Holy crap

[ellid]

Sarah Palin's seventeen year old daughter is five months pregnant. For real.

I swear, this is like watching a train wreck happen...and anyone want odds on Palin withdrawing her name from nomination and letting Romney sweep into the VP slot by acclamation?

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

I love the way they are spinning it, as a response to the nasty Kos rumors. Trainwreck is right! But I don't think she'll withdraw. I think the right will rally to her support.

[kaiz.livejournal.com]

This whole thing is like watching reality tv; and not in a good way.

[juliannajoyful.livejournal.com]

I sincerely doubt it. Why should she step aside so a losing candidate can have that spot?

And why would you--an Obama supporter--care about Romney having the job?

Having spent the summer closly following the GOP, I can tell you that outside the MSM, the chpoice of Romney would have been divisive and defeating. She fired up their base far more than Romney would or could.

That would be why you want Romney. Ain't happening.

I will say this: I believe that the things that KOS and the liberal blogosphere have speculated this weekend are incredibly insulting, degrading to any woman seeking this kind of position, and disgusting. They don't factor into the decision making process for me this election cycle, any more than Bill and a cigar factor into my rating of his presidency. (very good president.)

But this crap really turns me off of liberals/progressives. Wow, you can be as small minded and judgmental as conservatives. That's really something to write home about.

More about her policy, thanks, less about her personal life.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

First, I do not in way support Romney for Republican VP. He's a weak candidate regardless, and if I were McCain, I'd be going for someone like Kay Baily Hutchinson, Olympia Snowe, or even Rudy Guiliani. Sarah Palin is a very weak choice, and we as Americans deserve better.

I was speculating on this because he was the MSM's pick for the job, and if Palin withdraws from the race, he's likely poised to step in and offer himself "for the good of the party." Do I think this is going to happen? Possibly. Do I *want* it to happen? Absolutely not. There are far better qualified people than either Palin or Romney to be VP, and I wish to God McCain had chosen one of them.

Second, I completely agreed about the speculation that Palin faked her own pregnancy last winter. It was nasty and mean-spirited, and a lot of commenters on Daily Kos were calling for it to end in the one diary where it appeared.

Third, I feel sorry for Bristol Palin. She doesn't need this sort of attention, and if her parents truly loved her they never would have done something to subject her to a full-blown media feeding frenzy.

Fourth, my reasons for not supporting Sarah Palin are the following:

- Underqualified. She's barely two years removed from governing a town half the size of Easthampton, has no foreign policy experience, and did not even know what the vice president did when asked about it last month. This is NOT the sort of person who could, or should, be the vice president for a 72 year old man with a history of cancer.

- A Dominionist, or Dominionist sympathizer. See my previous post for that, but sorry, one doesn't have to be a progressive to find the idea of a vice president who believes in creationism horrifying.

- Poor judgment. She's under investigation for a political firing that stemmed from her attempts to have her former brother-in-law axed from his job. Even worse, she gave a speech, flew eleven hours in an airplane, and then drove nearly an hour to a small town hospital when in labor with a special needs baby. That not only risked her own life, it risked the life of her unborn child and flies in the face of every single bit of medical advice given to pregnant women.

- Her nomination is a blatant and, to my mind, condescending attempt to recruit disgruntled Clinton supporters. Never mind that Clinton was (and is) a liberal, that she's pro-choice, pro-science education, and anti-pretty much everything Sarah Palin stands for; McCain seems to believe that PUMAs will vote for her solely because she's a woman. That is flat-out insulting, and I don't like the idea that McCain thinks American women are so stupid that they'll vote for a woefully underqualified candidate simply because she's female.

Finally, my reasons for not supporting Hillary Clinton were based on her behavior during the campaign, especially her kowtowing to Richard Mellon Scaife, not her policies. If she'd stuck to the issues and not groveled to the man who'd spent eight years attempting to destroy her husband's presidency, I might have been willing to vote for her. If she'd won the nomination, I'd likely be holding my nose and voting for her, previous statements aside. I think she'd be a terrific Cabinet secretary, healthcare adviser, or even possibly an associate justice on the Supreme Court.

And the mere idea that a political featherweight like Sarah Palin is McCain's idea of a replacement for her makes me slightly ill.

[juliannajoyful.livejournal.com]

Gov. Sarah Palin was not selected for your approval. She was selected for the Neoconservative base that has elected GWB for two terms. They liked her, and she definitely had grassroots support in that group. No matter who he chose, he needs to win that base. They would not have gone for a liberal candidate, they would not have gone for a RINO (Repub in name only). He fished that out with Lieberman. From what I can see of his process, John McCain put a great deal of thought into the available votes out there, of Republicans, Neocons, and Moderates, and finessed it with a home run choice. This choice puts him in the race much more solidly than anyone would have predicted 6 months ago.

I don't understand expending this much energy to tear down the candidate for VP of a candidate you don't intend to vote for because your ideological differences are that extreme. Especially to others who share your ideological thoughts on these issues. I can tell you this, the more negative the press gets to her, the more she'll capture the demographic she was chosen for: the "security moms" who elected Bush in 2004. She wasn't chosen for displaced supporters of HRC.

As for you're willingness to vote HRC, thank you. I'm not discussing HRC, nor have I said anything about who I'm voting for.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Jjoyful: I agree with you wholeheartedly...about 90% worth. There's an important factor that you are not acknowledging. Palin self-identifies as an ardent pro-lifer, and as such she promotes removing the very private issues of contraception, pregnancy, and childbirth from the parent/doctor realm and subjecting them to the very public realm of governmental control. She can't have it both ways, proclaiming these decisions to be private only when it's convenient to her.

[juliannajoyful.livejournal.com]

My personal ethics say: to each his own. I believe in choice; your right to choice and my right to choice. If I jump all over someone else every time I don't think they've lived up to their beliefs, I've done a poor job by mine. To me, if you move her personal life into the public discussion, you're not doing anything but confirming the idea that private issues are a part of the public discussion.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

I agree with to each his/her own.

But the world has always loved to gleefully jump on hypocrisy.

[juliannajoyful.livejournal.com]

The behaviour is full of hypocricy on all sides.

It communicates that liberals believe in my right to choose, only I better express my beliefs to their standards or they'll attack me for it. It leaves out the part where beliefs are meant to guide you through these situations, not prevent them.

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

If someone wanders around telling other people they have to do X or they're evil, is pointing out that that someone doesn't do X really hypocritical?

[lherelenfeline.livejournal.com]

Ya know, while Palin policy is utterly distasteful to me, at least she does not strike me as a hypocrite, a'la` Romney. And the kid is a kid. The last thing she needs right now is national attention.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I hope Palin withdraws, if only to spare her daughter what is bound to be a very painful and embarrassing time. The way the media behaves is not what a pregnant teenager needs.

[lherelenfeline.livejournal.com]

On a personal level, I agree.
On a political McBush would be hard pressed to find a less qualified candidate.
Then again , he could always choose Lieberman or Romney.

And on a personal level, again, I hope somebody pushes back on the ever present tentacles of the media.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

No kidding. I would question the judgment of any candidate, male or female, who entered a campaign knowing what would befall his/her daughter.

[juliannajoyful.livejournal.com]

By that logic, Bill Clinton should have resigned at some point in his second term. His daughter was teenaged, I believe the same age as Sarah Palin's daughter when it the affair became known. Do you think the media attention on her parent's marriage and father's sexual life was any less painful or embarrassing for her?

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think Clinton would have spared the country a lot of fuss and an expensive impeachment trial if he *had* resigned. I always liked Gore better...:)

[rowanheart24.livejournal.com]

Just wonderful.

Bangs head on desk repeatedly.

Completely and totally OT

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

I noticed that you haven't posted your Fantasy Fest fic yet. Is there anything I can do to help you get it ready for prime time, so to speak?

Re: Completely and totally OT

[ellid.livejournal.com]

The first part is up over at InsaneJournal.

[kamion.livejournal.com]

y're kidding!!!!
no y're not.

What will be mrs.Palin's program on sexual education?
" just do the guy says....?"
"Precaution? what precaution? When he says he loves you, all will be alright."

sorry, mrs. Palin it's the 2008 election, not the 1808 election.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

She believes in "abstinence only" sex education. Statistically, this has a high failure rate, both when it comes to preventing premarital sex (it doesn't), STDs (ditto), and teen pregnancy (take a guess).

I feel very sorry for Bristol Palin.

[kamion.livejournal.com]

"abstinence only".
jeesh what a goofess!
about the best garantee for teenage pregnancies.

And McCain knew about it too.... haven't they never heard about Ceasar's wife, about the oldest law in politics.