What Sarah Palin Won't Say

Sarah Palin is preparing to take the stage at the Republican convention, and if you believe the chorus in the MSM, the pivotal issue she must deal with is the pregnancy of her teen-age daughter — which in the space of two days has apparently become one of the most burning policy matters of our time. Move over, U.S. economy, world markets, jihadis, oil despotisms, resurgent Russian aggressors, Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

I don’t know what Sarah Palin is going to say. But I am trying to imagine the effect it would have if she stood up before the crowd and declared the following:

There are a few more things you need to know about me. As a troubled teen-ager, I myself used cocaine and marijuana (yes, I inhaled), and as an adult, I attended and took my family to (and my inspiration from) a church where the preaching included hate-speech about America and assorted ethnic and religious groups. In my business career, before entering politics, I had talents that allowed me, simply by reading the newspaper, to earn a 10,000% return on a $1,000 investment in cattle futures in the space of 10 months. While holding elected office, my experience included the pursuit of assorted adulterous liaisons, including intimate activities in my landmark government office with an  intern less than half my age, though as I regard it, I did not have sex with that person (depending on the meaning of “is”). When I got caught, my spouse denounced my critics as members of a vast political conspiracy. I could add a great deal more to this list (though please remember that when I got caught taking home state silverware, I eventually did send it back), but let us now turn to the mighty issue of the hour…

That scene, of course, is fantasy. Sarah Palin won’t say these words, because they do not apply to her. But the activities listed here do apply, as a quick compendium, to the three most prominent political figures (the politicians themselves, not their children) who paraded across the stage at the Democratic convention in Denver last week — to wild ovations from the crowd.

Somehow, the awkward moments of Barack Obama, and Hillary and Bill Clinton, rank as pardonable and ultimately unimportant in the eyes of many of the same folks who would now pillory Sarah Palin as unfit for office … because her 17-year-old daughter got pregnant and plans to marry the father and have the baby.

Enough with the audacity of hypocrisy. Now may we go ahead with the real political debate?