The far left came out with an incredible smear against Sarah Palin practically within hours of the formal announcement that John McCain had chosen her as his running mate. Citing “proof” that would make Rosie O’Donnell and the other 9/11 Truthers proud, they “wondered” if Palin had faked her recent pregnancy, claiming Trig Palin as hers, in order to spare her 17-year-old daughter the shame of an out-of-wedlock birth.
Now the news that her oldest daughter really is pregnant has been revealed. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but is this truth really all that strange? A teenage girl has unprotected sex with her boyfriend and gets pregnant. She decides to keep the baby and plans to wed the father. While the situation is a difficult one, it’s obviously being dealt with to the satisfaction of Palin’s family — and, I presume, the young father’s family. Yet the media is treating this incident as though it were just discovered that Palin’s close friend and mentor had been a full-fledged member of the Communist Party of America.
Oh wait, that was Barack Obama’s close friend and mentor, Frank Davis. My bad.
But giving credit where it’s due, Obama refused to jump on the speculation bandwagon, saying that family — especially children — of candidates should be off-limits to political tongue-wagging. For once, he says something I agree with — unless, of course, that family member acts as a member of the campaign. But I digress.
The hypocrisy of the far left and its media supporters is stunning. When Bill Clinton was receiving special “favors” from Monica Lewinsky while she was hidden under his desk and he was on the phone conducting the official business of the American people, we were told that it was nobody’s business but theirs. Hey, everyone fools around, right? Why not the president, while he was on duty, with a young woman interning in the White House — therefore, for all intents and purposes, a White House employee? The fact that he lied about it afterward while under oath was no big deal either. He was just trying to protect his privacy. Heck, if he had just admitted it when the information became public there likely would have been no impeachment proceedings and the whole thing would have been over and done with a lot sooner, sparing the American people a lot of unnecessary grief.
But a 17-year-old girl having sex with her boyfriend and getting pregnant is suddenly not only everybody’s business, but the most shocking thing to happen since the Beatles broke up. Could it be because she’s the daughter of the Republican VP nominee, a woman who is not only pro-life but pro-abstinence? Call me cynical, but I think there’s a connection here.
Perhaps young Bristol would have been held up as more of a role model if she had either aborted the child — therefore exercising the “correct” choice — or if she were some kind of pop star rather than the daughter of a Republican politician. Either of those scenarios would have made for a more exciting tell-all book or Lifetime movie.
Apparently the situation was an open secret in the Palins’ hometown of Wasilla, but the attitude there is that it’s no one’s business except the families involved. How refreshing! No wonder the D.C. scolds are worried about the possibility of Palin occupying the VP’s office in the White House — she might teach them a thing or two about common decency.
Sex has become a glorified thing in our society — not just the means to an end (procreation), but an end in itself. Sex is great, sex is good. The more sex everyone is having and the younger ages it’s happening at, the better. Television shows like Sex and the City and Lipstick Jungle create icons out of women who, rather than looking for long-term, meaningful relationships, have one fling after another in between working at their glamorous jobs and going on shopping sprees for expensive shoes and handbags.
Many schools have health programs that, rather than promote abstinence, promote “healthy” sex habits because, hey, they’re going to do it anyway, right?
The truth of the matter is, yes, some kids are going to do it anyway. But what’s wrong with encouraging them to wait until they are older and in a long-term, stable relationship? It’s a much better idea than treating sex as a commodity or something to do when you’re bored. Those who “do it anyway” will live with the consequences, be they unintended pregnancy, STDs, or depression.
So now we learn that Sarah Palin’s daughter is less than perfect. Surprise! She’s human, just like the rest of us. And those who purport that this is an example of Palin’s inability to fulfill the duties of VP need only to look to other politicians with wayward family members in recent history: John F. Kennedy (brother Ted and the Chappaquiddick scandal), Jimmy Carter (alcoholic brother Billy), Bill Clinton (brother Roger had drug problems), George W. Bush (for a while, daughters Barbara and Jenna enjoyed the party scene just a bit too much). Whether they were competent presidents is open to speculation, depending upon your political and world views. But family members who strayed in one way or another had nothing to do with their political acumen or leadership skills.
The idea that John McCain didn’t know about this before his announcement on Friday is laughable. It’s not the kind of news you can hide forever, so why would Palin even try? Obviously McCain felt this was not a big enough stumbling block to choosing her as his running mate. And there’s plenty on Palin’s record to either praise or damn. Her family’s private affairs should remain just that — private.
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