The conventional wisdom is nothing is off limits in a political campaign. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin must know this. That's why she and Sen. John McCain will try to ride out the media storm created by the revelation that her 17 year old daughter Bristol is pregnant. Sen. Barack Obama says his campaign won't make an issue of Bristol's situation. He doesn't have to. The media will do it for him. Suffice to say this will be the most closely watched teen pregnancy this side of jamie Lynn Spears. She's going to marry the father, a self described redneck and hockey buff named Levi Johnston.
That's all well and good, but the question the McCain campaign must now answer is whether his choice for vice president was properly vetted beforehand. There are rumors the timeline of his choice and the issue of when he knew about the pregnancy make a thorough vetting unlikely. There's the added question of the probe into Gov. Palin's alleged abuse of authority in hiring a top police official who wouldn't fire her former brother in law. The public is being asked to believe McCain knew about both these things, but decided to go forward anyway.
Back to Bristol Palin. One reason why this story won't go away is her mother's position on birth control (she's against it) abortion (against, even in the case of rape), and sex education in schools (not a big fan). Yes, one can say children should be off limits in a political campaign, but remember Bristol's pregnancy was revealed in part to stop rumors that her recently born brother was actually hers. Maybe the 24 hour cable news operations will actually respect the couple's right to privacy from here on. Maybe the blogosphere has better things to do than follow this thing right through to the election.
Both possible, but unlikely. In a couple of days, Hurricane Gustav will be off the front pages and breaking news blurbs. The Republican National Convention only lasts a few more days. Then the real race for president starts.
Will the media leave Bristol Palin alone? You tell me.
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3 comments:
All I have to say is that this is the time for the liberal media to go for a main artery so we can have a nice painful death to the Mccain presidential campaign.
I'm back in school so I will only be able to listen to your show on Fridays for sure. I'm so upset.
My first thought was: wow, how will that play to family values and all the Republicans "owning" (according to them) of the concept. Then, I started thinking about the 17 year old and, I'm a woman. I wasn't that young when I was first in love, but, I finally have come to "it could have been me" (but my family was working class Brooklyn). The issues are good targets:sex education in school, etc. not the kid.
I don't know if the media will leave Bristol Palin alone, but I will constantly think that this baby, as well as "Trig", might both be hers. After this has been confirmed, I will move on because there are too many other important issues to be concerned with.
Max(ine)
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