Great Response on Attacking Sarah Palin's Daughter.

[romantico]

A friend emailed me this in regards to going after Palin's daughter. I agree with it 100%

"Anyone else tired of the new flavor finger wagging? Every pundit, reporter, surrogate, colmunist warning us to back off, her family's off limits! Don't say another word about this!

As though a candidate's family, family life, family choices, and parade of family behavior isn't shoved in our faces day in, day out as part of the "personal narrative..." No sooner had we heard that this is a good pick for McCain because this "mom" has a "story to tell" we are being told to ignore the very story we were fed Friday morning because -- gasp! -- it invades the privacy of her minor children. That privacy was entirely lacking on Friday morning, folks. We are a nation who elects "a good story" and "a personal narrative," and the moving, all-american tale we were sold as 50% of the reason to pull that lever -- along with the ancient Viet Nam mystique of the co-ticket -- is now off limits? I know, I know -- Sarah's "story" isn't poor innocent Bristols. Well, it was when she shoved her onstage holding the miracle baby. As long as Bristol was a one dimensional cliche, she was ours for the photo ops.

It's so dubious, so patently hypocritical to ask the culture to make their decisions in part based on a "gut" appraisal of a candate's cherished "values" -- demonstrated in a personal life -- only as long as those choices are consistent with some carefully orchestrated ideology. The fact is, this unwanted pregnancy and looming shotgun marriage are "off-limits" only because it's steeped in hypocrisy and humiliation.

I will follow this "personal story," thank you, as long as I choose to. As will many millions, who want to know who the hell thought this choice was good for a "country first" campaign."

[Fridays Child]

1. K/R and thank you!

[bushisanidiot]

2. how long 'til this thread is locked for mentioning the unmentionable

subject?

[romantico]

3. Bottom line is

SARAH PALIN MADE THIS THE STORY AND NO ONE ELSE!

[bushisanidiot]

7. I agree 100%!

I posted my prediction that I think the stress of all the media attention Bristol is receiving right now will cause her to miscarry.. which I hope does not happen, but I can see how it would. Democrats will be blamed. Anyway, my thread was locked without a reason why.. I don't think the complainer or the locker even read my post. I simply mentioned Bristol and boom, it's locked.

But I agree, this is news that Alaskans have been talking about and now all americans are talking about. It's natural to have questions about these things during a presidential campaign. Every rock is turned over, except if you're AWOL George Bush or Sarah Palin.

[krkaufman]

15. Crikey. I hope the young lady isn't anywhere near the media ...

... and isn't googling herself.

[mopinko]

4. i want to take the high road, but

i'm still pissed off about billy carter.

[Norrin Radd]

5. kr

[calimary]

6. Fuck it. Enquiring minds wanna know. Hey, they dined out on all things Chelsea Clinton

shamelessly, up to AND including some guy named - um - what was it again? john... mc-... mc-... mc-...ssssaaaaaaame? Something like that? Joking in public to an appreciative audience about why Chelsea was so ugly - 'cause her father is Janet Reno. Yuk yuk yukkity yuk. That was when Chelsea lived at home with her parents because she was under age. And she became fodder for ridicule as soon as her parents burst onto the national scene. So I figure from about 1992 on... AND NOBODY SAID ANYTHING - except, of course, for her parents who finally complained and told the press to back off Chelsea.

That's why I figure Bristol Palin is fair game because she's of age - one year past it if you go strictly by the Alaska state labor code. AND because her mother, because of her own political career, has made family in general, and HER family specifically, very public personae. Last Friday what did we see but her formally introducing all of them in turn, by name, to that cheering crowd and all the cameras and mikes. You know they didn't all step up there together while carrying a canoe. They were out there in the open in the glare of the spotlight. And the family values thing was a part of shoving her family into our faces. In effect, showing herself and her family to be models of this near-saintly family values construct.

If Chelsea Clinton was fair game - and that was strictly insults, so is Bristol - and THAT is strictly fact-finding.

[Erin Elizabeth]

8. I ride the fence on this issue, but that is a good point.

The candidates put their families out there for us to consume. They aren't just them, they are their families, too. So if there is a scandal in their immediate family or questions about things going on in their family, of course I'm going to question it.

That doesn't mean I have to be ugly towards any minor children, but I, too, will follow this story as long as I choose to, thankyouverymuch.

[romantico]

9. She is sending this

She is sending this to a few newspapers. I think its perfect and it makes sense. Double standards.

[Window]

10. K/R.

:kick:

[romantico]

11. Thanks!

K/R!!!

[Nevilledog]

12. Let's take it one step further.

If we can't talk about Bristol's pregnancy....the whole thing about a candidate's family should be off limits...then why the fuck can she parade out her son who's being deployed to Iraq and use that as a show of her proud patriotism? You can't pick and choose dumbasses. It's all or nothing as far as I'm concerned.

[krkaufman]

14. wholly agree.

(see next post)

[krkaufman]

13. People are promoting the pregnancy and the plan to have the baby as a strength for Palin ...

... demonstrating her sticking to her anti-abortion position.

So Palin can employ her family members as political trophies, but when her family circumstances highlight the fallacy of her positions, it's off-limits.

Gotcha!

[Johonny]

16. I think it's an important story without attcking the daughter

It points out the stupid abstinence only crap doesn't work. The core of the republican sex education is a program that doesn't work, even for the truest fundies. To me that's the story. Even the most devote fundie from a devote fundie family can end up a single, teen mother because the Republicans refuse to educate the young about sex. They want to end abortions yet do nothing to lower the unwanted (or at least unexpected) pregnancy. To me that's simply irresponsible. They should not win election because their policies don't work.

[CBHagman]

17. Fred Thompson gave GOP talking points at the convention.

DUers, the GOP is totally relentless and totally shameless and totally hypocritical, and the media generally lets them get away with every last bit of it (excepting perhaps the cases of Bob Packwood and Larry Craig). Be ready for when 'can relatives and co-workers and pundits recycle the Fred Thompson spin from the convention. A quote from ursine old Fred:

Now, speaking of the vice presidential nominee, what a breath of fresh air Governor Sarah Palin is. She's from a small town with small-town values. But apparently that's not good enough for some of the folks who are out there now, attacking her and her family.

"Small-town values." "Good enough." "Attacking her and her family." Suddenly Sarah Palin didn't have the same problems any other family might have, and suddenly it isn't that she flung her teenage daughter on to the front pages of every newspaper in the country. Oh, no, it's those people who are attacking the family. Indeed, the Palins and the GOP are having one big headache as the halos threaten to become too tight!

They are brazening it out and playing martyr. Folks, they want to use this as a PR war -- cynical as hell, and calculating.

[WA98296]

18. Beautifully articulated! Thanks.

[intheflow]

19. As far as I can tell, no one is "attacking" Bristol Palin.

They are looking at her pregnancy through Sarah Palin's own stances on no sex ed classes, support of abstinence only programs, and repressive reproductive rights for women. I have never read anything criticizing Bristol for being sexually promiscuous. I wish we could stop using this "attack" language when talking about Bristol--she's in the limelight, but that's not the same as being attacked.

[SeaLyons]

20. K&R

[pampango]

21. Obama's kids were on stage at the convention and at times during the primaries.

Chelsea was too. All candidates put their families on stage if they can. They're trying to present the All-American family image. Just the act of being on stage doesn't make them legitimate political targets.

[Hamlette]

22. Why didn't daddy hold the baby and someone offer Bristol a seat during the speech?

I thought the visual was very odd, and telling, in retrospect. Here you have a child, pregnant with a child, holding her mother's child, while Trig's father waves for the camera.

And tonight they are bringing out Levi, the teenage father, to applaud him at the convention.

Is that the message we want to send to kids? I'm not saying hide it away but doesn't it look like the GOP is celebrating Bristol's pregnancy if they bring Johnston on too?

And why the hell aren't they married already? Seems that would have made it easier on everyone.