I, like many of you, cannot get enough of all this Sarah Palin controversy. I love hearing the Republicans trying to spin this one. It's funny to see them do flips to try and make this insane decision by McCain look right.
My favorite talking point from the Republicans in the last few days is their attack on the media for even making this Bristol Palin pregnancy an issue. All day they call the media biased for reporting the fact that a pro-life, abstinence-preaching mother from Alaska, who is now running for the VP of America, has a 17-year-old pregnant daughter. Every time I turn on Fox News or CNN I see a different McCain representative or Republican spinster yelling at the reporter for even mentioning this news story. As if this is so shocking to them that the media might just have a small interest in this little fact.
Of course in this time of teen pregnancy news, we are all reminded of another young famous teen that is also dealing with becoming a mother way before her time. That teen, of course, is the one and only Jamie Lynn Spears. Bristol and Jamie Lynn should have a get together where they can trade teenage secrets about going to the mall, smoking cigarettes in the bathroom at school, and changing their child's diaper when they've crapped themselves.
I even read an article that Jamie Lynn has reached out to Bristol in her time of need. I feel terrible for Bristol. Here is a young woman, who until just a few days ago, was privately dealing with this traumatic situation. Now, because of her mother's bold choice to thrust her family into the national spotlight, she is forced to be pregnant not just in front of her close friends and family, but also in front of the entire nation.
I would say that the responsibility for her public pregnancy lies much less on the media, who is simply doing its job, and more on her mother who has decided to become an international figure by running on the McCain ticket. Palin may not have known what was about to happen to her family because she has lived in Alaska her entire life and only got her passport in 2007. However, in the past few days, I'm sure she has learned quickly how this game is played. It's too bad that she didn't take this under consideration and decide to pass on McCain's offer. If she had turned down the offer, then she could have taken care of her pregnant teen in the privacy of her state of Alaska. That way her 17-year-old daughter wouldn't have had to go through this scrutiny. However, that kind of privacy just wasn't in the cards for Bristol Palin.
When Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy was announced, it instantly became international news. The story lasted for weeks and the media became obsessed. It was and still is a very interesting story to many people. However, I didn't hear the right wing pundits yelling at the media to stop their reporting on this issue. Instead everyone had his or her chance to talk about Jamie Lynn. The media did its job in reporting the news of her pregnancy and nobody really had a problem with it.
Now that we are in an election cycle and everything has become hyper-politicized the ring wing politicos are on an all out attack on the media for discussing this issue. "How dare you!", they scream all day at the news pundits for even mentioning this story. The hypocrisy in this is almost too much for me to handle.
How is it ok for everyone to go crazy over a teen pop star getting pregnant before she graduates high school but it is not ok for the media to discuss the teen pregnancy of a young woman who's mother has just decided to become one of the most famous people in the world?
I don't think there is anything wrong with the media reporting on this story and I think it is ludicrous for Republicans to complain about it. If McCain's team is so angry with the media reporting on this then they should have thought of that before they decided to pick Sarah Palin to be on their ticket. What did they think was going to happen when everyone found out about this?
Of course there is always the question of if they knew at all about this pregnancy. McCain's camp is saying that they knew all about it, but that claim doesn't strike true to me. How on earth could they have thought that it was a good pick for them to choose this woman to be on their ticket with that piece of information? I'm not a professional political strategist but if I found out that someone I was thinking about choosing for my VP had a pregnant teen daughter, I might think twice.
David Broder said yesterday on MSNBC that you shouldn't run for President or Vice President unless you feel comfortable taking a bath in the nude in the most busy intersection in town everyday at noon. As humorous as that analogy is, it actually not far from the truth. These positions are called PUBLIC for a reason. The officials are considered PUBLIC for a reason. If you don't want people to know about your personal business then you shouldn't run for PUBLIC office. Sarah Palin is now one of the most public figures in the world and I think the right wing attack machine needs to take a step back and understand that this story is going to play out and the media has every right to play it out.
What if this happened to a democrat on the ticket? What if Obama or Joe Biden had a teen daughter who became pregnant? You and I both know the Republican attack machine would go all out, launching everything they have against the Obama camp. O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh would scream to the high heavens and try to slander both of them from sun up to sun down. The insanity that the Republicans are displaying right now is going to back fire and it is going to back fire big time.
I have no doubt that devout Republicans don't care if Sarah Palin is convicted of wrong doing in firing her ex-brother in law, or has a pregnant daughter, or has a third foot for that matter. Devout Republicans are going to vote for the McCain ticket regardless of how many mistakes or blunders he makes during these election months. He could have picked Bristol Palin herself and they would still vote for him. But what the Republicans are forgetting is that there are all these voters out there called UNDECIDED. These prudent voters take everything into consideration during the entire election cycle. I'm sure that these voters are thinking twice about this choice for VP and I think that they will show the Republicans what a silly choice for VP this pick was.
In such an important election for the Republicans, why would they choose someone who is so clouded with issues that it blurs their own message? Things just don't seem to add up, right?
If Jamie Lynn can get it from the media then so can Bristol Palin. Jamie Lynn's mother isn't nearly as important to our country as Bristol's mother is and so the media has every right to talk about Sarah Palin and her family. If Jamie Lynn has to deal with this then so does Bristol. Is it morally right? I'm not sure. However, this is how the political game has always been played and if you want to keep your family out of the headlines then don't run for public office.