The Republican VP Nominee’s Choices

I apologize in advance for a little concern trolling in this post.  This situation is really hard for me because I feel for the participants but I’m really annoyed by the hypocrisy on display here.

I’ve been thinking about this for two days since I read a post at DailyKos about Gov. Palin’s pregnancy/labor.  It appears she was in Texas giving a speech when she started leaking amniotic fluid.  She finished the speech, took a flight to Seattle, took another flight to Anchorage, and then drove to a hospital near Wasilla, AK (where she had been mayor).

This graphic gives a few more details and sarcasm on the events.

Having two children and knowing a little of the experience of childbirth (I was there throughout, but obviously did not give birth to the kids) I can’t completely agree with the flowchart’s analysis.  Leaking amniotic fluid can mean a lot of things.  And there were several places along the way where other decisions could have been made.  But we weren’t there and we aren’t doctors.  So I won’t contemplate that any longer.

Some people in the blogosphere took these actions to show a cover up of some nature.  Until this morning (Monday) most people were assuming that Trig Palin, Gov. Palin’s 4-month old son was actually Gov. Palin’s daughter, Bristol’s son.  The timing of Bristol’s mono illness and some pictures from the Alaska’s official Governor page, were suspicious.  But there were also some problems with this.

1. Trig has Down’s Syndrome.  This was known prior to his birth.  There are verifiable records of this event and most (all?) Presidential/Vice-Presidential candidates have to release their medical records.  That level of conspiracy wasn’t going to hold up to national scrutiny.  Even the inept McCain campaign would have realized that.
2. The photo that people were citing from the Governor’s page shows a trim young woman with a little bit of a poochy belly.  Now, with a great fear of being called something nasty, I point out that I was down at the beach this weekend and saw a great many women of the 16-21 year age.  And many of them had the same trim build with a little belly fat.  People are just shaped differently and this appears to be the case with Bristol.

So I was planning on posting about all of the above today.  I figured, as a progressive, it was a bad idea to be focusing on it.  Both because this is a personal choice to protect her daughter’s honor and trying to hide something like this seemed even beyond the Republicans.  It would have come out in even a basic vetting process.

So today we traveled back from the shore and I finally logged onto the internets around 3pm.  What is the first thing I find?  Bristol Palin is pregnant, keeping the baby (by her own choice), and marrying the father.  I can’t find out how many months along she is but maybe one of my female readers can help by comparing the photo below with the one above.

I have many comments on this revelation:

1. What is the real time line of Bristol’s pregnancy and ‘mono’ illness, Gov. Palin’s labor/travel, and the birth of Trig?  This time line needs to be established just to confirm that Gov. Palin didn’t lie about who is the mother of her son.
2. What the hell was the McCain campaign thinking?  This should have invalidated Palin’s choice.  Her daughter is keeping baby, but the situation detracts from many other aspects of the campaign and is likely to cause more trouble than it is worth.  Yes, not making the choice to have an abortion will sit well with the conservative base.  But having sex out of wedlock, after going through abstinence-only sex education, doesn’t seem like it will be a good thing.  Also, I believe that teenage mothers are still considered a social taboo in many circles.  What does this say to people of that persuasion that the child was so out of control to get herself pregnant?
3. Did you catch the “it was her choice to keep the baby” part of the story?  I did and immediately thought, but they don’t think it is a choice.  A analysis of this is available here.  Sure, that type of analysis isn’t likely too to change the minds of any lizard-brain Republicans.  But it might have an impact on Hillary Clinton supporters or independents.

Overall,  I think the big problem here comes back to Clinton, Bill that is.  The simplest response by any Republican is that this is a private matter within a family, Bristol is a child, and she isn’t even running for VP.  When Clinton had an affair he was President of The United States.  And it wasn’t the affair that bothered them (riiiight) but rather the lying to federal prosecutors about it.  So if the Democrats say that Clinton’s activities were off limits, then Bristol’s are even more off limits.

Unfortunately I think this isn’t the case.  In Clinton’s case I agree, his actions should have been part of the discussion….but not worthy of impeachment.  In the same way I think Gov. Palin’s daughter being pregnant points out some problems with her decision making.  First, that she thought this wasn’t going to be a big deal to the media or the public.  Or maybe she thought no one would notice that Bristol is always hiding behind someone?  Second, if your own child isn’t accepting the realities of abstinence-only education then perhaps there is a discussion to be had about it.  Would Bristol be pregnant if she had had strong contraceptive education?  Perhaps…condoms break and teenagers aren’t known for their hormonal control.

I have no idea how to ask the question but someone should ask Gov. Palin if this current situation changes her feelings about abstinence-only education.

What I do agree is that we should respect the privacy of Bristol and her boyfriend (fiance?) to make the rest of their choices going foward.  And that is what I think is important…choice.  Bristol made the decision to not terminate this pregnancy.  Why shouldn’t everyone be afforded that same choice?

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