Even More Palin

[lsanderson]

Palin's Unmarried 17-Year-Old Daughter is Pregnant

To quell persistent rumors on the Internet that Sarah Palin's new baby was really her daughter's, Palin has announced that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, is now 5 months pregnant and plans to marry the baby's father. The rumors got started when Palin behaved in a way that raised eyebrows in April. She was in Texas for a meeting of the National Governors' Association when she began leaking amniotic fluid and having contractions. Although she knew the baby had Down syndrome and was a month premature to boot, she didn't go to a local hospital. Instead she gave her planned speech later in the day as scheduled and then caught a flight from Dallas to Seattle where she took another flight to Anchorage. Then she and her husband drove 45 minutes to a hospital in her home town where the baby was born.

Premature babies, especially those with Down syndrome, need special care. Palin could have gone to a world-class hospital in Dallas, Seattle, or Anchorage, any of which would have been fully equipped to handle eventualities. Instead she chose to fly 8 hours (without telling the airlines she was in labor) and go to a village hospital probably not equipped as well as hospitals in any of the three big cities. The rumorbarons couldn't believe that any 44-year-old mother of four children would take such a risk, so the assumption was that she wasn't pregnant. Combined with the fact that Bristol had been out of school for five months, the rumor started that Sarah was covering up for Bristol.

But the story raises other questions, for example:

* Is it responsible for a woman in labor to fly for 8 hours with the risk of giving birth on board?
* What should be done to reduce unwanted teenage pregnancies and are these techniques effective?
* Is sex-ed entirely the job of the parents or do the schools and government have a role? If so, what?
* If schools should not have a role, what do you do about parents who don't do their job properly?

For a candidate who was chosen largely for her gender and her views on family values, it is perfectly legitimate to ask about how she puts her family values into practice herself. For a candidate running on, say, his ability as a manager (as Romney and Giuliani were), it is appropriate to ask: "What have you managed and how well did you do it?" and so on. The last word on this has not been said, but the discussion has already started. Sally Quinn has a good column on the subject.

Conservative commentators have so far focused exclusively on Bristol's decision not to have an abortion. Nothing has been said about the subject of unwed teenage mothers, personal morality, and parents' responsibilities, although many of these people have clear opinions when talking about unwed teenage mothers living in urban ghettos.

Taegan Goddard at Political Insider has observed that the McCain campaign chose Labor Day, a day when few people are paying attention to the news, to announce three potentially damaging news items: (1) Bristol Palin is pregnant, (2) Sarah Palin hired an attorney to defend herself in the Troopergate affair, (3) Todd Palin, the governor's husband, was arrested for drunk driving in 1986. He wonders what else we still don't about Sarah Palin. By picking someone new and fresh, McCain brought a lot of attention and excitement to his campaign. The downside is that there might be unpleasant things in her past that will come dribbling out in the next few weeks. All in all, the Palin rollout has not been as smooth as McCain might have liked. The LA Times has a good piece on McCain's gamble. More

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Instead of making another victim of abstinence-only education even more miserable, we should stick to picking on the Alaska Independence Party, the Ted Steven connection, the lies about the brige to nowhere, etc. etc. etc.

O!

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Where's the fun in that? ;-)

"To be VP, she tossed her daughter right under the paparazzi bus."

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2008/09/sarah_palin_explodes.html#comment-153076