The Virginian-Pilot
©
ST. PAUL, MINN.
Is there a rule somewhere that the teenage children of political candidates must be virgins? No?
Then let's stop heaping humiliation on a 17-year-old Alaskan girl who's having a baby. Bristol Palin's condition - and her decision not to seek an abortion - has nothing to do with the presidential race, nor is it a reflection on her mother, who joined the Republican ticket last week.
A teenager had sex. Sheesh. Stop the presses.
No sooner did it become clear that New Orleans had avoided a Katrina-like calamity than cable newscasters turned their attention from storm stories to Sarah Palin's daughter.
On Tuesday, The New York Times stuck three articles related to the Palin pregnancy on its front page.
This interest in the Palin family drama smacks of voyeurism. The gleeful press corps, which can't stop feasting on this family's situation, has forgotten that at the heart of this juicy story is a vulnerable young girl. She didn't commit a crime. She didn't seek publicity.
"Kids don't ask their parents to go into politics," noted Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, the father of five, ages 16 to 27. "There's not a parent out there that hasn't had a challenge with a teenager.
"I have to give credit to Barack Obama, who said yesterday that kids are off-limits. He's exactly right. They should be."
It's worth noting that the same news organizations that slapped the gynecological condition of this minor on their front pages fiercely protect the privacy of juvenile murderers.
I find that odd.
Worse, listening to grown men and women with press passes dangling from their necks giggle about a young girl's mistake has only served to highlight the arrested development of some of my colleagues.
The most charitable explanation for this feeding frenzy would be a slow news cycle. Only there isn't a news drought.
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.
"Using a 17-year-old girl to suggest that Sen. John McCain did not vet his vice president... is disgusting," said Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster who met with the Virginia delegation Tuesday.
She said Palin's political opponents were pushing the story because they assumed that family-values voters would disapprove of the girl's behavior.
"They simply don't understand Christians," Conway said.
The Washington Post's Sally Quinn seized on the pregnancy to suggest that Sarah Palin might be too distracted by five children - including an infant with Down syndrome - to carry out her duties.
When was the last time anyone suggested a man was unfit for office because he had five kids?
Fact is, the vice presidential job is the one that John Nance Garner supposedly described as not worth "a pitcher of warm spit."
About what these pregnancy stories are worth.
Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net
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Silly debate
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 just a Vanna White show piece
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!
Chris 33
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.
Palin's Family Business
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
No one attacked Palin's daughter. This is a bogus story.
Poor thing!
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.
Feeding Karl Rove or is He feeding BS
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.
Let's Face It....
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.
that's not the point
"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.
Frankly
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!?!?!?!?!