Palin's daughter should not be a part of our political discussion, but

[ProSense]

this should be:

I plan to honor that request. It's easy, in the midst of a political campaign, to forget that the people involved are, after all, people. Some of them -- Sarah Palin, for instance -- place themselves under a media spotlight of their own free will. Others -- her daughter, for instance -- wind up there through no fault of their own. Imagine yourself in her position: there you are, seventeen years old, pregnant, unmarried. Maybe you understand what happened and why; and maybe your parents and friends do as well. But zillions of bloggers and reporters and pundits are about to make the most personal details of your life into a political issue, and they don't understand it at all. And yet, despite that, they are about to use you and your unborn child to score points on one another, without any regard whatsoever for you and your actual situation.

I want no part of this. None at all. To those of you who think otherwise: that's your right. But ask yourself how you felt when Republicans scored points using Chelsea Clinton, who didn't ask to be dragged into the spotlight either.

As far as I'm concerned, it's fair game to consider Sarah Palin's statements about her daughter's decision, and to compare them to her own views about abortion. That's a story about whether or not Sarah Palin sticks to her beliefs when they affect her own family, not about her daughter. But it is not fair game to use her daughter, or any of her kids, as pawns in a political argument. To my mind, this extends to using her daughter as evidence that abstinence-only education doesn't work: presumably, no one thinks that it works 100% of the time, and that's the only claim to which this one counterexample could possibly be relevant. (That's why God created large-scale studies.) Likewise, I think that arguing about whether Sarah Palin is a good mother is out of line: we have no idea at all what arrangements she and her husband have made for child care, how their relationship works, and so forth. Assuming that Sarah Palin would have to be her children's primary caregiver is just sexist.

If the past is any guide, some people will respond to this post by saying that the Republicans would not hesitate to use Democrats' teenage children to score political points. That may be. Three responses: first, so what? Just because they do it doesn't mean that we should. Second, any argument for going there would have to assume that this would, in fact, be a political winner, and thus that not using it would entail some sort of political sacrifice. I am not at all convinced that that is true. Most importantly, though, there are some lines I'm not willing to cross no matter what the other side does.

The GOP's hypocrisy on teen pregnancy, abstinence and sex education is very much a part of our political discussion.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. To me, this is the most important part of this story...

She was selfish, and put herself and her ambitions above the welfare of her family...

Some of them -- Sarah Palin, for instance -- place themselves under a media spotlight of their own free will. Others -- her daughter, for instance -- wind up there through no fault of their own.

[bluestateguy]

2. Conservatives tried to make hay out of the Clintons sending Chelsea to a private school

The issue never got much traction and they let it go after a few weeks, but as I remember the Clintons were not about to make a political statement with their daughter's education by sending her to the horrible DC public schools. If that meant being called hypocrites (they oppose school vouchers) then that was a hit they were willing to take.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Hypocrisy needs to be the word of the day, week, campaign -

a Mantra that the Democrats need to push until Obama and Biden are in office and the country can start the process of healing from 8 years of damage from the Hypocrites in office.

[ProSense]

4. No enough people are speaking up. n/t

[applegrove]

5. Hopefully when this all settles down in a day, the daughter will be left alone

and we can concentrate one more time of the policies of both sides.