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September 1, 2008 | 9:02 am

McCain’s pregnant teen

John McCain’s selection Friday of relatively unknown Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate got all the more bizarre this morning. Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, it turns out, is unmarried. And pregnant. And the McCain campaign knew.

“We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents,“ Sarah and Todd Palin said in the brief statement. “Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family.“

Obviously, these kinds of things happen; they happened to a few friends in my high school youth group. But, despite Bristol Palin’s decision to keep the child and marry the father, this is not going to help McCain with the James Dobsons of the world or even the so-called “values voters.“ What was he thinking?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg in 6 Comments — Leave your comment

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My personal opinion in the absence of real information is that there is no real-world way that either McCain OR Palin knew. If both knew that was extremely bold and as you note possibly damaging. But as big as they are being about it now, even if Maverick McCain ok’d it his campaign staff would all fall on their swords.

I don’t consider it possible that Palin knew and McCain didn’t, as McCain has that famous Irish temper and we would be hearing “... I feel that this development is distracting to the message of the campaign and at this time I must regretfully etc.“

On a positive note, Palin will definitely get new consideration from the single mom, moms of single moms, knocked up shackmate etc. constituencies, many of them heretofore the province of Democrats. And Palin herself has become humanized to those fems who resented her possibly too Candidate Barbie affect (Note to self… get rights and call Mattel…)

Comment by Ben Plonie on 9/01/08 at 12:16 pm

The utter hypocrisy of these far-far-far-Right Fundamentalists is gaudily illustrated by Sarah Palin.  She excludes abortion even in case of rape or incest.  She supports government-funded “abstinence-only” programs. (Worked great for her daughter, didn’t it). Her qualifications to have her finger on the nuclear button in case McBush is elected (tfui, tfui) are: Basketball point guard in high school.  Likes to hunt and fish.  Life member of the NRA.  Supports drilling for oil in ANWR.  Experience as mayor of a little town in the middle of nowhere.  Halfway into her first term as governor of the lowest-populated state in the Union.  Total ignorance of foreign policy. Total ignorance of the job of VP (she actually said “I’ll have to find out what the job is about”). This is a terrifying person to have her finger on the nuclear button, if McBush is elected and cannot continue to serve.

Comment by Aspasia on 9/01/08 at 8:51 pm

I don’t care if she has 5 kids,one pregnant,hunts and fishes or that she is an all around woman or just a woman(I am one by the way and a Christian)It just scares the beejeebies out of me that she could be President if something happens to the old guy! I think McCain is a patriot, not a bright one or very original and offers nothing new, espicially a face of emerging America.

Comment by judith collier on 9/01/08 at 10:41 pm

Aspasia,
I had to re-read your comment to make sure that it actually did make no sense. You started with a charge of hypocrisy but never showed an example of it.

Sarah Palin excludes abortion, didn’t practice it when it would have made her life easier. This is an example of integrity, not hypocrisy.

If you are referring to her daughter, aside from the fact that she cannot be considered a far-far-far-Right Fundamentalist, she is not a candidate or part of the campaign, and on top of that is not getting an abortion either even if that would make life easier for her mother and the whole McCain campaign. Don’t forget, if she got an abortion there would have been no need for an announcement.

And abstinence is still the only method that works 100% of the time when it is used, unlike other methods of birth and STD control.

None of the rest your comment has anything to do with hypocrisy, unless Palin was a far-far-far-Left Fundamentalist.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 9/02/08 at 6:03 am

Judith
I think the one you should be scared of is Biden. You should be aware that a Senator does not run anything or manage people at all. He or she has an office staff as small as a store or a gardener, and a manager to do all the scut work. Being a Senator is a relatively poorer preparation for the Presidency than being a governor, and that is why I supported Giuliani for the candidacy, who as Mayor of NYC had a bigger job than most of the state Governors. C’est la vie.

Also, and back to the hyprocrisy question for a minute, Biden’s famous support for Israel consists of rhetorical support for the US/Israel relationship, but he supports every policy that undermines Israel’s national security. He supports Israel donating the Golan Heights to Syria, meeting and negotiating with Syria, and he brushes Syria’s alliance with Iran and support of terrorism under the rug. Biden opposes every diplomatic or military move against Iran and understands Iran’s ‘emotional needs’ in developing nuclear capability. from Caroline Glick “In the weeks after the September 11 attacks, Biden was already thinking about appeasing Iran. In a New Republic profile in October 2001, Biden was quoted raising the following suggestion to his Senate staffers: “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran.“ [!!!!!]

Obama of course is ten times farther along these policies than Biden. But if you don’t call Biden a plain fool, his policies don’t pass the smell test. I would rather have Palen with no record on Iran than someone with a naive or corrupt one.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 9/02/08 at 6:21 am

May I commend to those concerned about Iran/Israel, the following book, “Persian Pilgrimages”, by an Iranian-born, U.S. educated journalist named Afshin Molavi. For

<http://tinyurl.com/5rubec>.

I am a hard-headed pragmatist, accustomed to reading between the lines.  This first-person account, written objectively, told me much that we all need to know about contemporary Iran. 

Because he speaks Farsi and some Arabic, Molavi had extensive contact with local people.  Universally—whether the young people who make up a huge proportion of the population, or disillusioned veterans of the Iran-Iraq war, or just plain Mohammeds who can’t find work in the terrible Iran economy—they are disgusted with the theocracy, which they believe betrayed the promise of the mullahs who overthrew the Shah.  They admire America, they deplore official corruption (not new) but only know how to deal with it “middle-eastern style”.  Most of all, they yearn for democracy.

Fortunately we will have a new administration that does not approve the McCain-type “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” foreign policy.  That would be not only counterproductive (what would YOU do if somebody bombed your country even if you hated your government!)  but might well unleash even worst Al Quaeda-type terrorists than have been created by our illegal invasion of Iraq.

I never trusted the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq inspectors and the run-up to that war-built-on-lies, so I am glad I don’t have to trust them re: Iran.

We need to find ways to support the Iranian people yearning to be rid of their corrupt mullahs—who are, as we all know, the real power, not the unshaven nut-case who mouths off on the media.

Comment by Aspasia on 11/05/08 at 10:30 am

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