Posted by: ST on September 1, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Sarah and Todd Palin issued the statement today:
“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us” the Palins said in the statement. “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”
The NYPost reports that McCain knew about this before he made his selection:
Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter’s pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.
In the short period since she was announced last Friday, Palin has helped to energize the Republican Party’s conservative base, giving the McCain camp fresh energy going into the campaign for the Nov. 4 election against Democrat Barack Obama.
McCain officials said the news of the daughter’s pregnancy was being released to rebut what one aide called “mud-slinging and lies” circulating on liberal blog sites.
According to these rumors, Sarah Palin had faked a pregnancy and pretended to have given birth in May to her fifth child, a son named Trig who has Down syndrome. The rumor was that Trig was actually Bristol Palin’s child and that Sarah Palin was the grandmother.
A senior McCain campaign official said the McCain camp was appalled that these rumors had not only been spread around liberal blog sites and partisan Democrats, but also were the subject of heightened interest from mainstream news media.
“The despicable rumors that have been spread by liberal blogs, some even with Barack Obama’s name in them, is a real anchor around the Democratic ticket, pulling them down in the mud in a way that certainly juxtaposes themselves against their ‘campaign of change,’” a senior aide said.
First, my best wishes to Bristol and her future husband for a complication-free pregnancy. Being a young mother is going to be tough, but with the love and support of her family, she should be ok. God bless her for her decision to keep her baby.
Second, hats off to the McCain campaign for curbing the unsubstantiated rumors about Bristol and her mother that have been circulating amongst some hate-filled left wing blogs ever since McCain announced Palin as his running mate.
Update 1: K.Lo provides the perfect response to this story:
That the candidate in the family doesn’t view her daughter having her baby as a punishment makes all the difference.
If the Obama campaign – and/or his surrogates – want to make this an issue, you can best believe that Obama’s “punished” comments will be brought back up again for debate. Those comments were:
“Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old,” he said. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.”
The blogosphere reax.
Update 2 – 2:03 PM: The American Princess blog speculates on how Palin could address this issue with Biden in the debate, should it come up:
I’m a cheerleader for Palin, no doubt. I don’t deny it. But even I couldn’t really predict this. How problematic is it going to be for someone like Biden to hit Palin on the issue of reproductive freedom? She can just easily say, listen…”both me and my daughter have been faced with the option to abort our children rather than suffering through the undeniable harships of raising a disabled child or being teenage mom. We were both lucky enough that our family supported our choices. I belive abortion takes a human life, but I also understand that women faced with unplanned pregnancy have more to think about than a mere religious conviction. Because I know about this firsthand, I would like to use the office of the Vice President to do everything I can do to help women who face these situations. I want to improve the quality of women’s health care. I want to make abortion providers give women comprehenisve information about their options and about their growing children. I want to help fund comprehensive sex education programs that take emotion and personal attachment into account, rather than just giving kids the scientific facts. I want to help out crisis pregnancy centers, which take care of women and their unplanned children when they have no one else to go. I want to turn the discussion of abortion in this country from a plain, boring discussion of court cases and laws, to a discussion about compassion and a discussion about how we can truly care for the women in our society who have to choose between their futures and their children. I feel I am uniquely qualified to speak on the subject, Mr. Biden. After all, I made the choice myself.”
Powerful.
Update 3 – 2:41 PM: Barack Obama responds to the news:
At a press avail in Monroe, Mich., Obama on Palin: “Back off these kinds of stories.”
“I have said before and I will repeat again: People’s families are off limits,” Obama said. “And people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as a governor and or her potential perfromance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18, and how a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn’t be a topic of our politics.”
On charges that his campaign has stoked the story via liberal blogs:
“I am offended by that statement. There is no evidence at all that any of this involved us,” he said. “Our people were not involved in any way in this, and they will not be. And if I thought there was somebody in my campaign who was involved in something like, they that would be fired.”
Well, if she’s 5 months pregnant, that ought to put to rest the idiotic slanders that she’s Trig Palin’s mother. By my math, she would have conceived the current child before Trig was born.
Not that that fact won’t stop the left from its usual flood of electronic sewage…
Quite impressive considering the MSM did everything they could to ignore Edwards cheating on his wife who was fighting cancer at the time.
I also seem to recall hearing a few “What’s the big deal? It’s not the real issues we need to be talking about?”
Yet now we see that even children are prime targets, er, well, Republicans children.
And the dirty laundry continues to be aired:
Palins Husband has DWI arrest
Better and better…..
I think Dr Dobson says it best:
We have always encouraged the parents to love and support their children and always advised the girls to see their pregnancies through, even though there will of course be challenges along the way. That is what the Palins are doing, and they should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.
God bless them.
So, we’re to presume that the operation to nab Bristol’s BF off the plane (and thus deprive the Foreign Legion of a new recruit) has succeeded?
It is interesting to compare and contrast the attitudes presented by Obama and Palin. Obama considers a child a “mistake” that needs to be erased so that it doesn’t interfere with a woman’s future plans, you know, that college experience, or that trip to Europe to bicycle around. Palin views a child’s life as more important than any plans a woman might have had. She knows it is still possible to achieve what you want, be it go to school, whatever, but it’ll be a damned sight more difficult. Still, that difficulty is unimportant when compared to the life of a human being, i.e. the baby.
Hmmm….human life less important than hosteling around Europe, or human life more important than any plans…Hmmm
Good point, Sev!
Here’s one where I have some experience. When I was 17 through one of my typical acts of stupidity, I got a girl pregnant. There was no question in my mind what I had to do and we got married, The idea that it was punishment never occurred to me. Nor did the thought of an abortion.
Luckily, my parents were as supportive and helpful as Sarah and her husband and while I had to grow up quickly I wouldn’t change anything looking back.
Today my son is a 36 year old who’s raising three of my grandchildren and is a responsible, capable young man who makes me proud.
This actually makes me more enthusiastic about the Palin’s. It’s not an easy thing for parents to go through.
The Media and the Left aren’t going to leave this one alone. They will want to get back about the Edwards deal and they probably going to set their sites on this one. Only thing Obama did was separate himself from the ensuing sewage storm about to fly.
Go, lefties go.
I love the meme that this will lose her votes amongst social conservatives.
REALLY?
I mean, I are one (to quote Jeff Foxworthy), and frankly, a lot of us out here in flyover country realize that life… happens.
Did they plan it? Nope. Are they dealing with it? Yep. Are they killing the baby? Nope. Is the the young couple getting married? Yep.
Works for me. Would’ve said a slightly different timeline was preferable, but can’t really say it’s never happened before.
McCain/Palin all the way baby. Hell, Palin/McCain, for my money.
And after watching some of the coverage of Gustav, dare I hope it, Palin/Jindal at some point? Hmmmm?
I’ll give Senator Obama this much: his public statement, as quoted above, is very good, and hits exactly the right tone. His campaign must be learning from the reaction to their boneheaded comments when Governor Palin was first selected to run for VP.
I’m not so sure about the denials, though. Given that the Dems are so beholden to the leftist hate groups – remember how all their presidential candidates raced to see who could show up first at the yearly Kos convention – I’m skeptical that there isn’t someone in the campaign heirarchy coordinating this with the nutroots.
Point well taken Foxx, I can see the other tidbits that issue from the leftists that will be even more outrageous than the ones we have read heretofore. Makes me glad that I got away from the Dems such a long time ago.
I congratulate the new family and my prayers are with them as their struggles begin. I hope that the mainstream media will leave them alone. That would be the “responsible” thing to do.
That was a gracious and honorable statement by Senator Obama. Unfortunately, it won’t make the loonies crawl back under their rocks.
They’re still saying that Trig is Bristol’s baby!
I even saw one kook claiming that this is Bristol’s third baby. Obama is right to distance himself from this stuff, but he can’t make it stop.
I saw a comment somewhere — Protein Wisdom, maybe? — that said his biggest worry about Barack Obama was that his supporters actually have to be told to lay off.
I have no patience with Obama’s disclaimer. The sad fact is, this has been his pattern all along, to have surrogates do the dirty work, to say the things he’s too clean minded to say, and if reaction against is too strong, well there’s always a bus handy when you want one. Are we really so stupid as to believe that Obama climbed the tree of Chicago politics without learning how to slip in the knife and not get his hands dirty?
I am deeply concerned about many of the suggestions in that quote from the American Princess blog, such as: “I believe that abortion takes a human life, but I also understand that women faced with unplanned pregnancy have more to think about than a mere religious conviction.”
A mere religious conviction? Religion is nothing more nor less that the relationship between a human being and the universe. Christianity is not just something that we think is pretty nice in an ideal universe, it is a way of life. There is no such thing as a mere religious conviction.
And the pro-life point of view is NOT necessarily based on any religion or political point. I was perfectly comfortable being a Christian and not being pro-life, until I actually examined the arguments on both sides. I chose the only one that made sense, the pro-life side.
There is so much more in this that disturbs me, but I’ve gone on too long already.
With all due respect and acknowledging the good will, I don’t think Our Lady (I am going a little far out here, aren’t i?) needs our guidance on how to answer. For me, I am listening. This is the sweetest music I’ve heard in 60 years.
Some other sites are pointing out the close connection between the Obama campaign and the Kossacks who are sliming Palin. Here, for example. But while the pattern is established, so far there’s nothing definitive that the Obama campaign’s behind this particular smear job. So far.
As for Obama’s statement itself, apparently it was
carefully rehearsed and the question itself was planted with a friendly reporter:
I am not particularly interested in Palin’s grandchild. It’s really none of my business. It is yet another example of minors being taught abstinence while having sex, leading to a logical conclusion. I’m glad that the child has loving, supporting (and financially stable) parents/grandparents; but I think it’s a tough situation for teenagers to lead their own life while raising another one. I wish them the best of luck.
_As for Obama’s statement itself, apparently it was carefully rehearsed and the question itself was planted with a friendly reporter_
Are you telling me Obama might be a politician giving a preplanned, rehearsed and vetted quote? Shocking.
You know this for fact Alchemist?? Or is it kids being taught sexual education too soon and being encouraged to experiment?? Also, you have no clue, if it wasn’t the intent of both of these young people to have this baby from the onset. Sex isn’t just about pleasure to some people, and that is why abstinence education is all about. Unlike regular sex education which says put a condom on and you can do whatever you want!!! Yippee! Your smarter than than Alchemist. – Lorica
Did you read through the entire link? Sorry I guess I should have highlighted more facts:
•Nearly half (46%) of all 15-19-year-olds in the United States have had sex at least once.[1]
n 2005, 43 per cent of Canadian teens aged 15 to 19 reported having intercourse at least once, compared to 47 per cent in 1996-1997 (note: didn’t check to see if the years line up, but let’s just say they’re roughly the same)
•A sexually active teen who does not use contraceptives has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year.[10]
•Teen pregnancy rates are much higher in the United States than in many other developed countries-twice as high as in England and Wales or Canada, and eight times as high as in the Netherlands or Japan.[31]
Put the thoughts together. Canadians are having the same amount of sex as americans, yet twice as many pregnancies. Why would this be?
I’m still looking for another study showing the sexual activity of teens who enroll in abstinence only programs. I’ll link when I find it.
Here’s a thought: how about let’s teach them chastity BEFORE they start having sex?
And did you notice some other things that link said? Teens are waiting longer to have sex, and the percentage of teenagers who had sex declined(from 49% to 46% among females and from 55% to 46% among males) from 1995 to 2002 (the year quoted in the statistics).
One very important, unacknowledged fact is that many teenage girls become pregnant for the same reason older women do: they want a baby. Most of us adults, and nearly all politicians, seem to assume that all teen pregnancies happen by accident, but that is far from the reality of the situation.
Careful, alchemist. Remember what happened to Jeremiah Wright the minute he critiqued the Dalai Bama as ‘just another politician’. I’m sure there’s room under the bus for you too.
alchemist,
This one I don’t understand…
Is there ‘harm’ in teaching abstinence?
What is the resistance to teaching abstinence?
Please ‘EDUCATE’ us.
You’re assuming that Bristol and her future husband were enrolled in abstinence-only programs. From everything I’ve seen so far on the web, that is not the case. The Wasilla schools appear to have a “comprehensive” sex education curriculum.
Alchemist this isn’t about your ‘link’ it is about your assumption. You do not know the intent of these young people, period. Apparently from what I am hearing all they did was accelerate what was going to be inevitable. I am well aware of what youth in this country are doing. Guess what, they are doing it no matter what kind of sexual education they are getting. A condom can’t stop the emotional attachment that comes with sex. A condom doesn’t stop the devastation a young person feels when that relationship breaks up. A condom isn’t the answer to the problem. – Lorica
Over three-quarters (76%) of all unplanned pregnancies occur to women in their teens and twenties.(1,2) While the majority of all teen pregnancies are unplanned (more than half a million unplanned pregnancies to teens each year), there are also more than one and a half million unplanned pregnancies to women in their twenties each year.
Approximately 80 percent of teenage pregnancies are unintended. In 2002, they accounted for one-fifth of all accidental pregnancies in the U.S. (Finer & Henshaw, 2006; National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2006).
You’re right, I don’t know much about them, and it’s not really my business. I’m just playing the odds. Most teenage pregnancies are unintended. Most unintended pregnancies occur when no contraception is used.
Baklava; here’s why I don’t like abstinence only programs (pt. 1)
Here’s a recent study (sorry, sample sizes are small) comparing students who were given an abstinence only course, and a control where students were not given a course at all. Note (through pages ~30-40) misconceptions in the abstinence only classes were equal to students who took no class at all.
There’s another report (still digging, maybe I’ll find it tomorrow) that came out last year that associated students avoiding intercourse by becoming involved in “other” risky sexual activities. This report did not find that correlation though.
I’ve seen the Mathematica study before, alchemist. There are more than a few serious problems with the methodology.
- They examined only four out of about 750 such programs. About one-half of one percent. Even you’re aware that this is far too small a sample size to draw any meaningful conclusions. There is no evidence that this sample is representative of abstinence programs as a whole.
- The students were in elementary school – some as young as in third grade – when they were placed in the program. The high school group – the most likely to become pregnant – was excluded entirely.
- The programs were not long-term. In fact, the program examined in Miami was for only one year, not required, and only targeted high-risk girls (page 15 of your study link). Talk about cherry-picking your sample to achieve a desired result, especially when you intentionally do not apply the program during the years of maximum vulnerability.
- The control group was taken from the same school environment as the study group. That means the two groups could interact freely and each be subject to influences from the other. Any scientist knows that when you intermingle your control group and your study group, contamination means your conclusions are far less valid.
So the results aren’t surprising. If I taught third graders or fourth graders in a high-risk area about abstinence for a year, then tossed them back into a sea of anti-abstinence pressures for five years, I’d fully expect to see no significant differences in behavior.
One has to wonder how much money was wasted on this kind of study. I’ll bet it had to be several million dollars.
In this neck of the woods we call it judging them. – Lorica
Alchemist, I like how you add the word “only”.
Politics as usual. Most parents of children do not see ANYTHING wrong with teaching abstinence.
You are on the fringe to try to REACH for “studies” that prove abstinence shouldn’t be taught.
Think about the traditional family of pre 1960′s and how clear it was by parents that you do not engage in activities with a boy (parents of a girl). Teaching the consequences of such activities etc.
Now with the attitudes today you have to reach hard to try to prove that we should not be teaching abstinence…. and inserting the word “only”.
What is the problem with somebody at age 16 abstaining?
You don’t tell them please use a condom alchemist. That is crazy (in my humble opinion).
You’re right, should have said abstinence only in the original text. I have no problem teaching abstinence, as long as that teaching doesn’t undermine the idea that condoms and birth control are better than nothing at all. I firmly believe that 99.9% of teenagers shouldn’t have sex. If I could stop it from happening, (ethically anyway) I would.
However, since I neither have the power or the instructional ability to keep teenagers from doing what teenagers have always done; hopefully they are at least informed to get a condom first.
alchemist–
I don’t know how to break this to you, but some teenagers who want a baby will say that their pregnancy is unplanned, even when it is not. I know some of them. And the fact that a pregnancy was unplanned does not mean it is unwelcome or unintentional. So I’m afraid your 80% doesn’t hold water. It’s not a matter of “playing the odds.” Human behavior is about choices; it’s not a craps game.
Bristol and Levi were planning to marry before the pregnancy happened. If you’re looking for an argument to support your contention that abstinence education is a failure, you’ll have to look elsewhere.