There's no excuse for Palin family feeding frenzy

I believe President Obama has been very clear on this issue and I don't think he can be held responsible for the silly comments made by people who populate message boards.

Palin's daughter was not attacked. The attack came only to the hypocrisy of the republican party.It is obvious that Palin is nothing more than a Evangelical icon for McCain. Unfortunately, the American people have been duped again by Karl Rove. The true Palin will come out in the future. Today, she could barely read her prepared speech. If she is presented to the public in hard debate, it will be nothing but a total embarrassment for the party and herself.
The new republican vice president will never appear before the public for serious debate. This is a woman who soul knowledge of foreign affairs is the fact that Russia is near Alaska. Well it is also near the North Pole, so we can assume that she knows that Santa Clause lives there as well. What a pathetic joke!

Of course Palin's daughter is under attack. Mr Obama and Mr. Biden have even made statements calling for it to cease. Mr. Biden said it best with his statement, "Children are off limits."

There are a lot of angry people out there, who cannot resist taking the shot, and the righeous indignation of percieved hypocracy is feeding that anger.

Sarah Palin knew that she and her family would fall under intense media scrutiny when she decided to accept her role in the republican party as their nominee for VP. She should not have accepted if she didn't want her dirty laundry out in the open! Every good mother out here knows that when it comes to your children, you protect them from the enemy, and in her case she failed at doing one of the most important things that your children expect from you.

No one attacked Palin's daughter. This is a bogus story.

When accepting the VP nomination for a major party, isn't it expected that a person will come under a lot of scrutiny? Now I hear how everyone is so "sexist" and "mean spirited" towards poor Sarah Palin who, wait, was the one who told the press that her daughter was pregnant. Secondly, in the eyes of many it is ironic that someone who is a staunch supporter of abstinence only ideas ends up with a teenager daughter who is pregnant (big shock). Yes, I agree with Kerry that this story is overshadowing more important issues... but my concern would be more placed with why did McCain pick Palin over Ridge at the 11th hour? Was it because she was is experienced or was it because she is... a woman? The real sexism in this whole debacle is picking someone based on their sex to exploit disenchanted female voters.

No one and I repeat No One was attacking Palin's daughter. Palin is nothing but hot air and a Icon for the Evangelical right! They were attacking the total hypocrisy of that whacked out group and the Republican party. Palin delivered a speech written by neocon Bill Kristal. Now lets see her walk the walk. Now she if she has the courage to show up on "Meet the Press"

Palin the new Icon of the Evangicals is nothing but a distraction of major issues. Amazing to see how so many people fall in to yet another Karl Rove political wedge issue. Palin will eventually far apart if allowed on the major shows like Meet the Press!

Is Palin just a Vanna White? A cute little face for the host? Is she scared to get out in public and answer the tough questions on Foreign policy? Oe is she just a symbol of the Republican's that they put the party above the Country? Come on Palin, stand up to the plate.

HER MOTHER is the person who subjected her daughter to this press frenzy. As a governor she is well aware of how the media react to candidate's personal lives--so McCain-Palin and their fans need to quit griping about it and be like the rest of us--sit back and wait for more sarcastic one-liners to show us how serious they're NOT about changing the direction of this country's government.

"Is there a rule somewhere that the teenage children of political candidates must be virgins? No?"

Kerry, that's not the point. The point is Sarah Palin and her family are being used/exploited as the "average family" with average problems. That's simply not true.

all of the candidates are "pimping" out their families when it is beneficial then calling "hands-off" when it is not. Contradictory dont ya think!?!?!?!?!

When the blogging world started to note that Obama was a Muslim he did come out and note he wasn't. This is when he started to talk about being a member of his church for 20 something years. And after he started making those statements was when the Rev Wright thing began...

So yes, it did happen to BO as well.

1. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a dictionary. 2. If you read the whole thread it would make sense. Someone was trying to point out that using wikipedia as a source of information can be a dubious proposition. 3. If you don't like it, don't read it. 4. It's not the VP's job to discuss the "HOW's, WHAT'S or WHEN" 5. Her speech had as much specificity on the "HOW's, WHAT'S or WHEN" as Obama's speech, in which the Messiah from Hawai'i promised to cut taxes, spend billions in new programs, a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. How to pay for it? Who cares, really? 6. I agree, we should stay on topic. After all, it's much more interesting to re-read the same "Palin is exploiting her daughter" posts you have on several different stories.

I knew the attacks on Palin were sexist, manipulated and unfair but I had no idea they were so bad that the Liberal Virginia Pilot would publish an article denouncing them. I am stunned and even more upset about the mistreatment.

McCain/Palin ticket is all over the news, which does cut into the air time for Obama/Biden. I'm sure the McCain camp is loving it, but I think the daughter has been thrown in the thick of all of this just so they can get control of the news outlets. Exploiting ones daughter for headlines is wrong!

counter factual claims and what-ifs aren't terribly convincing to me. period. I may be too pragmatic for such fairy tales but that's what the right has with respect to blaming their opponents for the Palin pregnancy "issue." Right-wing bloggers have been claiming that Obama is a muslim, not a U.S. citizen and anti-American (because of the flag pin!), you don't see any of the left seriously jumping on that trash wagon do you? Nope, that's swift boater territory just like this is. More dirty politics, but if that is what you're in to-- except, of course, on Sundays between 11 and noon.

It's not a different story as you claim. First you state that they created a wedge issue by dragging in her daughter. Problem is, they dragged her in because of questionable/political blogs as the one I mentioned. So what would we be saying today if Palin had said nothing? We would be arguing about her lying to save her daughter. And if you watched her speech last night her family didn't look like they minded one bit. So instead of lying and evading she noted what had happened.

Now BO has noted that her family should be left out of it. And if the media had done exactly that there would be no need to further comment on the issue. But, we see what happens when the media gets a hold of something that used to only be in the style of the Enquirer. They beat that dead horse into the ground.

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20080902_palin_cut_funds_for_teen_moms/ Posted on Sep 2, 2008

"So a less charitable explanation - and one we're hearing from irate Republicans in the Twin Cities - is that members of the media are so deeply in the tank for the Democrats that they'll gladly sacrifice a kid to torpedo the GOP ticket."

This is a familar Fox News tactic for expressing an opinion without taking responsibility. "It's been said...", "I overheard...", "Critics say". If that's what you believe then say it directly.

I personally believe the "blame it on the media" excuse to be a cop out for any real analysis of the issue. I agree that Ms. Palin's pregnancy is a non-issue, but the fact is she came our of complete nowhere (AKA Alaska) to be nominated as the Vice President of the US. Given that she has not appeared substantively before the public before this week, everyone is looking for information about her. That one of the only things that people could dig up is her daughter's preganancy is a testament to the fact that she has no lengthy track record, experience or background.

How is she using her daughter as a prop? I don't see it. Neither do I see this as a wedge issue. It shouldn't be an issue at all. If Clinton's personal behavior should be private as all the libs claimed, then certainly Palin's DAUGHTER'S behavior should be. As far as "you people," this is typical liberal condescension. If I draw a different conclusion than you do it can only be because I am somehow mentally deficient. Frankly, this attitude may very well be one of the reasons Obama loses this election. Obama, as evidenced by his "God and guns" comment to his disciples in San Francisco, belives himself above everyone who doesn't believe in his vision. Obama, abetted by the media, is acting very much like he has already won, the election is a formality and he need only wait until his coronation. This attitude cost Hillary the nomination, and that's why Obama got no real bounce in the polls after his "presidential" speech in Berlin. His hubris is turning a lot of people off.

Think about who this wedge benefits -- McCain/Palin. It is as simple as that. How many times will you people fall for the politics of divisiveness? At least once more it seems. I'm not condemning Palin for having a pregnant daughter and neither are most liberals. That is a fantasy whipped up by the right to energize fundies. The hypocrisy is using the girl as a prop while pointing fingers at the left. Notice how lots of posters blame the left for the McCain camps actions. The right are innocent victims of the evil left. sound familiar?

I couldn't agree with CS more! Palin would have been attacked regardless of how she dealt with her daughter's pregnancy. In fact, had she "hid" this private family matter, I can guarantee you she'd have been ripped apart even more by the Democrats.

So for all you attackers - how would you have handled it? And don't try espousing morality and that your family would never have been in such a "horrible" situation, because quite frankly, teenage pregnancy knows no party lines.

At least Palin’s not a single mom with five kids – all of whom have different daddies, and sitting on her butt collecting welfare (which is not to say this is an all-encompassing statement!).

The common theme I’m now seeing in some of these ridiculous postings is that Palin should have her own house in order before preaching “abstinence-only-sex-education”. Let me pose sort of a litmus test question: are we robots that receive programming from our parents? Nope. Palin – like many other parents – do everything possible to teach, educate, and pass on our own life experiences to our children. But children are humans – like the rest of us: imperfect and with flaws.

At many times in ALL of our lives we made decisions contrary to what our parents may have disagreed with. Does that mean we’re horrible and disrespecting trash? Nope. Just human. Even Adam and Eve erred.

So how, exactly, should she have handled it? Act as if her daughter weren't pregnant? It isn't like it would remain secret for long and then people would lambaste her for "hiding" it. She's in a no-win situation. One kook on the Pilot's boards was even demanding an investigation "not by a Republican Attorney General." Why ANY AG would need to look into this I have no idea.

Thankfully the Obamas didn't drag their daughters out onto the stage at the DNC convention. Oh, wait...

Incidentally, Obama himself is "a device deployed ... to capture the interest of the radical (left). It worked." Otherwise Hillary would have won the primary.

But if you want to conflate the two and use that rationalization to stand by Palin's excuse for using her daughter as a political prop, that's on you. This is a device deployed by the McCain campaign to capture the interest of the radical right. It worked. I wonder what Rove was doing last week.

The "Story" as it is called was broke on the 31st. And at first stated that her mother was pretending to be the mother of her daughters Downs Baby.

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/144031/index.php

So once again noon... you're wrong...

The lesson from the swift boat episode was that one needs to address a smear right away, which is what Palin did.

Christian fundamentalists won Bush his second term? I had no idea they represented 50.7% of the voting public.

I wouldn't have any idea how any of this is playing out on Fox News. They have the worst anchors in the business and I can't stand to watch / listen to any of them.

Palin had to make this announcement about her pregnant daughter to deflect a rumor about Palin's infant child? Really? Otherwise the evil left would start blaming the daughter for getting pregnant? Seriously? This is just cheap chaff tossed out by McCain and his surrogates. It is a convenient retelling of a wedge issue, an issue fabricated to energize the Christian fundamentalists, a demographic that won Bush a second term and helped to legitimize a claim to his first -- a demographic that was none too fond of McCain prior to this announcement. Why has this result eluded you? Obama was morally correct not use this girl and her unborn child as a political prop. What about McCain? Look at how this story plays on Fox news . . .
I think we're in swift boat territory here.

As far as I'm concerned her daughter's teenage pregnancy is a test of Palin's belief in abstinence only sex education and, therefore, speaks to the viability of Palin's core beliefs when applied to modern American society.

If Palin can't demonstrate that abstinence only sex education works in her own home--where you'd assume she had the most influence--then why should we accept her beliefs when they are pushed on the rest of the American public?

Besides, if a person's family is off limits for scrutiny, why then doesn't that standard apply to Palin's son, who will be deploying to Iraq? I'm sure the GOP will be playing that up big.

The only reason Palin "pitched" it was because she was forced to address the issue when left-wing sites like the Daily Kos speculated that the governor's Downs baby was actually her daughter's child.

This idea that somehow Gov. Palin "had it coming" is pathetic. If you said that a rape victim deserved it because she wore a short skirt, then you correctly would get the scorn you deserved. Only blind partisanship can lead someone to say that under a barrage of inappropriate, disproportionate, and sometimes, blatantly false attacks, that the victim, or their family, "had it coming". I ask again, have you no shame?