The Shotgun Blog
« The colour of money | Main | Bob Barr vs. Texas GOP and Dems: The saga continues »
Monday, September 01, 2008
Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant
I'm not sure what to make of Sarah Palin's announcement that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is 
five months pregnant and is planning to keep the baby and marry the father.
According to the BBC, the McCain campaign was aware of the pregnancy before they selected Palin as the vp candidate: "Senator McCain's view is this is a private family matter," said McCain spokesman Steve Schmidt.
Meanwhile, Sarah Palin and her husband Todd issued this statement: "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realise very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family."
While Sarah Palin and her husband will stand by Bristol, I'm curious if the same can be said of social conservatives standing by McCain's choice for v-p. At least one news story makes it look like conservatives are still happy with the selection of Palin:
"Prominent religious conservatives, many of whom have been lukewarm toward McCain's candidacy, predicted that Palin's daughter's pregnancy would not diminish conservative Christian enthusiasm over the vice presidential hopeful.
"I think it's a very private matter," said Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America. "It's a matter that should stay in the family and they have to work through it together. My prayers go out to them."
Added Combs: "We're excited about the governor and think she's going to do well."
Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, said: "We're all sinners."
"We all make mistakes. Certainly, the ideal is not to get pregnant out of wedlock. But she made the right decision after her mistake," he said.
Staver also criticized anyone who would seek to make it a negative campaign issue: "It's absolutely shameful to put her child in the spotlight. She's not running for office. When someone can't face issues, they try to tear down a family."
Townhall.com, a U.S.-based conservative outlet, seems supportive as well.
(Digging around a bit, I found out that Palin released this statement about Bristol's pregnancy because idiots were busy being so stupid as to require some sort of response. The mindless lunacy? That Sarah Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover for Bristol's pregnancy, and was actually pretending that her daughter's baby was her own. I refuse to link to this. Google it up yourself if you'd like.)
Posted by P.M. Jaworski on September 1, 2008 in International Affairs | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515b5d69e200e554f4efea8834
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant:
Comments
"The mindless lunacy? That Sarah Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover for Bristol's pregnancy, and was actually pretending that her daughter's baby was her own. I refuse to link to this."
Jaws, my reaction was the same. But there's a pretty good Kos thread that appears to debunk THAT rumor, at least.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/31/234157/516/1017/581734
The Kos kidz went NUTS on that poor guy, though. They really wanted Palin to be the grandmother of Trig.
Maybe they're happy with this consolation prize, but I kind of doubt it. Conservatives aren't going to condemn Palin and her daughter because, by and large, conservatives are not the monsters liberals think they are.
Best,
Terrence
Posted by: Terrence Watson | 2008-09-01 1:25:38 PM
Interesting that you put it that way, Terrence. They will condemn Sarah's daughter because they are not monsters? I would have thought, maybe, the opposite, no? That condemning the daughter is evidence of a lack of sympathy and understanding.
Here's my gut-level reaction: Kids make mistakes. We should make it plain that these mistakes are mistakes (and not wonderful, joyous things to be encouraged), but without losing sight of the fact that Bristol is a person, and not *merely* some symbol that we can use to make the point that having babies outside of marriage is bad, bad, bad.
This sort of reminds me of the reaction of some to Britney Spears' sister having a baby, but that's another story.
Todd and Sarah's reaction, meanwhile, is to be applauded. They are standing by their daughter, and they should. Family ties should be the thickest, and parents should be as unshakable a bedrock as just about anything. Bristol is lucky to have a mom and dad like Sarah and Todd.
Agreed?
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 2008-09-01 1:38:00 PM
Wasn't Senator Obama's mother just 18 when he was born? Nothing to see here.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-09-01 1:38:25 PM
Jaws,
Oops, you misunderstand: liberals think conservatives are monsters, so they think they would condemn Sarah and her daughter. But conservatives are not monsters. Etc.
Terrence
Posted by: Terrence Watson | 2008-09-01 1:57:31 PM
I'm not sure what to make of Sarah Palin's announcement that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is Bristol_palin_pregnant five months pregnant and is planning to keep the baby and marry the father.
Not sure what to make of it? How about ... this women is honest and straight forward. That something you are not accustomed to seeing in politicians. If you fess up right at the outset, you disarm your enemies. Smart.
Refreshing isn't it?
This women is top shelf. The Dems will turn themselves inside out trying to discredit her. Won't work. She will win with McCain.
Posted by: John V | 2008-09-01 1:59:30 PM
I saw the story yesterday that Palin was being accused of pretending to be Trig's mother. This, I'd say, is a new low for modern political campaigns. (The smearing done in centuries past is, thankfully, likely to remain unrivaled.) The fact that some would spread such rumours about a child that could be devastatingly harmful to her is unconscionable.
After reading the claim and the "evidence" provided I had to wonder what the scandal was supposed to be. Suppose it really were true that Bristol were Trig's mother? Palin pretending to be the mother would be an understandable selfless act of a mother who wants to protect her daughter. If the rumour had been true, it should have RAISED our estimation of her, not lowered it.
But now that it seems that Palin's daughter is pregnant, I think I can see some spin that the original rumour might have been supposed to generate. The narrative, I think, might have been that if it became public knowledge that Palin's teenage daughter was pregnant that it would make Palin look like a bad mother (in the same way that the pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears caused people to ask "where are her parents?"). So the spin is that instead of simply supporting her daughter while pregnant, she tried to cover it up not to protect the girl, but to protect herself from the political damage of being accused of being a bad mother. Now that there is a verified pregnancy, the accusers can drop the rumour and use this new story to advance that narrative (which is why, Zeb, the age of Obama's mama is irrelevant - it does not reflect on his character as it would if one of his daughters got pregnant at that age).
I am also reminded of the political hay that people tried to make out of the strained relationship between Rudy Giuliani and his kids. The narrative there was "if his kids don't think he's a good guy, why should we?"
The whole thing stinks, and I hope will be left behind in a couple of news cycles or less. If the local press in Alaska have any basic decency and Bristol just stays home things should be ok for her. But it's sad to see just how low some people will go to try to score points.
Posted by: Fact Check | 2008-09-01 2:16:13 PM
This will be top news on Larry King Live, Democratic mouthpiece par excellence.
We can expect the lunacy to continue but I'll wager Sarah Palin is ready and able to sort them out.
Posted by: Liz J | 2008-09-01 2:23:07 PM
Her Daughter is pregnant? Oh my God!
She's a normal mother with normal problems?
That's no way for a politician to be is it?
(sarcasm)
Posted by: JC | 2008-09-01 2:28:12 PM
..exactly JC, it shows their family has 'issues' also, like a lot of other families.
I do, however, hope that it was just a stupid move on her daughter "but he said he loved me", and not a rebellion against living in a starched home, or glass bowl being her mother is a public figure.
I also hope her mother is a true mother and was covering up her daughter's pregnancy to avoid problems rather than try to keep up appearances.
Posted by: tomax7 | 2008-09-01 2:53:46 PM
..exactly JC, it shows their family has 'issues' also, like a lot of other families.
I do, however, hope that it was just a stupid move on her daughter "but he said he loved me", and not a rebellion against living in a starched home, or glass bowl being her mother is a public figure.
I also hope her mother is a true mother and was covering up her daughter's pregnancy to avoid problems rather than try to keep up appearances.
Posted by: tomax7 | 2008-09-01 2:53:54 PM
I think the real issue here shouldn't be "ZOMG her kid is knocked up", but rather the total failure of the abstinence-only programs favored by social conservatives. Maybe if Bristol had been encouraged to use condoms or take the pill she wouldn't be stuck marrying someone to save her mother's political career.
Posted by: Voice of Reason | 2008-09-01 5:39:38 PM
It'll probably blow over. John Kerry's comment about Dick Cheney's daughter being a rug doctor backfired badly. Obama will likely leave it alone, but some of his dumb-ass supporters will make fools of themselves.
Posted by: dp | 2008-09-01 7:36:40 PM
Oh, sure, "nothing to see here." "Shows how the family is human." "We all have problems." "It's a personal matter that should stay within the family." "It's not an issue."
Riiiight.
Perhaps if the Republican "family" wasn't so busy minding everyone else's personal business: telling people who they can and cannot marry, wanting to invade people's personal medical decisions that should be between them and their doctor only, wanting to substitute 'abstinence' for sex education and 'creationism' for science, then we could simply ignore the story and let the family have its privacy. But, sorry, it's not that simple. This is the party that is trying to legislate their own Christian morality and foist it on us damned souls who belive reality should trump moralizing nonsense. You reap what you sow, and anyone who thinks this shows good judgment by anyone named Palin or McCain is living in a fantasy existence.
I guess for conservative the Golden Rule is Treat Us How We Want to Be Treated and We'll Treat You With the Contempt You Deserve?
Posted by: Jim Sweet | 2008-09-01 7:45:30 PM
Cut the crap, Jim. Palin's daughter made a mistake, as anyone can. What matters is what you DO about your mistakes, and her daughter is both keeping the baby AND marrying the father (perhaps with Mama subtly poking her in the back with a shotgun under a cloak).
A typical Democrat would flush the unborn infant down the toilet, celebrate the great victory this would be for women's rights, and spend the rest of her life telling everyone what a loser the father was. Compared to that, this girl's reaction is positively heartwarming.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-09-02 8:17:00 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.