If the shoe were on the other party’s foot, it’d be non-stop coverage for the next 8 weeks, though.  It’s a dismal reflection on our media and political process nowadays.

But the Trig rumors served one purpose - they are identified as the very reason the McCain camp had to come forward with Bristol’s pregnancy.  If the rumors hadn’t taken off, McCain (who advisors say knew all along about Bristol) and Palin would have kept the grandbaby a secret until after the election.  Now we have a shining example of the complete failure of the abstinence-only sex ed that Palin wants to force on our public schools.

Well, I can’t argue with either of you. And, as you guys probably know, I don’t play the concern troll card that often, but I have a bad feeling about libs whomping the Palins over the head with this one. I just wish “the rumor” didn’t precede the announcement.

I confess that sometimes my eyes would glaze over when we would be arguing the fine points of policy issues. Yes, even (especially) FISA.

Now, I long for those days. Wars, energy, economics, justice: bring it on!

But please, nothing that could be front-paged at Perez Hilton.

I just want my election back. I want to hear “McCain, McCain, McCain” not “Palin, Palin, Palin”.

Selfish, I know.

I can’t wait for the next episode of the Wasilla Hillbillies .

No, can’t agree. As bad as I feel for for Bristol, it’s fucknuts like her mom who’ve been pushing the whole “abstinence only” scam for years. If they want to make it a political issue, they should be ready for the backlash when it comes. Exactly what form that takes in this instance remains to be seen, but I don’t think we should run away from it for fear of offending the nitwits who believe in it.

McCain says he knew about it, but still picked her over Romney and Lieberman? Either he’s a bad liar or he really hated Romney.

I’d rather more people harp on her flight during labor with a premature Downs baby. There is nothing that good mothers hate worse than another mother taking risks with their children’s lives. Since she made the choice to carry him to term, she needed to be responsible with his life. She wasn’t and that needs to be emphasized, in my opinion - as someone who carried a child with a genetic illness (defect, in my son’s case) to term.

After all, according to Palin all life is sacred. Why wasn’t she protecting the life within her? Babygate may be too distasteful for some, but irresponsible motherhood shouldn’t. That includes postpartum, when her child should have been in a NICU so that he could have the best possible start to his life.

While the media and the right wing nutosphere will do all they can to turn this into a positive , I think it’s a significant loser for them.
To begin with , to the Evangelical crowd , Sarah Palin looks like a piss poor parent that endangered the life of her unborn child for the sake of making a speech , and she was so uninvolved with raising her oldest daughter that she got knocked up .
To the middle and upper class voters , she looks like a piss poor parent AND a lunatic for having a sexually active daughter that wasn’t given basic education regarding sexual matters.
Plus the more that emerges about the family , the more they seem better suited for a trailer park than the White House.

Liz I., good points and I agree that we should be addressing more substantive issues, but his selection of Palin calls into his question his judgment, which is obviously a major issue when you’re constantly being pitched as a “maverick.”

I don’t think the evangelical base will desert Palin on this. After all, they forgave Bush all manner of transgressions. If you read Altemeyer’s book on authoritarians, you’ll see that the concept of being born again really works like a duster wiping the slate clean. All Sarah Palin needs to do is front up, show genuine contrition, and abracadabra, all her sins will be wiped clean.

McCain’s choice of Palin isn’t really about appealing to Hillary voters or working class voters. It’s about getting the fundies enthusiastic enough to GOTV. From here on in, it’s all about the competing ground game and demographics. All else is shadow play.

Yeah, it’s definitely Exhibit A (or is it Exhibit 999?) of McCain’s piss-poor judgment.

Sigh. To think, after I left Alaska, I was rejoicing that I wouldn’t have to read about Stevens, Murkowski, VECO, Wasilla and, my personal favorite and fellow Fairbanksan, Joe Vogler.

Oh well.

Aside from the prodigious fecundity of the Palin clan, a lot of smaller hits are already stacking up—association with Ted Stevens, the financial state of Wasilla when she left office, redistribution of oil company profits, Troopergate, and the dumb but telling gaffe over the Pledge of Allegiance.

HuffPo’s headline is “Drip Drip Drip Drip”—which I think is about right. Friday’s announcement was an enchanting first date. Now comes the part where we meet her friends and family, and start to hear stories about her past. It’s only a matter of time, metaphorically, until we run into her crazy ex-boyfriend at the supermarket…and all of her lovable ticks and quirks start to get on our nerves.

McCain’s surprise introduction of an unexpected, hope-raising Veep choice was inherently dangerous. The right became infatuated and defensive berore they even knew who she was. Like Fred Thompson, she is likely to have peaked the moment she announced.

Dave’s Innsanity Sauce on your hot dog? That’s the type of hard core shit I’ll only do on a dare. If you ever want to try something that makes Dave’s look tame , try some “Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally” sauce.

I don’t agree with playing nice with people who have the audacity to question Max Cleland’s patriotism during the 2004 Election.

We let the mainstream media and certain “progressive” bloggers vet Barack Obama with impunity. Now the shoe’s on the other foot and I’m getting to work.

The fundies fucked up this country. It’s about time they own up to their mistakes.

OT, but - Jeezus, WTF is going on in St. Paul this weekend?  It’s freaking Fascism, Inc. there!

Interesting blog…

I had a long response to this one but then realised i was blabbing.

So all i’ll rhetorically ask is, what would the conservative response be if it was the Obama’s daughter who was pregnant? Scratch that…what would the conservative response be if it was say, a 17 year old black or hispanic girl without the family and financial support the Palin’s have in housing commission or projects? No doubt godless commie liberal ideals of free love combining with liberal big government popping out squidlets to collect a welfare cheque.

At the end of the day this is still Obama vs Mcsame. I think attacking Mcsame on the stunning cynicism and shallow politics of this pick is the best way to point out Palin’s negatives without attacking her directly. 

Otherwise you threaten to raise the ire of smokin fists Flowbee. He’ll punch you dead if you question the little ladies honour!

Wow, head to the mountains for a couple of days with no internet access, get back and all hell breaking loose with Palin!  I agree with Kevin, leave the kid(s) out of it.  The tabloids should pick this stuff up which is where it belongs.  In the meantime, as HuffPo said, “drip, drip, drip, drip.”  There’s also the fact that, as mayor, she fired the Chief of Police and the librarian because they supported her rival and she almost got recalled over it. Quite the political reformer she has been. And don’t forget the big flip-flop of the Bridge to Nowhere (Palin to residents of Ketchikan in 2006 “I don’t think you are nowhere!”)

eddie, Douglas, it is interesting to note that the response of the conservative wing to the news of her daughter’s pregnancy has been pretty much a stunned silence so far.  They may embrace and forgive her tomorrow but right now they’re sitting on their hands.

This one is new to me.  ABC confirms that Palin was in the Alaskan Independence Party:

OK, is it me or does that picture look like she’s giving Schmidt a handjob?

“Steve honey, is it supposed to be this limp?”

Morally, I think it’s wrong to use Bristol as a political weapon, even if her mother’s stances on choice, abstinence, and abortion make us cringe. She didn’t choose her mother, and she didn’t choose to run for office. She’s in a really tough situation, presumably not made better by all the scrutiny, so I think we need to back way the fuck off on this one.

Politically, I think it’s unwise to beat up on Sarah Palin about this, either. Remember, there are a lot of parents whose kids get pregnant out of wedlock, and they may well identify with the Palins and their struggle. If we start pointing fingers (i.e., “What kind of mother doesn’t know her daughter is having sex and doesn’t make her take precautions?”), it cements the sympathy people will feel for the Palins, because lots girls from all kinds of families have sex and get pregnant. Why fire up that constituency by seeming to mock Bristol’s situation?

And there are, as many others have noted, far more substantive issues on which to attack Sarah Palin’s judgment and integrity—527s, Ted Stevens, being for the Nowhere Bridge before she was against it, etc.

Listen to Barack on this one, kids, and keep to the high road. Remember how many people got pissed at Kerry for bringing up Cheney’s gay daughter during the debate? Yeah, it should be fair game to point out the GOP hypocrisy. But if it gets spun as “Look at those bullying liberals who think they’re so open-minded,” we lose, possibly with moderates. And this one ain’t worth taking a bullet on, not on the grounds of conscience or political gain, just to make ourselves feel better by saying “Ha ha! Told you so! Abstinence doesn’t work, so nyah nyah nyah!”

Katrina, I came in to mention that.  It’s trickling out slowly because of all the hurricane/convention/pregnant daughter business, but once it gets momentum in the MSM, it’s likely to kill her chances to stay the VP nom.

If it doesn’t become a major issue than she is getting a HUGE free pass.

I will mention, vis a vis the “blogs that have Barack Obama’s name in them” thing, that I don’t think Hillary helped this puerile mindset with her “you must denouce AND reject Louis Farrakhan!” nonsense. Because clearly Obama is responsible for apologizing for every allegedly negative thing ever said about any other candidate anywhere, anytime, that might be construed as offensive, sexist, racist, classist, elitist, etc., whether he has any personal relationship with the speakers or not, whether they are officially connected to his campaign or not, etc. And if the person making the comment is another black person, well then obviously they have been bestest buddies forever and a day. Because there are only like 40 black people in the entire country and they all hang out together and plot ways to make Whitey look bad.

Whereas, when the Clintons engaged in clear racist dogwhistle tactics (my personal favorite: Bill’s musing “wouldn’t it be nice to have a contest between two people who love this country and not have to have all this other stuff in the way”—you know, the Scary Sekrit Muslim Whose Wife and Minister Hate White People stuff), that also was Obama’s fault! Black people are so clever, the way they do mind-melds with white folks to make them say stupid-ass bullshit that bites them in the ass.

And Obama is sexist cuz he didn’t stand up for Hillary Clinton enough! Even though if he had, I’m sure that would have been spun as “Oh look, he’s being a sexist because he assumes that he should be protecting the woman! That pig!” Kinda like the pulling-out-the-chair at the debate thing.

I have no problem holding him accountable for dumb shit he says (“Sweetie,” for example, for which he did apologize.) But this notion that it is incumbent upon him to apologize for every piece of ridiculous crap out there that may or not be in support of him is why this country gets stupider every day.

Which brings us right back to “Let’s not bother saying anything about Bristol, because her mother has plenty of vulnerabilities in terms of policy and judgment without using her poor kid as a weapon and making people feel sorry for them.”