Sarah Palin was thoroughly vetted. That's the contention that the McCain people are making in the linked AP story by Beth Fouhy and Liz Sidoti, posted this morning on Yahoo! News. That's the only real import of the Bristol Palin story -- what it says about John McCain.
If he knew, and picked Palin anyway, it would have been a gutsy decision. And the Democrats would be wise to follow Senator Obama's lead on this and stay away from it.
If he didn't know, and if Gov. Palin knew but wasn't asked, that would say something completely different. About both McCain and Palin.
If McCain didn't know and if Gov. Palin didn't know either -- that says something about the sacrifices one makes to walk on the public stage.
I suppose we'll never know for certain that we have the true story, though. McCain and his senior people have to publicly proclaim that they knew all about Bristol Palin's pregnancy. Even if they didn't. One hopes that -- if VP hopeful Sarah Palin knew -- she in fact disclosed it.
But teenagers aren't always as forthcoming as we parents hope... and Gov. Palin has been distracted of late. Running a state (even a small one), a special needs infant, and a chance at national office? That's a lot to juggle. Maybe the teenage daughter had kind of dropped off the maternal radar. So maybe McCain didn't know because Gov. Palin didn't know either.
You can bet your last dollar that some unnamed person 'high up' in the McCain campaign will whisper bitterly to a reporter that the campaign was not told in advance. I'm thinking such a story will be running tomorrow, if not by this evening.
That might be because it is true... and it might be because this person was hurt at learning he or she was not 'in the loop' for this information.
There's a lot that this unfortunate story might tell us about Senator McCain -- but since we can never be sure of anything that's said about it, we'll just have to watch and see what the parties do going forward. Maybe that will tell us what we need to know.
And by parties... not the kid. Or her boyfriend. Let us all hope they can be left alone by our voracious media.
7 comments:
ho knows? Bristol's condition might get others voting?
well curmy you can bet your bottom dollar he knew about the husband's arrest for drunk driving a while back and chose her anyway. i love her myself. she is real and smart and i think she'll be great. but that's just me...
smiles, bee
tyvc
The daughter is making hypocrites of those Dems that will never not accept abortion. The term 'pro-choice' should apply also to the those women who carry to term...right?
Leave the daughter alone. Hope for a healthy baby and lasting marriage for the young couple!
I'm not a fan of McCain-Palin but the coming blessed event should never be inserted in any way, shape or form into the campaign. Ya know, teens (Heck, even folks much older than teens too) have been dealing with this issue forever and it makes no difference whether kids have had sex-ed classes or not either, whether the parents are pro-choice or pro-life, if people will or won't indulge in pre-marital sex. Plus, if having a "short-term" baby (what folks used to say back in my younger years about shotgun weddings/children, and if that is the very worst thing that person does in their lifetime, then that does not make the baby's parent -or the grandparents either -a bad person! Sometimes, things that are actually non-issues get blown so out of proportion and are completely irrelevant to the "price of tea in China" -to use another old, old saying there. I don't see why so many insist on making such a big deal on things that are primarily personal, family issues to begin with -like extra-marital affairs, ya know. I'm not advocating for them but just feel it is none of my business if a spouse knows the other has been fishing in an off-limits pond or not and decides to stay in the marriage anyway. She (or he) is the one, not me, who has to live with the other party, who has to deal with the pain of betrayal and only that person can decide if they can forgive, put the actions aside and move on -not me, not anyone else and we have no business in trying to second guess their reasons there either.
I heard Dave Letterman taking a swipe at Palin for not being around to watch that her daughter didn't get pregnant. He was talking to Dr. Phil and Dr. Phil said, "When your son, Harry is seventeen or eighteen in the backseat of a Chevy...he will not be thinking about you, Dave". Actually, Dave had nerve talking about Bristol, when he had conceived his son out of wedlock. The children of all the candidates are absolutely off limits. There were a lot of "ifs" in your summary of who knew what, when...my husband's favorite if is: "If the dog hadn't stopped to poop, he would have caught the rabbit".
Ok.. I TRIED to be open-minded about Gov. Palin and give her a chance. I even watch the RNC. I was offended by her speech.
It's one thing to point out the differences you have with the other party, but she was down right nasty (catty/bitchy) at times.. like making fun of Obama's pillars from the DNC.
The media is saying the Dems will have to tread lightly with her so as not to offend women voters. That's sexism, isn't it? I mean nobody is saying to tread lightly with Obama because he is black.
arg..
Barb, the one thing you have to keep in mind is that the vice-presidential nominee is expected (in recent elections) to be the 'attack dog.' The Veep-wannabe is supposed to fire up the troops and true believers and give the presidential nominee the opportunity to appear above the fray. Palin came out swinging at Sen. Obama, and that struck you as "nasty" -- but that is also her task.
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