whether they do or not, the new baby will be separated from at least half it’s extended family. Further, couples that young with a new baby will more than have their hands full. They will require a lot of family support. But Sarah really doesn’t have time for that even if everyone moves to DC.
There’s no way to look at this and rationalize that she has her family priorities straight. She’s supposed to appeal to Christian conservatives and women, and both those demographics are heavily about family. Something Sarah Palin has clearly relegated to the back seat.
As I said before, the real loser here is John McCain. But this unarguably is his own doing.
Here’s a really sad notion… CBS was interviewing one of McCain’s campaign officials to see how this was effecting his campaign and the woman said that even though OBama came out with the statement he did to tell people to stay away from Palin’s family, that the democrats are going to have to answer to why they spread such vicious rumors and hate mongering on the democratic blogs. As if the democratic party itself was to blame for the stories that are out there. And just for kicks, I actually visited the FOX news article on this and read the posts. The great Republican Christian right people were using language on some of those posts that I wouldn’t use to slam anyone who had any opinion at all about it… as if any voter had no right to have an opinion good or bad. This is going to get ugly real fast if they hammer O’Bama on this during the campaign after he told people to lay off the family.
I do have some other comment on the story as a whole though.
After the Bill Clinton affair, he himself was blamed for the teenagers in our country changing their attitudes about oral sex. It was somehow ok with all of them and the excuse that most adults gave for the change of those attitudes was “the President did it and made it acceptable for them”. Will we now hear the argument that more teens will become pregnant because “well, the VPs daughter did it” if she should win. I’m guessing no, because that will be somehow different. Don’t get me wrong, I feel really sad for Bristol and wish her all the best in trying to raise this child with her fathers help (mom will be kind of busy). But, she’s young and her moms choice to accept this nomination knowing that this would come out, has put that girls every more into the spotlight. And for what… so an agenda can be furthered. As a mother, I would be very supportive of my daughter too, but I wouldn’t put her in the world spotlight on top of it. I’m a working mom too, but my kids and their feelings and well being would always come first. I don’t believe like others are saying that the fact that she is pregnant is her moms fault as kids will do what they want no matter what you bring them up to believe, but it was an poor decision to put the girl thru this at this level after the fact.
They also keep making the point that its so great that she’s choosing to keep this baby. However, it is that same choice they want to take away from everyone else. I don’t think they are even listening to what they are saying. I would never, nor would I want my kids to ever abort a baby, it isn’t about that, it’s about the choices they want to keep taking away from everyone. If that daughter had the choice to make, why shouldn’t everyone get that same choice. Or better yet, if Palin wasn’t so anti-sex education, their wouldn’t have had to be a choice to begin with. We cannot stop kids from having sex simply because we or God tells them not to, that has been proven over and over again. I don’t believe sex-education means “great now you can go and do it” and I don’t think the majority of our teens are that stupid either. They obviously still do it and this whole “no sex-educaiton, abstense only policies” just keep getting proven ineffective over and over again.
I believe the daughter should be off-limits in all of this, but the policies will not be… especially during a campaign season. That in itself will keep this girl in particular in the spotlight… and her mom should have been smart enough to know that and taken it into consideration before running for office like this. As I said, I feel bad for Bristol… for many many reasons.
Kim