Daily Kos Not to Blame: Sarah Palin a Political Liability

[struggle4progress]

By Carol Bengle Gilbert, published Sep 02, 2008

... According to news reports, a representative of Governor Palin's office falsely, deliberately and with intent to mislead, told the press on her behalf that she was attending the State Fair in Wasilla, Alaska, on Friday, August 29. Governor Palin's office could have simply declined to provide information as to the governor's whereabouts, but instead chose to lie ...

... Palin could have rebutted the Daily Kos rumors if she felt the need to do so without making her teen daughter Bristol's current pregnancy a national spectacle .... Palin could have released the medical records relating to the baby's birth and/or the baby's birth certificate ...

... Palin is currently under investigation in connection with an ethics scandal .... Walt Monegan, the former state public safety commissioner, was pressured into resigning after he refused to fire Sarah Palin's ex-brother-in-law Mike Wooten, a state trooper. The investigation will determine whether Sarah Palin improperly used her office in connection with the events that led to Monegan's resignation. The latest news reports indicate that Governor Sarah Palin has hired an attorney to represent her in the investigation ...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1002474/daily_kos_not_to_blame_sarah_palin.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[cui bono]

3. With all the clues, it seems there is something fishy going on...

and if you put it all together and it turns out to be true that the Down's syndrome baby is not Sarah's, then she is defrauding the government/insurance company by obtaining health care as the mother of the child, which I'm sure is significantly different than any health care benefits that could be gotten if she were the grandmother.

Also, if she is the mother it shows her lack of judgment. Who in their right mind would have their water break, knowing they are carrying a Down's syndrome baby, and then proceed to:
1) give a speech
2) fly to Seattle from Texas, rather than go to a hospital
3) fly from Seattle to Anchorage, rather than go to a hospital
4) drive 45 minutes from Anchorage - 13 hours after their water broke - to Wasilla, rather than go to a hospital - all these cities would have had better facilities for dealing with this birth.

This shows she has not got the necessary judgment to make quick decisions that affect the citizens of this country should she get put in that position.

Personally, I don't think the baby is hers and if that's the case she needs to be prosecuted.

I see no reason this has to be off limits.

[struggle4progress]

4. I agree with you 100% about leaving the kid alone and I've posted that sentiment several times

But the comment in the above article seems a bit different to me. Palin could have ignored the nasty rumors that her youngest son is actually her grandson or she could have simply produced his birth certificate. Either of those responses would have been responsible -- and would not have thrust her daughter so firmly into the limelight. Instead, Palin chose to announce her daughter's pregnancy to everyone, thus irrevocably pushing her daughter's pregnancy into the media spotlight. I think there is only one natural conclusion: the GOP made a deliberate choice, even before McCain announced Palin as his choice, to use the girl's pregnancy to drum up sympathy

Still, I think you are right: we really ought to leave the kid alone

[verges]

17. Leave the kid alone?

The kid's not being attacked. A much younger Chelsea Clinton had to endure worse (from the wit of John McCain no less!). If the Mother were not a Family Values, abstinence only candidate, this would be over already.

[Karenina]

29. Bristol and Levi got a FULL PAGE SPLASH in our local tabloid

HERE ACROSS THE BIG POND TODAY.

" WILL A PREGNANT 17 yr old DECIDE THE U.S. ELECTION?"

SARAH PALIN is 100% RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS EXPLOITATION. 100%

[rurallib]

5. OK - I'll take a stab at it

1) As noted above PALIN chose to out her daughter to save her own skin.
2) the PALINs are very fundamentalist christians. These are the kinds of folks who have been trying to tell America how to live their lives for 30 years. And passing laws and issuing executive orders to make it happen. So here is one of their poster women who appears to be mostly do as I say not as I do. Witness also the DWI and the vindictiveness.
3) This is the outcome of policies that keep teens ignorant on sexual matters. Would it have been worse to learn that her daughter had used a condom? Maybe not a tragedy for a well off family like the Palins, but for a poor young girl with promise in the ghetto it would be bad.

Basically it is the hypocracy. And now Palin and the pugs will spin the pregnant girl to try to wrench every vote out of what should be a personal matter. Watch their spin and watch it close. "Pro-life" will be used as a rallying cry.

BTW - didn't you find it a bit odd that the announcement said that "she chose to keep the baby"? What this tells me is that abortion was discussed and eventually discarded as an option. So much for their "pro-life" horse shit.

And finally - fundies have been pushing hard for extreme penalties for teenage sex. You may have read of accounts in Kansa and Georgia where teenage boys have been sentenced to 20+ years in prison for having sex with a teenage (under 18) girl. In Kansas the boy married his pregnant girlfriend and then the fundy AG of Kansas came after him. In any state but Alaske where the age of consent is 16, the boyfriend would be strung up by the balls to the cheering of people like the Palins.

Comprende?

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[rurallib]

7. Um - the repukes would gin up fake controversy, blame it on

"the left" (ever seen O'Liely?). This is the Rovian tactics they are known for.
And one more time - she and her ilk will try to codify their way of life for us (eg - end sex education, end birth control, creation "science"). Her failures in this area are a political issue. I would not want to live where my kids were unable to access birth control because of some fundie in charge.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[CitizenPatriot]

9. first of all, if you aren't a democrat, you really shouldn't be posting here

no offense, but your use of the term "no wonder your party can't win a national election" brings this to mind. If that was an error, fine and welcome!

Our party has won many national elections. In 2000, 2004 for starters. Diebold and massive voter disenfranchisement (proven by high up Republicans of all things) created a lie of an election -- the death of democracy.

Obama has called for people to leave families alone -- and good for him. At least he isn't a low life like the Republican candidate, who called his wife a c*nt, laughed at Hillary being called a bit*h, and called Chelsea Clinton the ugly child of two women. Yes, that is who "your party"? is running. And Rove just went on record calling Biden a "blowhard doofus". Yes, these are things to be proud of -- attacking children, women, ad hominen attacks against an HONORABLE family man, Joe Biden, whose family values make the republicans look like the hypocrites they are.

You know, I've been dealing with these calls to morality and chastising the dems for this and here is my answer.

we didn't make Palin hide her daughter's pregnancy. We didn't suggest she lie. We didn't cover up her son's birth certificate. If you recall, being a candidate opens one up to all sorts of humiliations. Remember when the republicans ordered Obama to show his birth certificate and then got some nutjob to sue him saying it was fake? Yes, that was classy. Great irony is it is McCain who actually appears to have not been born on American soil. Palin's dishonesty brought this upon herself. She should have known better re how the press works, and if she doesn't, what is she doing running for VP? That's insane. We should trust her to go to a foreign country when she can't even navigate Day 1 of her announcement as running mate here? come on.

She claims she's Hillary? No one rolled out a red carpet for Hillary or took it easy on her, No, the republicans were horrible to her- they attacked her personally every day of Bill's presidency. They should be ashamed. They are lucky dems are not such horrid people, because there is plenty that could be said.

What we say in our OWN forum is no one else's business! this is for dems only. It's like you're at our house. I can and do talk about whatever I want there. That doesn't mean I'm going to go public with that kind of statement. IF I go to Freeperland, guess what kind of hate they are spilling over there? they call for the death of liberals at least daily. So don't think I'm going to feel bad for expressing an opinion about a person who chose to run for VP when they should not have. He was careless offering it to her, and she was beyond foolish and self-deluded to accept.

We didn't go around preaching to the american public about how liberals were ruining the country with their horrible values. Doing that sort of sets you up to at least live up to the bar you've set for others. When a black 16 year old girl gets pregnant, you know what we hear from the "compassionate conservatives"? It's not pretty. Remember how they called Jamie Spears a whore? and accused her failing on being a liberal? She is actually a Christian from the south. NBut no matter. It's the hypocrisy that makes this look bad, and that isn't our fault.

let's get back to rational thought just for kicks. When you go around calling yourself a person who is capable of determining policies and where money should go, and then you decide that money should not go to sex ed or contraception, but in fact, you determine, if you preach abstinence, all will be fine. You make this decision even though all the research says otherwise. And why? Because you believe it, not because it's true or accurate. So, you are now acting IRRATIONALLY based on a belief which has been disproven by science.

Then, your own daughter, who you must feel was raised properly, proves you wrong again by getting pregnant at 16.

Do you reexamine your beliefs at this point? No, you soldier on and arm yourself with more spin.

None of this is the dems fault, my friend. We're just reporting the facts. And I don't feel bad one bit, because no one here is 1) a politician and 2) on the record.

Don't try to put us in a cage of what we can and can not say. This is what the friggin internet is for.

[shellgame26]

15. AMEN

You should make this a post. Very very well said. Thank you very much!

[CitizenPatriot]

21. i did! thanks...:-) nt

[verges]

18. BRAVO!!!

Well said!

[pnorman]

25. "If you aren't a democrat, you really shouldn't be posting here"

I've been here on DU for quite a long time, and I personally take some offense at that comment. That I agree with that poster to a large, is irrelevant. The important thing is that it's a VALID point of discussion, rather than fodder for the political correctness police.

pnorman
PS: I'm a "Democrat", in the same manner that Bernie Sanders is, rather than in the manner of the DLC.

[Bette Noir]

30. Moved and seconded.

[KoKo]

31. Well said....excellent... and to understand why...folks need to read past your subject line

to get to what you were saying.

[rurallib]

11. Um - The hypocrisy is the issue as are all the laws they wish to enact

to run our lives.
Obviously thee do not listen. The Repugs were the ones to stir this hornets nest themselves.
How are things in the Exeter Center BTW.
Please be gone. I have no more time for you.

[eagertolearn]

20. The Main point here is not the sex, pregnancies and babies...

If it is true that Trig is actually Bristols baby then Sarah Palin has told an outright lie to all of us and she did it very easily. As I learned from a friend who is a lawyer "when you catch someone in a lie it is hard to believe the rest of their testimony". If she stands for change and getting rid of corruption then why is she lying to us already?

[saracat]

32. Umm, I think they meant ""chose to keep" as opposed to offering the baby up

for adoption. There is no reason to believe an abortion was considered. Just saying!

But the hypocrisy argument is still valid. Obviously abstinence only doesn't work, or maybe it doesn't work unless you actually abstain?

[Stellabella]

10. Well, when her policies intrude into other's personal lives

her own personal life becomes more important and even fair game. The 17 year old should be left alone, but her pregnancy throws light back on Palin and her judgment.

She wants to tell women how to live their lives, and wants to interfere in personal medical decisions. So her personal life had better be pretty pristine.

The Democrats, though not perfect, don't think politicians and the government should intrude on these intensely private decisions. That's the difference.

[creeksneakers2]

12. Nobody was out to get her daughter.

Nobody is in charge of the net and when something new comes out, particularly if its a candidate like Sarah Palin who nobody heard of and nobody checked on before, the net turns into a cross between a fox hunt and a detective agency. Sometimes they mob goes down some strange paths. I agree with you. Sometimes really obvious things that would really work are overlooked because they don't offer the chance that individuals involved in the chase will make a great discovery.. The folks on the right do the same thing but more often and much worse. Some of them are still determined to prove Obama faked his birth certificate. Since nobody is in charge, there's no way to direct anybody in a better direction. I wish more attention would be paid to McCain's plan to tax employer provided health care benefits, but there's nothing I can do about it.

While researching Sarah Palin, questions about her pregnancy came up because she didn't look pregnant in photos taken seven months into her presidency. This was put together with reports that her daughter was out of school with a fake case of mono that was actually a pregnancy. The goal was never to get the child but the child was part of the theory that Sarah faked a birth to cover for her daughter. Lots of other factoids were brought out that supported or contradicted the theory.

If Sarah really wanted to put an end to all this all she had to do was produce a birth certificate. She brought her daughter in to create sympathy for herself and a backlash against the left and maybe even against Obama. Just like John McCain yesterday posing for photo ops packing up food packages when there are no starving people to give them to, the entire McCain campaign is a phony performance. Please don't believe their cries of victimhood and their twisting the story to make it look like the left was out to destroy a poor teenage girl.

[emilyg]

14. Welcome to DU.

[verges]

16. Not really.

Her positions and inexperience only discredit her with the left (folks who already dislike her.) She is a "Family Values " candidate. Therefore, a pregnant daughter is relevant. By showing her hypocrisy, hopefully we can discredit her with some of the RW.

But that's all beside the point. This thread is about an investigation on a Governor's alleged abuse of power. The fact that the abuse manifested itself in the form of a "family" issue is irrelevant.

[tavalon]

24. You are right that she is easy to discredit based on her political positions

and for all of us policy wonks, it is a no brainer. But the average voter doesn't want to hear word one about political things, but a juicy scandal, especially one that includes illicit sex, that they want to hear about. So, we'll defeat her by shaming her when we should have been able to defeat her just on politics, if only Americans as a whole gave a damn about politics.

We couldn't get the traction to impeach Bush, even though he and we, needed it badly, because there was no sex scandal. Bill Clinton, OTOH, was an okay President but he was taken to his knees over a blow job.

This is the way it works in stupid America. Dumbfuckistan, I mean.

[Matariki]

27. Consistent pattern of lying, abuse of power, and cover-ups

NOT good qualities in political leaders. Wouldn't you agree?

[Demit]

28. She opened the door herself. By being the one to tell the world about her pregnant daughter.

The Republicans are making a very big deal about character. I think, putting aside the rumors for a moment, that what she did that's demonstrably true—announcing her daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy to the nation—shows what kind of character she has.

She used her own daughter to defend herself against rumors. I find that breathtakingly cruel.

[JDPriestly]

2. I post this again.

We Americans vote issues and character, but most of all we vote stories. The Republicans presented Palin's story as Mr. Smith goes to Washington. Now we find out that Mr. Smith/Ms. Palin's real story is overburdened mother of five hopes to go to Washington. Looks like before she tries to bring change to D.C., Palin needs to bring change to her family.

As I recall, the questions about the identify of the real mother of the Palins' youngest child arose from curiosity about how Sarah Palin plans to raise her special needs child and still serve as VP. That's a big load. The questions also arose from thoughts about whether McCain goofed (again) when he chose her as his vice presidential running mate.

And don't say the VP doesn't really have to do anything. She gets paid to do a job. Gore did a great job. Cheney has run the show for the past 7 1/2 years. The days of do-nothing VPS are over.

My best guess before all these scandals broke was that Palin planned to hire someone to take care of her special needs child during the day and rely on her husband and oldest daughter to substitute for her as mom. But now we learn that Palin's daughter will have her own child to take care of. So, does that mean the task of raising the youngest goes to the third oldest child? Do Palin's kids just raise themselves? (That would explain a lot.) Is her husband happy as stay-at-home-dad? Nothing wrong with that if it is his choice, but as a fundamentalist fishermen, is that really what he wants?

These concerns along with the story about Palin's water breaking and then her 8-hour flight to Alaska following the breaking of her water plus the fact that her youngest is not listed among the births publicly reported by the hospital in which Palin claims he was born . . . . Of course, people are asking questions. Questions about "truthiness." Questions about judgment.

Fundamentalists like Palin preach to the rest of the nation about how we should plan and raise our families and what career choices we should make. They depict liberals as giving their children far too much freedom. Remember the conservative who criticized the movie based on Sex and the City?

But, guess whose kid is pregnant? My liberally parented daughters did not make this mistake. They had detailed sex education at church in high school. They were prepared to make wise choices in their lives in this area and they did. Obviously, whatever information Palin's daughter was given, whatever she was taught, she decided to have a baby at 17.

All due respect to Obama, but although 19 is young to be a mother nowadays (it wasn't viewed as that young in 1960), there is a huge difference between bearing a child at 19 after you have at least finished high school and doing it at 17-18, before finishing high school. (I'm assuming that Palin's daughter has not yet received her diploma.)

Is Palin Mr. Smith goes to Washington or a harried mom escaping from the responsibility of a troubled family into a political fantasy? Before this year is over, in addition to running for VP, she is going to have to deal with a special needs child, a teen pregnancy, a shot-gun wedding, a son in Iraq and three other young children. (To say nothing of a sister recovering from an allegedly abusive relationship.) She may represent typical fundamentalist Americana, but do we need all her personal problems just a heartbeat away from a McCain presidency?

All people have personal problems. I'm sure Obama and Biden have theirs. But Ms. Palin's got an awful lot of them. Before she takes on the people's business, she needs to take care of her own. That's why this story is getting so much attention.

[mnhtnbb]

13. Excellent post.

[crickets]

19. You've made so many points that are spot on, especially

All people have personal problems... But Ms. Palin's got an awful lot of them. Before she takes on the people's business, she needs to take care of her own.

Great post.

[EVDebs]

22. The only reason McCain chose Palin is

So that Rush and the rest of the meatheads could drool and say SUYT

(show us your theories).

[Third Doctor]

23. Okay...

I understand (somewhat) the interest Palin's background would stir but I hope that the media will start covering the actual issues of the race again soon.

[Captiosus]

26. The media

The media is, unfortunately, the media. They cover things which bring in viewers so they can boost ratings and get better advertising rates to earn more cash. As JDPriestly posted, on the whole, Americans like scandals more than political issues.

My late father was a very right wing guy. He feigned his care on the issues, but he really only cared who Wayne LaPierre (the NRA president) told him to vote for. In 1992, he voted for Bush 41 and in 1996 he voted for Bob Dole. He absolutely hated Bill Clinton, but he could never explain why. It was always some kind of new excuse: He was too slick; he was too hip; he was a draft dodger.. never once did my father provide a serious case against Clinton on the merits of his policy.

If Clinton was on the news, my dad ignored it. But when the Lewinsky scandal hit, my father was glued to the TV set. And like every other right winger he couldn't resist telling me "I told you so" every time Starr was on the TV. Too bad the "I told you so" had no weight whatsoever because, again, he wasn't making any kind of point against Clinton's policies.

The media knows they can keep viewers if there's a scandal.