Sarah and Bristol Palin: One Child Left Behind
This didn't just happen over night. It didn't even happen during the shameless campaign. It began afterwards, with the Fox TV interview that Bristol Palin gave with her baby, as Sarah Palin hovered behind. It grew when the unwed mother claimed to be a spokesperson for abstinence. (A message her son will no doubt love to hear one day). But even that wasn't perverse enough to provoke a reaction.
No, it was finally when visiting a friend's home the other day that I gaped, unbelieving, at a recent copy of People magazine with Bristol Palin on the cover, in a fire engine red graduation cap-and-gown, so you couldn't possibly miss her - holding her baby in her arms.
At long last, I was disgustipated.
Yes, I know that's not a real word. But an expression from Popeye cartoons is more appropriate than anything I can possibly think of.
I don't care what Bristol Palin has to say. I wish her an exceedingly happy life, but it's her life. Beyond that, she's a teenage girl whose entire claim to fame is that her mother is a failed vice-presidential candidate, and she got knocked up in high school. When Bristol Palin asked America to accept her as a spokesperson for abstinence, can you name one other thing you ever heard her say - let alone say that would make you think she was qualified to be the spokesperson for anything?
Is this unfair and mean of me? No. She and her mother have shoved themselves in our national face. They have said, "Here we are world! Bristol wants to be a role model. Listen to her. Look at her. It's Bristol!!"
Sarah and Bristol Palin have chosen to pummel America by lecturing on abstinence. Except for that part about how cool it is to be a high school graduate with your baby.
If someone is shoved in your face, you react. Just like if you got smashed in the head with a baseball bat. The difference is there the perpetrator would be arrested after the first attack. This just won't stop.
But that isn't what has me disgustipated.
Just imagine if this had happened to a Democrat. Can you even comprehend the mountain of non-stop venom that would have spewed forth against that candidate - and also against the libertine, pregnant, teenage daughter? Rush Limbaugh would have ranted about little else. Glenn Beck would have been in tears over what this said about his America. Sean Hannity would questioned how a candidate so unfit to lead his own family could think about leading the nation. Ann Coulter would have screeched how this proves what is wrong with all permissive liberals. Newt Gingrich would have made his "Americans are surrounded by paganism" speech months earlier than he did.
It would all have been malarkey, but you know they would have all done it.
But Sarah Palin, the flaming hypocrite who preached against this very sort of thing like a demagogue zealot, she got a pass from them all.
But that's not what disgustipated me either.
What finally disgustipated me is that throughout the campaign, Sarah Palin whined regularly that her family was off-limits (which they should have been) - yet used them as circus props more than Barnum and Bailey. At every appearance, her new baby was hanging on her shoulder like it was an epaulet. To promote being a hockey "mom," she dragged her youngest daughter to center ice. She hauled the pregnant Bristol with her all over, even making sure that the fake-fiancé was there for every disingenuous photo op. (If ever there was a new meaning for the term "forced labor," this was it.) The only people surprised when the couple broke off their faux-engagement were those who thought Sarah Palin was actually a foreign policy expert because she could see Russia from the beach.
And then, after declaring her family off-limits (which they should be), there was Sarah Palin skulking behind her daughter during her Fox TV interview. There was Bristol Palin wanting to be a spokesperson. And here is Bristol Palin now posing for the cover of People magazine in red cap-and-gown-and-baby. A photo carefully planned and executed, because Sarah Palin was happy to again use her family as campaign billboard.
The pathetic irony, of course, is that an unwed pregnant daughter is everything Sarah Palin rails against. Only last week she told an audience, "I'm concerned about my kids' future." It's their past, though, that's the problem here. If you're really concerned about their future, you don't keep sticking them in front of TV cameras and national magazines for public scrutiny to serve your selfish political needs. Because that scrutiny can only lead to ridicule.
Spokesperson for abstinence? Bristol Palin has made herself the poster child for getting famous by getting pregnant. She couldn't have provided teenage girls a better roadmap to "how to become a star" if she was cover girl for the Auto Club.
Is all this unfair and mean of me? If Bristol Palin wants to be a role model, like all parents she should raise her child in private grace and loving dignity, for - I can only assume - the child's sake. That would be a role model to admire. But if she, as an adult, chooses to stick herself and her child in the public spotlight and professes to be a spokesperson for anything, she is fair to be looked at, just as she wishes.
With her mother right behind, pushing.
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Wow -- you must not have waited long enough before complaining -- I have seen at least half a dozen of your posts already, and the majority of them included that rather tiresome (even at the first reading) slogan at the end. Know what? I never saw any example of others, especially Mr. Elisberg, "talking up their intelligence."
Here's a great truth: few people are really as smart as they think they are -- even those who did not talk up their intelligence. Not you, not I, not Rush, Not Ann. Here's a greater truth -- Mr. Elisberg is, and he didn't even "talk up his intelligence"! How's ***that*** for ironic?
Methinks (I hope that word choice isn't just me talking up my intelligence) that if the Palins had been solely interested in getting Bristol's stated cause across, she would have better served that cause by spreading the word via Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and the like. The Palins chose to allow her onto a national magazine cover with her newborn - a choice was made. This was not an post talking about her looks, her figure, or her fashion sense. It was about her setting forth about abstinence, holding a baby in her graduation gown, on a national magazine cover. The Palin's choice not appropriate, -- Mr. Elisberg's critique was. I hope Bristol Palin all the luck in the world -- it looks like she will probably need it.
BTW, this was directed to dgiotto...
There are so many things I want to say about Palin, her daughter, NOW and all the hangers-on who are feigning outrage about Letterman's comments. But I am literally speechless. There are no words for this absolute rubbish storm in a teacup.
I don't want my teenage daughter listening to what Bristol Palin has to say. When Bristol became an abstinence spokesperson, I felt the need to have "the talk" once again with my daughter. Icarefully pointed out the disaparities between Bristol and the average teen mother. I described what I had seen as a volunteer coordinator at our local alternative high school and day care for teen moms and the very hard road they and their families now faced. I reiterated my expectations regarding abstinence, sexual health and birth control.
Candies would have done far better to have done a story about one of those alternative high schools than promoting Bristol Palin is such glamorous fashion.
as much as I don't like Palin, Bristol is 18 now can do whatever she pleases with whomever she pleases (non sexually, I mean professionally) so her mom couldn't tell her yes or no.
But I do agree that her other kids shouldn't have been shown to the world the way they were.
especially Piper and Trig,
Very Well Said!! I had no use for Palin from the moment she used her infant as a prop on stage facing massive crowds.
Robert Elisberg's article on Briston Palin is wonderful. We're disgustipated at the whole mess. That Bristol has the nerve to appear in public after Robert's...well, we never! We need more forward looking journalists like Robert to keep the Bristol Palins of the world off the cover of Time Magazine. Bravo, Robert! Our role model for abstinence should be someone like Mother Teresa, not an attractive young girl like Bristol Palin who's had a child out of wedlock.
Yrs sincerely,
The Playdo Institute
Handel Glassberg, President
Funny how we're expected to praise the Palin women for choosing not to have abortions, yet the Palin women (and wingers country-wide) want nothing more than to deny the right to choose to rest of women in America; second thought, ironic would be the better term.
Brilliant job, Robert. Keep up the good work.
The Palins are frauds. They MUST be called out on it.
Yes, brilliant job of spinning the truth. Lets just assume first that they are exploiting their kids and forget that maybe it might help someone from making the same mistake. Clean up your worthless rhetoric America.
How does appearing on the cover of People magazine with a baby at your graduation help other teenagers from making the same mistake? Looks to me that it says want to be a star have a baby.
Spinning the truth?
The Palin`s are nothing but cheap opportunists, there`s no spin there.
Their unmarried daughter is on the cover of a national magazine with her infant son, and you ASSUME they are exploiting their kids?
You don't assume that this glamourization of unwed, teenage motherhood might INSPIRE young girls to do the same?
Bravo to NOW...maybe BOTH PARTIES can strive for civility and rediscover good manners and respect...
http://www.now.org/issues/media/hall-of-shame/
The sexualization of girls and women in the media is reaching new lows these days -- it is exploitative and has a negative effect on how all women and girls are perceived and how they view themselves. Letterman also joked about what he called Palin's "slutty flight attendant look" -- yet another example of how the media love to focus on a woman politician's appearance, especially as it relates to her sexual appeal to men. Someone of Letterman's stature, who appears on what used to be known as "the Tiffany Network" (CBS), should be above wallowing in the juvenile, sexist mud that other comedians and broadcasters seem to prefer.
On that point, it's important to note that when Chelsea Clinton was 13 years old she was the target of numerous insults based on her appearance. Rush Limbaugh even referred to her as the "White House dog." NOW hopes that all the conservatives who are fired up about sexism in the media lately will join us in calling out sexism when it is directed at women who aren't professed conservatives.
Somebody tell Elisberg that Palin was at the baseball game with Willow (14), not Bristol (17.) Thus, he was wrong and letterman needs to make a public non-pseudo apology.
Another Palin fan spinning the facts. You are projecting with your comments one what "you think" Letterman was saying. His explanation is quite simple. I believe you are simple too.
Someone tell Laserman88 that Elisberg did not mention the Letterman episode once. Nor did he mention Willow (14). Someone tell Laserman88 that he would better served his warped ideology by actually reading the excellently reasoned and impeccably written prose of Elisberg.
This is a good article. Thank you for writing it.
Lets see now, the last two comments that I've made regarding this article weren't even published. I wasn't obscene, but maybe I was just a little too harsh on the author about his fixation with Sarah Palin's family. At least he has the option of editing out those comments, too bad Sarah Palin doesn't have the same luxury. Talk about hypocrisy!!
It's my experience that people who talk up their own intelligence are usually not as smart as they think they are.
that's how it goes around here...they can dish it out and they love people to reinforce what they are saying but if you disagree or have a different POV you usually get conveniently 'overlooked' and not printed...maybe you get one or two comments in but these writers do not like to be challenged...if you notice most of the comments are saying the same thing...not very liberal or open minded if you ask me...the liberal movement is becoming one big group think...sad...individual thought is now frowned upon...there was a time when we were civil and respectful but that is no longer cool
If as you describe... YOU are the smarter one...
Is this the sort of message that Palin and her Daughter should be promoting to you Girls.
What is the message they want to put out.....?
http://www.candiesfoundation.org/tshirts.html
Oh... I know. If you pay me Money... I will forget about my Morals.
Hey that's a pretty cool shirt, thanks for the link. As for being the smarter one i don't know about that, it just amuses me when I listen to arrogant libs being so sure of themselves when they're so wrong.
I may not be the smarter one, but I'm smart enough to admit when I'm wrong.
One of the many things that disgustipated me with Palin is the fact nothing she ever says is the truth and everyone knows they are lies and finally gives up correcting the record because there is no shame at being caught they simply lie louder. There is the sad fact that her oldest son is in Iraq facing death or injury because he was offered a jail sentence or the Army. He was given that choice because his mother was governor or he would have been in jail automatically. There is the oldest daughter who had so little supervision or relationship with her parents that she got pregant while still in high school - according to Levi the parents knew they were sexually active. Another question no one seems to acknowledge is Palin thought about abortion, decided not to but entertained the idea yet she and all Republicans are desperate to deny that choice to everyone else. This is a woman of average intelligence who believes she simply has to wink and repeat words other people said or wrote and no one will notice -- Ok, I can see winning a beauty pagent but I'd prefer anyone running a company or government to have brains. Sadly that doesn't seem to be a Republican requirement from any candidate, male or female.
Thank you; for your post Robert. You said everything I've always thought.
Even this last dust-up with Letterman probably would have been avoided IF Sarah and Todddddd (reminds me of SNL w/Gilda and Bill Murray) hadn't dragged along another daughter to be stuck in the limelight.
I guess Bristol was home taking care of the younger 2 and her baby? Ahhh, what a good life, the life of an unwed mother, Mom's built-in baby-sitter.
Certainly the photo in the Graduation Gown holding the baby, smiling -- to anyone in passing, it looked like an advertisement for getting pregnant and having a baby before graduating.
Where the abstinence comes in is only where Sarah pushes for contracts for her daughter to make $$ pushing something she herself has/had no interest in, made obvious by her baby!!
Sarah has been living off the public dole for so long, she figures that's a legit way to make a living for anyone, no matter how completely ill-equipped they are for the job, like Sarah herself.
All I know is that it is pretty obvious to me that the writer of this article is not very concerned with the problem of teenage pregnancy . Who are you to say who is an effective spokesman or woman for abstinence, who are you to call somebody empty and hollow when you don't even know them. Maybe the poor girl is trying to help people learn from her mistakes. I can understand why people dislike Sarah Palin's political views, but by attacking her and her family so personally is in my opinion disgusting. You are no different from ann coulter, rush, or any other political hack who believes that the ends justify the means.
And to all those people who responded to my earlier comments, my experience with people who talk up their intelligence is that they usually are not as smart as they think they are.
A 17 year old with her newborn baby in her arms is not an effective spokeswoman for abstinence.
QED.
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