Bristol Palin, the eldest daughter of Republican Vice Presidential choice, Sarah Palin, has been reported to be the actual mother of Trig, the youngest of the Palin brood. Now it has been reported that Bristol is indeed pregnant, and to marry the father of her child. The father of said baby is yet unknown.
Bristol Palin finds herself in good company. She joins the ranks of Jamie Lynn Spears as a soon-to-be teenage mother.
Really. Why any of this is considered "news" is beyond me. Such things as unwed teenage pregnancies occur in many households across the country, and across the world. I suppose some will seek a titillating side to this story. Did the Palins know before Friday? Do they condone their teenage daughter prematurely issuing an offspring before she becomes a legal adult? And, I suppose the entire "conservative Christian, anti-abortion" blah, blah, blah will be dispatched from wagging tongues, as if their appendages haven't already had quite a workout already this weekend.
As anyone with a lick of sense knows, if Sarah Palin lied about anything, including the parentage of Trig, the truth will likely come out sometime. There are plenty of people who make a damned good living digging around in closets looking for skeletons to unearth. Ask John Edwards. I'm sure Ms. Palin knew that her entire life would be examined under a microscope while considering the position. And yet she accepted John McCain's offer.
Bristol Palin's pregnancy is a personal family matter. As she is only 17, she is a minor and still the responsibility of her parents. As a parent of a teenage girl myself, I can only imagine what the entire family is going through.
So, Sarah Palin will be a grandmother after all. Now that we have gotten that bit of nonsense out of the way, perhaps the world can get back to the real issue, and that's of getting to know her.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Pulse
This just in :
McCain was forced to pick Palin as running mate...
because he is also Palins future son-in-law.
McCain fathered his VP's grand-child...
therefore ; he is his own grandpa.
It's simple really.
2 - Roschelle
People are spewing such hate-filled venom merely because some of us were attempting to find the truth in a story that just didn't add up. It wasn't about attacking "their" candidate - especially since some of the information concerning Trig's paternity was posted by Republicans. But I say... the Rumor mill...a path worth taking.
3 - Condor
Healthy young women make healthy young mothers.
"We" had our first at 18. It was an accident, but it happened. At 45 all three were out of the house and making their way through life.
I now have 9 grand children, with 10, 11 (and maybe 12 after the sono-gram). At 55 I'm not old either. This is my golden years? Well, not exactly but I have a great deal if energy to expend on the little ones.
There is ALOT to be said about having children young.
4 - Lee Richards
If you're going to be Ms. National Family Values and want to legislate morals for others, you damn well better walk the walk.
I'd say her family needs her more than the country does. It'll be interesting to see what she says.
5 - Cannonshop
Okay, Lee... so what you're saying is, only Liberal women can have both a career, and deal with family crises?
(Help me out here-I'm confused.)
6 - troll
...what would dr laura do - ?
7 - Cannonshop
I dunno, I've heard of this "Dr. Laura", but I'm honestly unfamiliar with what (If anything) she did to get famous. waitaminute... oh, radio advice columnist, kind of a nasty dear-abby, right?
blech.
8 - Lisa Solod Warren
I actually feel sorry for Sarah Palin. I wouldn't have her full plate if you paid me ten million dollars. Imagine trying to juggle a new baby, a new grandbaby, and the vice presidency. All I could think of was, wow, just as she is moving to D.C., her daughter is getting married and having a baby. In the best of all possible worlds, she would help her daughter get through all this because being a 17 year old mother is going to be tough. But now the girl has to decide: move with her husband to be closer to mom, or stay in Alaska where her husband's parents live and she has friends? Tough call for Palin and her daughter. I really do feel for all of them. This is a series of stressors that I would not wish on anyone. Yikes.
9 - Lee Richards
Drop the phoney half-assed "liberal" labelling will you, please.
She's supposed to be appeal to--and be an example of--those who endorse her brand of thinking, and want a family values national agenda--theirs, for everybody else. That evidently was one of her political pluses for McCain.
If you publically preach and campaign on a value system, and define yourself by it to the world, don't you need to be a shining example of it? Nobody's perfect, so don't insist you and yours are marching to divine orders when you can't always live up to it(nobody can)in your personal life.
Why not be up front about this on Friday, instead of waiting for someone to leak it?
And a "career" is a little different than being commander-in-chief of the U.S. and leader of the free world.
I said her family needs her more than the country does. I can't imagine a real family values advocate disagreeing.
10 - Lisa Solod Warren
You have a good point, Lee. I don't think I could, as a once-again new mother of a special- needs child and a grandmother-to-be whose daughter was going to be a mother at only 17 could step into the vice presidency and give it any kind of good and real and thoughtful attention. To be honest, I would be totally stressed and distracted, which is why I said I would not have her plate if someone handed it to me in 24 karat gold.
I am, as all of you know, a serious and long time feminist, but really, if you have kids, and that many, and there are family crises, and you are an outspoken family values person AND you oppose abortion for you AND your daughter then, yeh, baby, you gotta walk the walk. Stay home and put out all those home fires. 'Cause they sure ain't gonna get any smaller.
11 - Lisa Solod Warren
ps
I am afraid Palin may have to call it a day,soon. I am not sure even Maggie T. could have handled all this.
This just in from the Huffington Post: She's hired a lawyer to deal with the investigation into her firing the trooper in Alaska. Oy.
12 - Matthew T. Sussman
Meh. I liked it better when there was a cover-up.
13 - Cannonshop
Okay let's see...
November is two months away.
The earliest point I can see where the baby on the way could impact her performance as Vice President would be, what, January? January 20th, maybe if a lightning bolt took out the president at the swearing in. At that point, the wee babe would be born, and sure, it might impact things a bit, but there's that whole thing about families- I assume Governor Palin is not an orphan, nor her husband? (dunno for sure, don't trust Wiki. too much chance of a fanboy or operative screwing with it). The Daughter is apparently going to marry the baby's father, so there's that whole family too. Palin's been dealing with this for five months as it is. It strikes me that an explanation of what "Family Values" IS might be useful-it means that when my Niece gets into serious trouble (which has happened) and her mom can't leave work (which has also happened) we all drop what we're doing to help out.
I know this is a bit of an alien concept for some folks, but Palin accepted some five months AFTER she knew about it-this didn't hit HER as a surprise, it hit the rest of us out here in voter-land as a surprise. Someone who can deal with French-Canadians without wanting to feed them their teeth, handle a scandal, and chew up a party machine at home while pregnant probably CAN deal with this.
I think you're short-changing her, Lee, and Lisa. If anything, it might even be a good test of whether or not she's ready for the big-time, since she's going to have one hell of a job balancing this mess while participating in a campaign thousands of miles from home.
sure as hell, I don't think Joe Biden could do it, but I'm still open to the possibility that Palin can-simply because of what she's DONE while in office.
Also-for perspective here, most of the people who wanted Palin to run for President and were disappointed?
Don't care about her "Family Values" stances as much as her record as a reformer and an executive. She's got a pretty good one for a Politician, and solid accomplishments in the JOB. If I was looking for someone to run a church, well...not so much. Separating that whole personal opinion from performance at work thing, y'know...
14 - Lisa Solod Warren
Cannonshop, why do you always capitalize Niece whenever you write it, as if it were her name? You also capitalize a lot of other things.... oddly.
You may be right but I wouldn't leave my 17 year old in the lurch like that.
As for Joe Biden. Please remember that he took the oath of office as senator at the hospital bed of his two injured young, and I mean, young, sons, after losing his wife and infant daughter in an automobile accident. I think he probably could do what Palin is doing. Should he have? Who the hell knows? I suspect he, too, had good family support. Let's hope Palin's daughter does, too. And Palin for that matter.
15 - Cannonshop
Fumbly fingers, Lisa, sometimes there's a twitch. (no, I'm not a very good typist...)
I kind of expect, since Palin has such an idealistic streak about "Family Values" (capitalized to separate from the values of a family to indicate the political ad-copy idiocy) that her family must be pretty supportive.
As for Joe...
What I wrote was just...ew, wrong. I forgot about that incident. He likely goes through a species of torture his most ardent enemies would not wish on him. Losing a child is a whole species of horror.
16 - erin
The reason it's a big deal is because Palin is a family values candidate and wants laws enacted so that schools teach ABSTINENCE ONLY!!! She wants the government to pass these laws that will affect millions of other young women when it's obvious that ABSTINENCE ONLY PROGRAMS DO NOT WORK--case in point, her daughter. It's because she's a hypcrite and a mother who gives no thought to thrusting her pregnant daughter into the spotlight for her own blind ambition. THAT'S WHY it's important. It's called typical Republican hypocrisy.
17 - Clavos
The reason it's a big deal is because Palin is a family values candidate and wants laws enacted so that schools teach ABSTINENCE ONLY!!! She wants the government to pass these laws that will effect millions of other young women when it's obvious that ABSTINENCE ONLY PROGRAMS DO NOT WORK--case in point, her daughter.
Completely false. While her personal beliefs do not allow her to have an abortion, she has never tried to get legislation enacted to force those views on anyone else, even as Governor of Alaska.
On another "family values" issue, she stopped the state of Alaska from withdrawing benefits from gay state employees' partners, even though she personally believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Stop spreading lies.
18 - Dave Nalle
I wanted to share some amazing statistics with you folks.
According to the CDC, these marital stats apply to teenage women between the ages of 15 and 19.
78.2% have been married one or more times by the age of 19
60.2% have been married once by the age of 19
14.6% have been married twice by the age of 19
3.4% have been married THREE OR MORE TIMES by the age of 19
So, this would make Bristol Palin absoluely in harmony with the overwhelming majority of women her age.
Dave
19 - Matthew T. Sussman
"The reason it's a big deal is because
Palin is a family values candidate and wants laws enacted so that schools teach ABSTINENCE ONLY!!!we already made up our minds on who we're all voting for and are just killing time until Election Day."Fixed that for ya.
20 - Roschelle
TALK ABOUT A CONSPIRACY THEORY!!!! Consider this: Sarah Palin "delivered" Trig 4/18/08. She was back at work on 4/21/08 (UNHEARD OF - USUALLY). Now according to the McCain camp it was decided to share with the world that Bristol is pregnant now... Ok... here's what's going to happen... Bristol is going to suffer a "pseudo-miscarriage" because of all the negative publicity and gain the sympathy of everyone in America... this was the only way to end the rumor about her being Trig's mother... Just a THEORY....
21 - troll
Dave - are those stats national or international or galactic - ?
a link in this case would have been helpful as you don't give much info about the figs
22 - Clavos
Sigh.
There is no way, with the population we have, that this country will ever get back on an even keel, no matter who wins the election.
Sisyphus had it easy...
23 - troll
500000000 or bust
24 - Clavos
I'm beginning to give that some serious thought...
(nc!)
25 - Marty Williamson
The two serious issues raised by the illegitimate pregnancy of Sarah Palin's minor daughter don't have anything to do with whether she and her family made the correct choice when faced with an illegitimate pregnancy. The issues are:
1. John McCain has demonstrated impulsiveness and very poor judgment in choosing the un-vetted Palin as his choice for vice president.
2. However brave a face is put on it, pregnancy in unmarried minor teens is not something to flaunt or celebrate. McCain and Palin have put this "in the face" of all Americans -- and illegitimate pregnancy in minors is NOT what the majority of Americans mean when they say family values. It looks to me like the ticket for family values this year is the Democrats.