Document Actions
Monday: All Palin, all the time...
posted at 2008-09-01 23:26 | Last modified 2008-09-03 12:34
The big political news story of the day, broken at Politico, was GOP VP candidate Gov. Sarah Palin’s acknowledgement that her 17 year old daughter, Bristol, is “about 5 months pregnant” and is planning to marry the child’s father.
This is tricky to write about, but I don't think Bristol Palin's pregnancy itself is a political issue. It happens all the time, in “good” families as well as “bad,” and it sounds like she and her family have come to terms with it as well as anyone could.
I just feel really sorry for this kid. Being a pregnant 17 year old is tough enough. But now she’s the subject of worldwide headlines because of something she had nothing to do with - her mother’s selection as VP. I can’t imagine how tough it must be to be Bristol Palin today.
Still, most folks I’ve talked to today don’t see this story as irrelevant to the campaign, and I have to agree. Sarah Palin was picked as VP in large part because of her conservative beliefs, including her opposition to sex ed. (Update: The Eagle Forum has removed the page, but you can see a cached version here.)
Palin supports an abstinence-only curriculum – the same program that failed to protect her own daughter, who could’ve ended up with not just an unplanned child, but a potentially fatal STD. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case. But if abstinence-only didn’t work for Palin’s own daughter, does she still think it’s the right choice for other teens? It'll be interesting to see whether her position changes.
Today’s news also raises the question of what the McCain campaign knew about Sarah Palin's family issues before naming her as their VP. Over at the Atlantic, Marc Ambinder says not much.
“Sen. John McCain knew. A few members of his senior staff knew. Most members of his senior staff did not know. Palin's spokesman in Alaska did not know. Palin's campaign-appointed spokesman did not know. McCain staffers -- at different levels of the campaign -- are a bit stunned.”
Turns out McCain may not have known, either. The Anchorage Daily News reports McCain senior strategist Steve Schmidt would not confirm that McCain knew about the pregnancy before he asked her to join the ticket.
Halperin says NBC and ABC are both reporting tonight that GOP operatives are making for Alaska to complete a more thorough vetting of Gov. Palin. (That creaking noise you hear is the proverbial barn door closing.)
On Fox, Bill O’Reilly showed his usual restraint by likening the liberal blog DailyKos to a white supremacist hate site for discussing an internet rumor that Palin’s daughter, not Palin, is the mother of Palin’s youngest child, Trig. O’Reilly also claimed the rumor was linked to Barack Obama. I’m not going any farther on this one, but plenty of others are, including Reuters and Andrew Sullivan.
McCain’s opponent, Barack Obama, has declared the issue “off limits”:
“It has no relevance to Governor Palin’s performance as governor or her potential performance as a Vice President. And I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know, my mother had me when she was 18. How family deals with these issues, and teenage children – you know, that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics.”
Obama also said he was offended by suggestions from the McCain camp that he had anything to do with the story, and added he’d fire anyone on his staff if they did.
Interesting note: CSPAN is announcing that Palin has cancelled her scheduled appearance on a “Women in Politics” panel scheduled for Tuesday morning in St. Paul. No word yet on where she’s planning to be instead.
When it rains...
The LA Times' Tom Hamburger finds inconsistencies in Palin’s stated opposition to federal earmarking.
Reuters’ Yereth Rosen reports some constituents are unhappy about Palin's national-stage repudiation of the “Bridge to Nowhere.”
Time’s Joe Klein reports (before BristolGate, BTW) that Palin may not help McCain much among independents, at least according to GOP consultant Frank Luntz.
"Another week, another Frank Luntz/AARP focus group of undecided voters--this one in Minneapolis and with some bad news for John McCain: they don't like the choice of Sarah Palin for vice president. Only one person said Palin made him more likely to vote for McCain; about half the 25-member group raised their hands when asked if Palin made them less likely to vote for McCain."
On the other hand, some say Palin’s pick was never really about wooing undecided women voters -- it was an attempt to energize the GOP’s conservative base, something McCain himself hasn’t yet been able to do.
In that light, Palin could be an inspired choice. Ultra-conservatives I know are delighted with her, praising McCain for “hitting it out of the park.” So far, polling data doesn’t back them up, but that could change after Palin’s convention speech (I hope) later this week.
For now, at least, Palin’s own party seems to be having a tough time explaining why she’s on the ticket. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachman did her best to defend McCain’s choice on CNN's Larry King.
King: “Congresswoman Bachman, are you saying this was the most qualified republican he could have picked?”
Bachman: “This is the pick that John McCain made. I think John McCain has exercised excellent judgment in this…”
King: [interrupting] “That’s not the question. The question is, is it in your opinion this is the most qualified republican he could have selected?”
Bachman: “I think the answer, again, is this is the one that John McCain selected, and she is qualified. Let’s face it, she is a qualified candidate for vice president.”
I'm still waiting to get the post-Gustav GOP convention schedule -- I'll send it along as soon as I get it. Here's hoping most of it's still intact.
Comments? Drop me a line.
& Newsletters
