From TPM: Wedding of Bristol Palin before election day.

[terrya]

Maybe this is untrue...and maybe I shouldn't bring up Palin's children. But if this is true, it's unusually cheap and crass. And it pisses me off to no end as a gay man...we gay and lesbian folks are fighting for our rights to marriage...while people are using marriage as some cheap political stunt. Levi Johnston has said he's not interested in marriage...last time I checked.


McCain camp prays for Palin wedding

The marriage of the vice-presidential candidate’s pregnant teenage daughter could lift a flagging campaign


In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.

Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”

There is already some urgency to the wedding as Bristol, who is six months pregnant, may not want to walk down the aisle too close to her date of delivery. She turns 18 on October 18, a respectable age for a bride — and the same age as Barack Obama’s pregnant mother when she married his Kenyan father. The Democrat has already declared Bristol’s private life off-limits as far as his campaign is concerned.

The selection of Palin, 44, the moose-hunting governor of Alaska, as his running mate was one of McCain’s biggest gambles. It paid off handsomely at first, but she could benefit from a fresh injection of homespun authenticity, the hallmark of her style, provided by her daughter’s wedding after appearing out of depth away from her home state.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4837644.ece

[C_U_L8R]

1. runaway bride part 2?

[Skinner]

2. This actually makes me feel physically ill.

Those poor kids. They already have an unplanned pregnancy. They (might) have caved to pressure and announced that they are getting married. They might be wondering to themselves if this is really the right thing to do. And now they are being pressured to have the wedding sometime in the next six weeks in order to save their mother's campaign for Vice President. This is so incredibly sad.

[terrya]

12. Again, I don't know if it's true...but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened.

Given what we know about the McCain campaign now and their propensity to do anything to win, this wouldn't surprise me at all if it happened.

[clixtox]

21. Bristol ought to elope just like her mom and Todd did after mom got PG! N/T

[Rosa Luxemburg]

25. I think the voters are getting weary of Palin and her brood

[jmowreader]

23. I hear ya, dude...

Even more frightening is that it won't work.

McCain's base--very, very rich people--won't be moved. Bristol and Levi are not in their social class; why would they care about a commoners' wedding?

Palin's base--extremely religious people--won't approve of it. Walking down the aisle pregnant and showing, to these people, is Wrong. (I can hear my mom, who is a lapsed Catholic, right now: "Why didn't she raise her better?")

Everyone else is using terms like "trailer trash" and "shotgun wedding." The McCain camp is looking for the front page of the New York Times plus saturation coverage on all the networks; what they'll wind up getting is a parody on SNL and a two-page spread in the National Enquirer.

The fact they're even considering something this...I hate to use the word "trashy" but unfortunately it's the only thing that fits...is a demonstration of just how utterly fucked John McCain really is.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. My prediction: If there is a ceremony, it will be not as much media as imagined.

Remember, Bristol Palin will be allegedly and nearly seven=plus months pregnant if and when this ceremony does take place. As much as this is a lipstick-on-the-pig moment in McCain campaign history, it's STILL a prominent baby-bump/premarital sex wedding gown icon that will resonate negatively among fundamentalists who normally go crazy with teenagers having sex BEFORE the marriage ceremony. They won't be assuaged by a photo of Bristol "correcting a mistake" by getting married. She might as well be wearing a Scarlet Letter over the wedding gown.

This won't "do the trick".

[Jennicut]

4. Sickening that if true the McTroll campaign would use this poor girl in any way

Maybe she does not want to be married. As for shutting down the campaign for a week not gonna happen. It will be more like a sideshow or freakshow and Rethugs will not look good for this.

[mwb970]

9. They are using Palin, why not use her daughter too?

What the McCain campaign has done to this woman and her family (and Alaska, and America, and the world) is unforgivable.

[Hepburn]

5. Stupid, absolutely stupid....

...teenage bride and unwilling groom ~~ props for a failing campaign. Gag me...:puke:

BTW: I live in SoCal and last evening, my friend and I were on our way out to dinner and a movie and while we were in the car, I spotted an asshole next to us at a red stop light with a YES ON PROP 8 sticker on his rear window. For those who do not know, that is the anti-gay marriage prop on the Calif November ballot. Now you have to get an idea of the picture ~~ my friend and I are seniors, he is white haired and elegant looking, I have an upswept top knot hair do and wear pearl earrings and black Edith Head eye glasses. We were riding in his brand new, sparkling white Lincoln Town Car in a nice part of South Bay, Palos Verdes area...and we both gave the asshat with the YES sticker the finger. Smiled while we did it...but automatically, we both did it.

LOL...rasty, nasty, spicy little seniors that we are ~~ fuck those RR homophobes!

[Starry Messenger]

11. That just made my whole morning! n/t

[Hepburn]

17. Thanks....

...and I can tell ya, it felt soooooooo good to give that creep the finger. Boy, did his jaw drop! LOL!

[terrya]

14. Good for you about giving those jerks the finger!

And I think...cautiously optimistic...that Prop 8 will be defeated November 4th. I've been donating to Equality California to help.

[Hepburn]

20. I do not think it will pass either.

My friend and I are both totally puzzled about the argument that the homophobes use that somehow gay marriage harms straight marriage. Huh??? How the hell does that work???

Want to protect marriage? IMO, outlaw divorce! :hi:

[bigscott]

19. From an East Coast Gay Man

I LOVE YOU!
Til the day I die I will be indebted to you and those like you who understand that equal rights are not special rights

peace to you Hepburn!

BigScott
:pals:

[Hepburn]

22. Exactly....

...this is a nasty, old world and if two people find love and want to have the world recognize their commitment to each other...what in the hell is wrong with that? Matter of fact, that is a good thing for society in general.

Commitments which bear legal responsibilities are what makes society strong...not what tears it down. Commitments and strong family units stabilize society. Why in the world would it make the least bit of difference if that commitment is between people of opposite sex or of the same sex? Love is love and it is a very good thing when people who love each other are willing to stand up and make a binding commitment to each other.

People in love ~~ that is a good thing, not a bad thing! :hi:

Peace to you, too, Scott! :hug: And...thank you for the very nice compliment!

[renate]

27. Awesome! I love you and your friend! n/t

:thumbsup:

[mwb970]

6. Any guesses on how long the blessed union will last?

I'd give it a year, maybe less. These are not quality people and this is not a quality relationship. Levi is a typical 18-year-old horndog, a high-school dropout who figured it was a good idea to boink the governor's willing daughter with no protection. Bristol seems to have the same moral compass as her pregnant-at-the-wedding mom. And they preach to us about how to behave!

How about a nice divorce ceremony on Inauguration Day?

[DCBob]

7. This sounds about right. This is exactly the kind of cheap tactic McCain/Palin needs right now.

Pathetic.

[sellitman]

8. Seeing them getting marriied on TV would most definately make me vote McCain.

[qanda]

10. If it happens, it will probably be on Friday

So the media will instantly turn their attention from Palin's performance in the debate to the wedding. I hope it doesn't happen but I've become pretty cynical over these last eight years.

[bklyncowgirl]

13. Awwww isn't that sweet. Think they'll invite Barack & Michelle?

I truly feel sorry for those poor kids. They made a mistake, having unprotected sex. In their defense I suppose you could say that Bristol has gotten a steady diet of anti-birth control propeganda from her parents and if Mayor Palin had anything to say about it, not much help from her school on that front either.

I think that this is what makes me dislike Sarah Palin as a human being the most. Anyone who would shove her pregnant teenage daughter out onto the national stage without, as she put it, even blinking, is someone who's ambition overrides any sense of family values. The fact that she truly appears to be completely ignorant and unqualified to be a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency makes it even worse.

[workinclasszero]

15. How would a shotgun wedding with a pregnant teen

help McCain? He's already got the white trash vote. (Except me lol)

I think it would hurt him more than help him. It would hold his putrid campaign up for even more ridicule than its getting now with Palin's laughable interviews and her Deliverance-style family.

[demodonkey]

16. If this happens, two words. CHILD ABUSE.

Using a 17 year-old like that is nothing but -- CHILD ABUSE.

[Waiting For Everyman]

18. If they try to use it, then it becomes fair game again.

That might not be so smart.

[sunnybrook]

24. This could TOTALLY backfire on them

Another wacky gamble that plays with people's lives.... Obama for President, McCain/Palin for their own reality show....

[nsd]

26. For a man who claims to be a patriot ...

John McCain sure does seem to be trying hard to make the presidential election, an honored civic tradition, into a big joke. The Palin selection, his erratic behavior these past two weeks, the general sophomoric nature of his campaign, and now this. Conservatives are supposed to revere the past and tradition. Yet McCain constantly shows disrespect for the office he seeks. Does he really think a campaign for President of the United States should be "shut down for a week" so that the nation can concentrate on the shotgun wedding of a knocked-up teenager and her high school boyfriend? Unbelievable.