Vanity Fair seems to almost want to "go there": Palin's "first acknowledged grandchild"

[rainbow4321]

"Acknowledged"? As opposed to the not acknowledged? Hmmm.



http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2009/04/is-levi-johnston-hot-enough-to-be-a-model.html

Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin’s first acknowledged grandchild, appeared on The Tyra Banks Show two weeks ago to end his silence. There was speculation as to why Johnston would open up to Banks—as opposed to Oprah Winfrey or Barbara Walters—and the answer became clear the next day. In a follow-up CBS Early Show report, anchor Maggie Rodriguez explained Johnston’s career strategy: “He says that he will be an electrician like everyone else in his family, or maybe all this publicity will lead to a modeling or acting gig, which he is open to.”

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. "Hand me the pliers, or waiting for the Electrician"

[Old and In the Way]

2. Interesting choice of words.

So which ones are unacknowledged? Let me guess.

[Staph]

10. What about Track?

How many (if any) little surprises has he cast along the way?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. I caught a few minutes of Levi

and his mother and his sister on Larry King, and he's a cute kid who's all but inarticulate. He does plan to get his GED, though, he said.

The mother couldn't talk about her recent arrest for selling opiates.

The daughter, who is very pretty with a very bad highlighting adventure on her head, said she wants to be a surgeon.

Interesting family. Sort of all over the place.

But, someone very, very smart is advising them on how to take apart Sarah Palin, systematically and effectively, so I really, really like the Johnstons....

[MissB]

9. Hope the sister is able to achieve her dreams

Minus the bad highlights.

[Merlot]

11. Are you sure that's a highlight?

I haven't seen the whole show, but in this frame it looks like a patch of white hair about an inch wide. I had a friend who had that same thing, it's can be a natural thing where the hair has no pigment and is actually kind of common.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

13. It was a real bad highlight .........

That's not a very good image - the look of a local beauty shop was all over her head.

I had a wonderful silver patch right above my left eye - about an inch wide - that started when I was seventeen. The shiny kind of silver, and, through the years, as more and more silver crept it, people always asked me where I got my streaking done. I was very lucky.

But that girl - someone in Wasilla did her hair. Or else is was ::: gasp ::: a home job ...................

[malaise]

26. CNN will be repeating his interview with Larry King

tonight.

sp

[Tangerine LaBamba]

41. Oh, you bad, bad girl ...........

You're feeding my trash habit.

I'll be watching, and THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

:toast:

[malaise]

44. LOL

I'll be watching too. :fistbump:

[CoffeeCat]

4. So, they're suggesting that Trig is her...

...unacknowledged grandchild?

I never thought Trig was Sarah's baby. Ever.

[katanalori]

6. and you are correct! n/t

[madeline_con]

7. He should go ahead and blow it wide open.

Inquiring minds want to know. A paternity test, and a really good pro bono attorney to get visitation rights for the dad(s). :evilgrin:

[condoleeza]

8. Ah, if that could only happen,

I've never believed Trig was Sarah's child and I did an embarrassingly large amount of research on it when I should have been out there canvassing for Obama. Just couldn't help myself, I want to bring that woman DOWN. She triggers memories of every bad middle school experience I ever had with mean girls. I DID canvass and he won so I have forgiven myself.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. Neither did I .........

That story about her water breaking in Texas and then she flew home to Alaska to have the kid - in a high-risk pregnancy with a known Down Syndrome baby - was just a little too ridiculous.

I have my theory about whose baby it is, but I ain't stating it here ........................

[Missy Vixen]

22. Anyone with a smidgen of information about high-risk pregnancy

was snickering under their breath over this stuff.

>That story about her water breaking in Texas and then she flew home to Alaska to have the kid - in a high-risk pregnancy with a known Down Syndrome baby - was just a little too ridiculous.<

I used to work for a home health care company that had many, many high-risk pregnancy clients. No, I am not violating the law by talking about my experiences, but I do remember one thing: Isn't it against airline regulations to even board a flight after seven months? Let's see here. A woman of 44, with an acknowledged high-risk pregnancy, is endangering everyone on the flight, her unborn child and herself, because she just has to get back home to give birth.

Seriously -- who would even let her board the plane when she's in labor? This is the LEAST of the "doesn't pass the smell test". My favorite was the excising of the birth information out of hospital records.

[chimpymustgo]

29. And after landing in Anchorage, she drove an hour to backwoods WASILLA to give birth.

BULLSHIT.

[Missy Vixen]

31. So, okay, help me out here

I have no kids, therefore, I must rely on the experts.

When one's water breaks, one is in labor. Is this not correct? The baby must be either birthed, or you're having a Caesarean in a certain amount of time because of the risk of infection. It is difficult to impossible to imagine how a woman would make a 3+ hour flight to Seattle after her water broke, lay over in Seattle, another 2-3 hour flight to Alaska, THEN drive another hour home? In labor?

She's lying. Period.

[EFerrari]

5. See what you did?

:)

[MADem]

12. I thought the reference was to the soldier son--that maybe he'd knocked up some girlfriend.

Maybe that's why he joined the service--to get outta Dodge?

I don't really see how Bristol Palin could have two kids that fast. The baby with Downs was born in April, Bristol and Levi's child was born in December. Do the math. The second kid would have had to have been a month premature, and the girl wouldn't have had a half second to recover from her first pregnancy before she would have been dealing with the second one.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

15. As I recall, he joined the service because

a judge gave him a choice - do time or join the Army. I think it was a drug rap, but I'm not sure.

As for the timing of those kids, it's entirely possible - ever hear of Irish twins? But, I'm still not believing that Sarah's that kid's mother......

[MADem]

18. Sarah is only 44. I know women who have had kids at close to fifty.

WITHOUT scientific intervention, either. One of 'em was an ancestor of mine. I think it's entirely possible --no, LIKELY--that the child is hers. The fact that the infant is a DOWNS child makes the odds even more likely. That condition is more common the older the mother is.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

19. I wasn't disputing her maternity

because of her age. The thought never occurred to me.

Down Syndrome children are also very often the result of a conception involving blood-related family members..................

[MADem]

21. I didn't mean to imply that was your thought, but I have heard it suggested

in other quarters--that she was "too old" to have a kid.

I do think it's the Governor's kid, though. There are plenty of points to criticize her on that are easily and readily established; and I prefer to stick with those.

When there are suggestions like this made, it, to me, is kind of like the opposite side of the "birth certificate" business that Obama went through--lots of dire innuendo, no proof. I don't think our team needs to go that low, because she's just "You Betcha" full of all sorts of dumb ideas and ideologies!

If her baby were the Gerber Baby, if her daughter didn't get 'in a family way' and was accepted to Harvard, if her son didn't join the Army but joined the Peace Corps instead, it all wouldn't matter--she's just so "target rich" in terms of her batshit policies all on her own--her ghastly family issues are really just icing on her pathetic little cake.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

24. The difference

is that the people caught up in the Obama birth certificate matter are totally involved in it and take it very seriously.

Sarah Palin, and anything about her and her family, is, for me, akin to People magazine or Cadbury creme eggs - not at all nutritious, but occasionally just plain fun.....................

[MADem]

32. I know what you mean!

I have met the occasional earnest oddball who's "invested" in the Palin baby story, though....they probably believe that Batboy is real, too!

[KittyWampus]

46. your statement re:Downs babies being the result of blood relatives matiang is factually incorrect

So disabuse yourself of your theory.

[Missy Vixen]

28. One of my friends is 44, and having her son tomorrow

She had IVF. The further one goes into her forties, the less likely it is that she can become pregnant by the old-fashioned method.

IMHO.

[MADem]

33. Sure, that's just nature at work.

As time goes by, the body does what it will do. There are variations of "normal," though, is all I am saying.

In my family, we do have an ancestor who gave birth to a very healthy child, mercifully her last, without IVF, doctors, hospitals, running water or electricity, who was about eight months shy of fifty when she did so.

My neighbor is 42 and pregnant with what she says is her "last." She's a Catholic, and has a bunch already. I don't think she "IVF'd" this one, but I don't know for sure. I wasn't going to ask!

[RebelOne]

50. My sister and brother were both born when my mother was

in her middle '40s. So, having a child at that age is nothing unusual.

[pnwmom]

16. That's the logical deduction, IMO. n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

25. I think the baby is her son's too. His girlfriend was unseen but a paid member of

the Palin campaign posse. I believe she was a babysitter.

[MADem]

34. Now see, what I thought is that there was a baby "out there" with Track's DNA, not that

the child with Downs was Track's.

After all, the Downs baby is "acknowledged." It's not like the kid is cast into the wilderness or denied.

I'm wondering if the mother of this hypothetical second grandchild wanted nothing to do with Track anymore, or the family, and simply had the kid on her own, but "the word is out" that the kid is, in fact, Track's.

That's what ran through my mind, anyway.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

35. Trig is acknowledged as SP's child not acknowledged as her grandchild. As per my

speculation, and from what I read about Track's girlfriend being part of the campaign entourage, she's not out in the cold. I have no idea what her immediate family situation is but it's possible she didn't have the where with all to raise a child and a special needs child at that.

BTW...according to older posts about this on DU, it is not unusual for young teenage girls to have Down Syndrome children.

The events surrounding SP's "pregnancy" and pre-delivery are highly suspect to me. She didn't announce her pregnancy until 7 months pregnant and photos showed she didn't appear pregnant. The whole water breaking in Texas and not getting back to Alaska to deliver in over a day seems like a fable. With my second child, my doctor broke my water to HASTEN delivery. She then "delivers" at a local clinic where the delivering doctor is a buddy of hers. None of this passes my bs smell test.

If Trig is indeed her grandchild, I do give her kudos for taking on the responsiblity of his care.

[MADem]

36. It's an interesting theory. I think it's fraught with way too many variables, though.

If she had a connection at a local clinic, why couldn't she just go home a day later and "have" (cough) the baby? Why did she race home? The buddy could have covered for her--I mean, really, what's the big deal there?

And she either was a bit fat (and all of it in the belly), or pregnant in the pictures I saw of her that were taken before she delivered. Examples:



Anything's possible. I suppose that 'could' be a pillow or something, like some say Tom Cruise's wife did.

I wasn't there, so I sure don't know. I kinda think it is her kid, though. If I was placing a bet, I'd say it was hers. I also think that doesn't rule out that there could be another grandchild out there, somewhere.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

37. As to her getting home as soon as possible, I would think she wanted to be there as close to

the babies birth as possible. She is a high profile figure in Alaska and I'm sure the press would have caught wind of her being in "labor".

And yes, special pillows can be used to simulate pregnancy. Ask any actress that played pregnant in a movie.

This is not the body of a woman pregnant at 6 months with her 5th child.

[MADem]

38. The child was a month early. And very small. Six pounds or so at birth.

I'm no OB/GYN, but I do think the kid is hers. The angle of that picture you offer is such that her stomach (which does appear to be protruding a bit--she had an hourglass figure on that RNC stage, she doesn't have one there) might be minimized by the angle.

If that pic was taken three months before she delivered, she would have only been five months pregnant, too.

Like I said--I don't KNOW. No clue. No "inside info" or "strongly held, immutable belief." However, I'd bet it was hers, though, if it were a money bet.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

39. Please reread what you wrote. She announced she was 7 months pregnant on March 6,2008.

She delivered on April 18th. She was "8 1/2 months pregnant" when Trig was delivered. It's doesn't seem to make sense to say that if a baby is early the mother is wrong about the when she got pregnant. It could be, but as you said Trig Was Small.

In the photo that I provided, there is no way on earth that she is 6 months or even 5 months pregnant. Her stomach can be a little rounded there from period bloat, but not a 5 or 6 month old fetus.

I don't haven't hard facts but IMHO, Trig is not hers and her husband's child.

[MADem]

40. Look, it's silly to nitpick. If she was six months and some days or so pregant,

and she rounded up to seven months (I don't know that she did or didn't, all I know is that the reports said the kid was a month early) what, are ya gonna shoot her for it? She's not really known for her precision and accuracy in her public statements, so why expect it in this area, either?

I knew a lady who worked for me who only looked pregnant in profile at seven months. From the front, she just looked a little "thick" in the waist, and from the back, she looked "not pregnant." From the side, she had a belly that stuck out, but only in full profile. Then, in her eighth month, she started to look like a barn. By her ninth month she was a beach ball.

I don't presume to know these answers about Palin. I do know that she sure looks pregnant in the pics I provided. I don't claim special knowledge, though.

I still would bet money that the kid's hers, though.

[CANDO]

17. Hey! It's Joe the Plumb..., I mean Joe the Electrician!

eom

[SoCalDem]

42. or Tito, the Builder

:)

Trig is her grandson.. The whole Down syndrome thing most likely blindsided them when he was probably born prematurely in Feb (daughter was on her 8-month mono-break in Wasilla).. That's when the "Lucy-esque" charade got cooked up.. No reason for a young teen to take full responsibility for a handicapped baby, especially when Sara & Todd would end up raising the baby anyway..

at 7 1/2 to 8 months' gestation, and considering the down syndrome, he probably weighed 5 lb or so.. Mid winter in Alaska is a great time to hunker down and stay isolated, so probably only a few people even knew..The doctor is a gal-pal of hers and probably "helped out"..

She announced her pregnancy , knowing how long she had, and knowing what a slightly pre-term baby would weigh..

She would only have to masquerade for a month or so, and she was in control of her schedule and of the photo-ops.. Padding & bulky coats made it pretty easy.. (No doubt she's a fan of "Desperate Housewives"... Bree would be her favorite too)

Bristol might have been miffed at Mom for "stealing her baby", and lacking any sex-ed, she got pregnant again in March or April..

None of this would even be a blip on the radar if she had not been chosen by McCain..

[WI_DEM]

20. A model? he obviously has a very high opinion of himself

[nilram]

23. just following in his grandmothers footsteps!

[Kitty Herder]

47. Well, he is a cute kid. And knows it. nt

[NNN0LHI]

27. I suspect Levi Johnston is blackmailing the governor about this

Easy way to make a buck.

Don

[Mari333]

30. its working for Joe the Plumber and Octomom nt

[chimpymustgo]

45. Maybe those 2 should get married, so we could consolidate the stupidity and media hunger.

[rocktivity]

43. Well, he DOES have a mouth to help feed

:eyes:
rocktivity

[Kitty Herder]

48. Doncha think that if Bristol were Trig's mother, Levi would have spilled it by now? nt

[Orsino]

51. He's not going to spill it for free, perhaps.

But yes, I would have expected that by now, this story would have been more than mere rumor--if there were any truth in it.

I haven't seen Palin's bizarre account of the birth explained in any other way, so my suspicions remain.

[rainbow4321]

53. If a private adoption was involved

He may be under some sort of legal paperwork /contract to not say anything.
As far as a birth certificate goes, it is written into AK state law that once an adoption is done, the adoptive parents can get a new birth certificate issued with THEIR name on it.

[ejpoeta]

49. did someone have more children that no one knows about?

because 'acknowledged' implies that there were more kids who weren't acknowledge. lol. or maybe no one knows what other chidren are out there? lol.

[marshall]

52. He's making his erstwhile in-laws look good by comparison

He seems to be little more than a huckster looking for a gravy train, and that probably started back when he was interested in what was in Bristol's pants.

[unapatriciated]

54. as long as he doesn't become a plummer