I told you people to stay away from the preggy daughter story. Now look what's happened.

[Jackpine Radical]

That stupid story has sucked all the air from the room. Whenever anybody on M$M talks about McCain's Palin problem, the discussion begins & ends with the duaghter's pregnancy. Troopergate gets no mileage. AIP gets no mileage. Bridge to Nowhere & other earmoarks get no mileage. Hell, everybody's got a "premature pregnancy" story somewhere in their family; it's a common part of experience, and it makes Palin look almost human, and she gets to trot out all her fundy anti-choice nonsense, and show herself off as a "compassionate" mother. Meanwhile the liberal blogosphere gets to look like a pack of mad dogs for dragging that pore chile into the spotlight.

Y'all been Roved.

[iamthebandfanman]

1. i always here about troopergate

everytime they talk about the baby thing.
so , you must not be watching the same MSM i am.

its true, they do love the baby story more... but hey, they are the msm and love these scandalous private things ... they eat it up... so do the viewers...


i wonder if wed even hear about troopergate tho if it hadnt been for the baby rumors...
all this talk about her made her get a lawyer, which made them start talking about it.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. I saw about 1 hour of TV last night.

That's more than my average monthly dose, so it's kinda risky for me to shoot my mouth off about media coverage, but all they talked about was the pregnancy story & the reason they released it being to sink the grandma story.

[DrDan]

2. absolutely . . .

and the base is getting energized - she is coming across as a "normal" Mother dealing with "normal" family matters in a conservative fashion.

[MemphisTiger]

8. Soooo... not having an abortion

is the baseline for the evangelicals? So much for our leaders leading by example and having a family that is unmarried having sex, let alone pregnant.

[DrDan]

15. well - these things happen - and I am sure palin was not happy with it, but

she is dealing with it in a conservative fashion. The base will see that - and admire it.

[godai]

It's far from over...Trooper-gate, husband's $50K oil job etc.

The MSM and Roove will try to make this about her personal life. It's much bigger than that. There's no upside in the end for the Repubs. I hope she sticks around for a while. She's a very weak candidate and that basic point is obvious and can't be changed.

[mudderfudder77]

3. Its no use...

You're absolutely right - but people here aren't going to listen. Dems are still new to the Rove "attack-dog" politics and they have no idea what issues should be attacked. Instead they use the "shotgun" approach and all those issues get thrown together until no one remembers any individual issue anymore. Find one legitimate issue and drive it into the ground until no one can ignore it anymore - not even the M$M.

[trumad]

5. Oh bullshit

We kicked Roves ass in 2006 and we'll do it again in 2008.

[chelsea0011]

4. It's all being mentioned and so much so I think the Maverick might dump her.

[ClarkUSA]

6. It's a good thing. What's happened is the bloom faded real fast on Palin's rose...

What's the problem?

Troopergate was revealed and discussed within 24 hours of her being picked nominee and it isn't going away.
AIP will be discussed but is not really a gamechanger other than reinforcing the fact she is a rightwing nutcase.

What will be important to swing voters is her pro-oil drilling in ANWR, rabid anti-choice stance, pro-creationist
stance on social issues.

There's plenty of time to knock her around but we need to focus on tying her to McCain and Bush policies as well
as having Obama surrogates attack her for being utterly unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

[Lautremont]

7. Rove, or some Rovian character, chummed the water

and all the "but it's an Important Story" wheedlers began their pointless and ineffectual feeding frenzy. It's amazing how stupid and mindless people of any political stripe can be, especially when they act as a pack.

[cali]

9. I thought that about the daughter as mother of Trig story but

I was wrong. I still find it slimy but the daughter pregnant story was forced out at a very bad time by posters here and at kos. it's dominating the news and not in a good way for McCain/Palin. And other news about her is filtering into the mainstream adding to her travails.

Sorry, you are flat wrong. Obama is moving ahead in the polls. the GOP convention is fucked and Palin is in deep shit which means McCain is too.

[Douglas Carpenter]

24. eloquently spoken.

I have ethical problems with the whole family and baby-gate thing - but it does seem to kick over a can of worms for the whole McCain campaign. And in spite of what anyone tries to say, it is hurting McCain/Palin more than helping.

I do think though that it is time for everyone to move on to real questions about Palin now.

[Thrill]

10. You give Rove too much credit. The Pregnancy thing is just this week

Troopergate/ AIP will be next week.

[mtnsnake]

11. Stop giving Rove so much credit. If anyone's been "Roved", it's the Republicans themselves

[predfan]

13. Down here in the south, the "base" is fired up..........but then again,

the base wouldn't have voted for Obama anyway........the only thing lacking in Palin's background is wrestling, and that may turn up yet.( hey, I'm from the south, I can make fun of my Republican friends)

No kidding, I just talked to two Republican friends of mine and they're giddy...........I can't imagine the independents being that excited about this choice. But for the typical Tennessee Republican........Faux noise beautiful, shooting varmints from an airplane, children the same age as her grandchildren, professional fisherman husband, even the dream of leaving her 5 month old to be raised by someone else............how much better can it get?

For thinking Americans, not so great.

[tired_old_fireman]

14. I don't think so

If DU really had the ability to dictate how the news media covers their stories, the country would be much different right now.

[BeyondGeography]

16. Another "Rove Has Godlike Powers" poster

Asinine.

[H2O Man]

17. Respectfully disagree.

I have seen coverage of the other important issues. Combined with the double standards on "family values," I believe the air is being sucked out of the McCain campaign.

[Orsino]

Like that air was going to be used for anything substantive.

No, it's regrettable, but scandal is the only thing that'll move networks and some voters.

It's a shame that it took this to get anyone to take a look at all the great reasons to be alarmed and amused at Palin's selection.

[Joe the Revelator]

18. Its been one day...these other issues will get airplay in turn.

[AlinPA]

19. That is exactly what has happened.

[bunnies]

20. "compassionate" mothers dont feed their daughters to the wolves

just to save themselves. Wake up.

[PeaceNikki]

21. My conservative co-workers have all talked to me today about this

They've all said that they are really impressed that the campaign has come out to say leave it alone... but are suspicious that the blogospere's obsession with it may be at the hands of the campaign.

We need to leave this shit to the tabloids and focus on the issues.

[Me.]

22. Sorry, But It Was The Key In The Lock

of all the other stories that are about to rise up. ABC, NYT and LA Times are now mentioning AIP. The bridge to nowhere is gaining legs. Eugene Robinson wrote an excellent column about how her choice reflects on McSame. More it has brought the choice issue to the forefront. How her family made a choice they would deny others. Sad to say, the salaciousness of the daughter story made people start to look at her more closely. She may have even lied about Miss Congeniality, or so Politico reports.

[katandmoon]

23. Oh, please. I think you need to get over yourself. I listen to an all-news

Radio station in the morning, which includes local and national (CBS feed) news, and ALL of Palin's dirty linen is being aired in the reports on her. Troopergate, the earmarks, and AIP membership are getting equal time with the pregnant daughter. It was the pregnant daughter story (which didn't start here, it was already rife in Alaska) that opened the floodgates - I suspect because the MSM doesn't want to look completely sexist, so they're making sure to trot out everything else now.

[earthside]

25. No! You've Been 'Roved"!!!!

What Rove (and Lee Atwater) understood was that it is seemingly mundane things that can turn an election -- stories that everyone can relate to.

'For instances, Dukakis and the ACLU so Bush, Sr. goes to the flag factory; or Baby Bush and the whole 'who would you want to have a beer with' meme; or Barack and the flag lapel pin garbage.

When Democrats keep to 'the issues' (or complicated scandals) -- especially in presidential elections -- they lose. This teen pregnancy issue is NOT something Rove would have ever wanted ... because it exposes the radical Republicans to their absolute weakest point: HYPOCRISY.

The issue is not poor Bristol Palin -- it is the de-mythification of McCain as a 'maverick'. We all will know soon what he really is: a political POW of the extreme Christian religious right.

If Democrats hammer that point home, well, game and match for Obama/Biden.