Day of Stunning Palin Disclosures (McCain Advisors: "Life Happens" "An American Family")

[Hissyspit]

Source: International Herald Tribune

Day of stunning Palin disclosures

The Associated Press
Published: September 2, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn.: In a day of stunning disclosures, John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said Monday her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was five months pregnant, and it was revealed that an attorney was hired to defend the governor in a probe into the firing of her public safety commissioner.

The revelations threatened to steal any remaining thunder from Day One of the Republican National Convention, which already was overshadowed by Hurricane Gustav — and brought unwanted attention to the 44-year-old governor, who has little experience on the national stage.

The Republican convention, taking place just three days after McCain named Palin has his running mate, had already been scaled back because of the hurricane. Coming after the randomness of Gustav, the revelations added to the sense of unscriptedness hanging over the convention.

"Life happens," said McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, talking about the pregnancy story. "An American family," added colleague Mark Salter.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/01/america/NA-POL-US-Elections-Palin.php

[bamacrat]

1. "An American Family"?

Isnt this the sort of thing a christian conservative would declare an attack on family values, or condemn them to hell? Sex ed doesnt seem so crazy huh?

[deutsey]

2. Some animals are more equal than other animals. n/t

[kskiska]

22. "An American Family"

refers to a 1970s PBS reality series on the Loud family (including one gay child) who allowed cameras into their home, and during the filming period actually decided to divorce.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Family

[lapfog_1]

27. Actually, they DID, and just recently

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Lynn_Spears

the hypocrisy is soooo deep.

[Historic NY]

3. "Life happens", what does that mean....an American family..

if her family is representative of all American families than that is an insult. Perhaps he means "shit happens" because the more we learn the more I can think of a Jerry Springer episode.
When your running on a holier than thou platform you wouldn't expect these disclosures.

[Tutonic]

12. I think you nailed it.

[Liberal Veteran]

4. Don't you remember the episode of Leave it to Beaver where Wally knocked up some girl...

....and had to tell June and Ward?

[Misskittycat]

6. LOL n/t

[NYC Liberal]

5. Ask them what their response would be if a 17 year old Obama daughter

got pregnant (and was unmarried too).

[PinkoDonkey]

10. I agree,

but we are the good guys and need to act like it. It drives me absolutely crazy to see all of their stupid, small minded, abstinence-only, so-called family values blow up in their face and not be able to in good conscience press the political advantage. It's driving me absolutely bonkers (enough so that after reading here for 6 years I finally started posting) but we should follow Obama's lead. It was wrong of Sarah Palin to use her family as political props, to accept the VP nod knowing full well what it would do to her daughter--but it is also wrong for us to make political hay off of her 17 year old girl. I hope we really can change America and American politics. I hope Obama wins and that in the future the private lives of candidates families are left out of the public sphere. But in the meantime...there is a weak and fearful part of me that wants to use this for all that it is worth. I'm not too happy with that. But there it is.

[torbird]

11. Respectfully, you are wrong.

No, we are not "the good guys," we are the party that loses elections because we'd rather believe we are the good guys than win. Politics is not a personal moral journey. That's church. Public policy isn't done by saviors and saints; it's done by people who work within limits and use the tools they have been given.

McCain and Palin are bad people repping for bad policies. And I, for one, would rather call a spade a spade and win the election than sit on my hands and let them skate on being hypocrites, liars, and persons of highly questionable judgment. You can't fix what's wrong with our government until you get elected. I don't advocate winning at any cost, but this leftwing martyr complex, where we "can't" talk about conservative scandals that THEY made for THEMSELVES, is a sickness and has to stop.

[norepubsin08]

14. Fuck that!

I advocate winning at any cost as long as it's not illegal. If you want to clean up the electoral landscape you first have to have the power to do it..that means getting elected under "todays" way of campaigning!

[blossomstar]

15. True that.

[mac56]

31. "Politics is not a personal moral journey. That's church."

True dat.

Welcome to DU.

[norepubsin08]

13. You're full of shit

With an attitude like that we will get our asses handed to us in November. Haven't you been watching the past few elections. The only thing that works is the gutter. The biggest problem the Democrats have is that they are a bunch of pussies. We should be accusing the repukes of any and everything...some of it will stick even if it's not true...ask Lee Attwater and Karl Rove!

[aquart]

23. No, dear. We're Democrats.

And you need to learn something about our history.

[Wednesdays]

24. Yeah, we don't have to do anything at all. The GOP is unraveling

and it's driving them batshit crazy.

[arikara]

39. Welcome to DU

and don't let the nasties get you down. There are more than usual around here these days.

[Karenina]

30. If you're a Dem even THIS will provoke a frenzy!

http://www.kakool.com/content/chelsea-clinton-exciting-encounter-ian-klaus

[Felix Mala]

41. Loose liberal morals... the decline of the family... Obama can't

be moral leader because he comes from single-parent household...

We should all be thankful that something like this hasn't happened in Obama household.

[Faygo Kid]

7. All of these pale in comparison to news that she is a secessionist.

That finishes her off.

[gratuitous]

8. First Rule of American Politics: IOKIYAR

It's O.K. If You're A Republican. Doesn't matter what you do, what you preach, how you think other people should live and are willing to put the power of the law behind your opinion. It's O.K. If You're A Republican. And how dare you question their choices or seek to meddle in their personal family or financial affairs.

[Delphinus]

29. I like your definition.

I will have to copy this down - hate to have to use it, but you did nail it.

[DirtyDawg]

9. All I can think about...

...is that this 'story' of the young lady being 5-months PG (and she no more looks it than her momma did at 5,6 or 7) is a smoke screen to end the speculation of who had the baby Trig...the second thing is the phrase 'Oh what a tangled web we weave...'

[SarahPalinTooRisky]

19. I think she looks it...

She is just petite. How old is she though.. exactly? if she is 5 months pregnant and less than 17 year 4 months old then that would be a 16 year old with a 18 to 26 year old? wouldnt he be going to jail?

[Historic NY]

16. Its hammer time and everything is fair game.......you know they would use it.

[Waiting For Everyman]

17. I think this is working for us pretty well for a change...

They got one less day to blast Obama b/c of the hurricane, for one thing. Then they got this on top of it. We dished the dirt and got it noticed, but Obama got to "rebuke" us and also be Presidential about the hurricane. And the Reps look pretty f'd up in general.

Plus now, the secessionist stuff. And the other scandals aren't dry-wells yet by a long shot.

I'm liking this approach so far.

So now we step up the research and drumbeat on issues, scandals, whatever we can... I see it working. Hope so.

I don't think we're as bad as the Reps smear machine, which is all about lies - but I think we're beginning to pull as much weight, and get as much done. Just an opinion.

Hey, look at this article in the OP. International. :)

[mwb970]

18. Just imagine all the Palin scandals we won't hear of until next week!

And more the week after that. And the week after that. The first few days produced the low-hanging fruit, stuff that is old news up in Alaska. But with the whole nation looking into everything Palin, we're sure to coax out a few things over the coming weeks that will surprise even our friends Up North!

[JPZenger]

20. Least important issue is pregnancy - CNN keeps emphasizing

Palin has hundreds of defects, but the only one the mass media is paying attention to today is the pregnancy.

I wonder about her judgement. It is incomprehensible to me how a person with a 4 month old with Down's Syndrome and a pregnant 17 year old daughter, plus 3 other kids, would say yes to running for running for VP. I would have responded that the timing was wrong, and that I wanted to put my kids first.

When my kids were young, it was difficult enough just trying to get enough sleep so I could function.

[lostnfound]

28. Given all of the vacations George has taken, maybe Republicans don't worry so much

about the responsibilities of office.

[BanTheGOP]

40. We NEED to POUND THIS ISSUE!!

The republican party, which has evolved to an entity which is NOT political but is a HATE CRIME in ITSELF, MUST be destroyed any way possible. We MUST POUND the ISSUE of her daugher breaking virtually EVERY republican / nazi edict, and ensure that we show the moderates that the repukes are ***NOT*** to be trusted with ANY level of trust, ANY level of respect, or ANY level of control.

The republican party MUST be destroyed, and if we have to pound on the decision of a rich, never-to-be-poor 17 year old girl (unless we can successfully indict and convict her she-devil of a mother and fine them out of their ill-gotten gains), we will pound, pound, pound on it!

This is NOT a debate...this is WAR! And I do NOT DOUBT IT FOR ONE MINUTE!!

[kitty1]

50. Her big speech is tomorrow nite. It'll be the first impression for many

[Zenlitened]

21. Check out the New York Times article:

Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process

By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: September 1, 2008

ST. PAUL — A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.

On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.

Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice.

Much more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02vetting.html?hp

This article nails it, if you'll pardon the pun: McCain's judgment is so bad it's downright scary.

[jimlup]

25. McCain's judgment?

:rofl:

[sutz12]

26. "McCain's judgment" is an oxymoron. nt

[Steerpike]

32. I know Sara Palin.

I've known her for a couple of years now. She is a true believer and a nice person. She is fearless. She is honest to the point of self destruction. She is hated by the Republican Party of Alaska. She has been the object of a campaign of destruction by conservative operatives here in Alaska. Trooper Wooten abused her sister and threatened to kill her father. He tasered his stepson (Sara's 10 year old nephew). Sara was on the Gas and Oil commission. They gave her this crony job to shut her up and get her out of the way. She then proceeded to rat out Randy Ruidrich ( a fellow commissioner and head of the RPA) for e-mailing inside information to oil industry organization. He was found guilty and given a hefty fine and booted from the commission. This was before she was elected governor. She has been an outspoken foe of the oil industry. The Voice of the Times ( a veco funded online journal) has been slandering her for years. I really don't know what to say about what I've been reading here.

I've never voted for her. I won't vote for her because she supports, for the most part, the republican platform. But, she is no corporatist. She is a populist...and an honest one at that...I wonder if the repugs realize that if Sara finds out someone is breaking the law...She will rat them out. Hopefully they will find out the hard way.

Almost every single Talk Radio Host in Alaska has be trying to destroy her since she took office. And many Republican legislatures (Lyda Green etc)have been trying to block everything she does. Even with all this organized opposition she has managed to pass one of the largest taxes on the oil industry in the world. She has a popularity rating here of about 70-80 per cent. He husband is a hell of a guy. I like them both. And even with all their flaws...they have some cool kids too. They are not rich people...they were born poor (middle class).

Hell, I can't think of anything else to say about her. If you have any questions ask and I will do my best to answer them.

I will end with this...do not underestimate this woman. She is not stupid nor is she weak. She is not this cartoon character I see portrayed now in the media.

[melody]

33. She wants to take her narrow-minded religion and shove it down my throat

That's my problem with her. I don't give a damn how nice she is. When she's trying to put a straitjacket on people and make them live according to her rules, she's the enemy.

[Steerpike]

34. Not sure where you got that...

Gay people still get state employee benefits, despite the local republican party howling for her (Palin's) head becouse she won't deny them. And, she refused to call a special session to block a state supreme court ruling that allows young teens to get an abortion without parental consent. The local christian right consider her a traitor.

[melody]

35. Her policy as stated is what concerns me -- I don't want to risk my freedom to her tender mercies

Or anything else

She SAYS she wants to outlaw all abortion. She has *said* that. I have heard those words come out of her mouth. She opposes any sex education other than abstinence ed. She also is actively right-wing in many other ways.

BTW, what are you doing here stumping for the GOP? This is a board for Democrats.

[Steerpike]

36. well...

I did not vote for her. I will vote happily for Obama! I would not vote for her becouse of her position on abortion and gay rights. She has not thus far forced her views down Alaskans throats.
I just wanted to say something reality based about someone I know.

I asked a republican on Friday what they would think if Sara got elected and then proceeded to rat out all the illegal acts she would see in a rethug administration, becouse jesus told her too. His face just turned blank...a priceless moment...

[melody]

37. Okay. I must say another major problem I have with her is she seems simple-minded

Anyone who thinks we rode dinosaurs ... lol

[Steerpike]

38. must be

all those flinstone cartoons she saw as a kid...

[Ignis]

42. "She has been an outspoken foe of the oil industry."

Pull the other one!

:rofl:

[Critters2]

51. Hahaha!! nt

[KamaAina]

43. Exactly how well do you know "Sara"?

PSA: It's "Sarah", with the silent 'h'. My true and actual name, as it happens, is "Mark"; those who know me well hardly ever spell it "Marc".

PSA 2: Don't believe everything that gets thrown out in a nasty divorce case and custody battle. Especially when one side is connected to the repukes!

[Steerpike]

44. SORRY...You are correct on the spelling,,,

I used to have her on my friends and family list for e-mail (though I could not say we are "friends"). We've spoken on the phone, and even once at the grocery store. I don't hang out with her or her family. But, I'm pretty well connected. I've met Tony Knowles, Alan Halcro, Mark Begich, Ted Stevens, Lisa Murkowski and Ethan Berkowitz (just to name a few). They all know who I am by name and by sight. For the biggest state in the union...it can be a pretty small place.

I am a very bad speller...so no good excuses for misspelling Sarah's name.

I could tell you a little bit about alot of the politicos up here...

As to trooper Wooten...his violations are a matter of public record...if you are curious I might provide some links tomorrow when I have more time. And, by the way, Wooten and his cronies are republicans too. The big problem he had was with all the witnesses, and his own testimony. Fortunately for Wooten the power of the troopers union trumps all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not endorsing Sarah. I just feel a tad uncomfortable with all the rhetoric. Of course I never met Mccain, so I have no reservations about slandering his bad name. I have known Sarah for a couple of years now, and even though I've never voted for her...I just can't see throwing her under the bus for politics. There are plenty of good reasons not to vote for Mccain/Palin that don't include telling fairy tales...

Heck I'll work on a top ten list of reasons not to vote for Sarah.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

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[superconnected]

47. Why aren't they focusing on Appalling and Mcsames attack on womens rights?

As long as they're they mentioning the pregnant 17yr?

You'd think them vowing to overturn roe v. wade would be completely relevant.

Is the kid made to bare the child? Is she being forced into marriage? Looks like the dad doesn't want to go. Come on, here's a mother who doesn't believe her daughter should have a choice. Why not interview appalling-to-womens-rights on THAT?

And btw, appalling has way too many kids - why aren't they asking her if she even believes in BC - then talk about her preggers unmarried 17yo. Was the kid denied BC?

[Iris]

48. That's what I keep asking.

All I get is snide remarks about my use of capital letters. But, if this were a face-to-face conversation, I would actually be screaming, "ABSTINENCE ONLY DOES NOT WORK" and I'm not ashamed to spell it out in caps.

[superconnected]

49. Oh, shes 44 with an infant and a preggers daughter...again DOES PALIN BELIEVE IN BC at all?