To address rumors that Sarah Palin was covering up her daughter’s pregnancy via a story about her most recent birth, the campaign today disclosed that Bristol Palin is expecting and will marry the infant’s father.
Until today, I was not aware of the rumors flying on the liberal blogs, but apparently they were being picked up by some mainstream sources which led to the disclosure.
Here is the Palin’s statement:
Statement from Sarah and Todd Palin
ARLINGTON, VA — Today, Sarah and Todd Palin issued the following statement regarding today’s Reuters story:
“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
“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. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”
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No real political fall out as yet, and I don’t expect there to be.
No problem.
…I thought there’s a word filter which ate my message.
@Evan: That was a pretty big one so if you all see those, let me know…
Yes, it was there right from the start.
Yes, Warren, I noticed that, but I didn’t say anything because I did it some other time and I don’t want to be the typo nazi here.
Thanks for the note re: the spelling. Was this wrong from the start of the post? I am a little concerned that someone hacked into my backroom. Anyone notice this earlier?
Ooops! Warren, are you able to correct your title for this topic. Most of us are spelling it McCain…
I’m not sure where the proper balance is on this story. Certainly, it had to come out and the sooner the better…before she starts ‘to show’. While I believe to some degree that the children’s lives should be off limits, that seems a tad unfair considering that we use them as window dressing for the campaign.
I was more miffed at the statements Palin herself made re her son. Rather than saying “I have a son in the military who’s about to be deployed”, she had to say that he enlisted on September 11th (I believe last year) and that he’ll be deployed on September 11th. Gee, I wonder if we were supposed to take any subliminal message from that date. (One of my family members quipped, “I bet they bumped up his unit’s deployment date just to be able to say ‘September 11th’ one more time.'”)
Obama telling the public that Sarah Palin’s family is off limits is a political move too. He is defending her, who is a newcomer. He defends someone who cannot defend herself like a political warhorse. He takes profit out of his adversaries’ mistakes.
It was probably part of McCain’s intention to take her as his veep because if you attack her for lack of experience you must agree with the Republicans’ arguments that Obama himself lacks experience. And if you attack a newcomer who is also a woman, you put yourself in a position of power which exposes your want of power without having won that power. It reveals your character and intentions. Obama breaths politics, so he takes profit out of every move, even when he doesn’t do anything. He cannot dismiss Palin, so he takes a gentle approach by showing his differences with her views and defending her when it comes to family issues. Both parties play their cards very well.
You didn’t say WHY Palin disclosed this. It is to show that he daughter, Bristol, could not have been the mother of the autistic child of the family because she was already one month pregnant, four months ago.
What was Ms Palin missing about her own family two months before she gave birth? I guess handling your own family isn’t an issue like it was in the ’50s when Stevenson’s (if I remember correctly off the top of my head) divorce was something of an issue. McCain’s audultery isn’t an issue this time around. And all the “Family” organizations are being real nice about it, while if it were a democrat they’d be excoriating that person.
Politics makes ‘nearly’ everyone into a hypocrite (just not those I support! Ok, me too.).
I don’t know about this pregnant daughter thing.
But outside of that…
Palin comes off as one cool chick. I like her.
it would be interesting to know what Palin’s stance on “Abstinence Only” education is.
And if it has changed recently.
Are we really that interested? This is the daughter of a woman. It is not the woman herself. Does this amount to gossip? I’m not sure. Either way, like all of us, the young woman has made a decision that will effect the rest of her life. Which one of here has not done something similar – once – or more?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/01/obama_tells_press_to_back_off.html