Monday the Repigs adopted a platform calling for increased funding for abstinence education

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/1139357,CST-NWS-sweet02.article

Storm brews over Palin

CAMPAIGN '08 | Distractions pack double whammy for GOP

September 2, 2008

BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- I'm trying to connect the dots here. . . . Unmarried teen five months pregnant, will marry father. . . . She's the daughter of the GOP vice presidential nominee, the little-known Alaska governor, at the center of a controversy over a fired Alaskan state trooper. . . . Republicans at their convention Monday adopt platform calling for increased funding for abstinence education. snip

Now there are other twists, and I can't imagine the McCain team will be able to sell them as a plus.

Palin and her husband Todd acknowledged Monday that daughter Bristol, 17, is pregnant. She will marry the father. The Palins issued a plea for privacy four days after the family was thrust into the national spotlight -- by choice -- when the McCain-Palin ticket was born Friday morning. At least this may put to rest rumors that Palin's baby born in April was really her daughter's, and the governor was faking a pregnancy in a cover-up.

A reason Joe Biden was a smart pick for Barack Obama was that after two presidential campaigns and decades in the Senate, he was vetted, not only by Obama's team, but by the investigative press. That won't preclude negative stories; it's just that the campaign can anticipate them. Campaigns hate surprises when it is on them.

Palin was seen as such a long shot by the Obama team, they did not bother much preparing for her arrival. They figured that a probe into whether she influenced the firing of her former brother-in-law, an Alaskan state trooper, would knock her out of contention.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Well if Palin's daughter is any indication, a LOT more money is needed.

Hell, so much money is needed for this, it might cause Republicans to consider withdrawing from Iraq to finance it.

(note: No, I don't believe any amount of money will help, but the festival of morans that is the Republican Party does.)

[Tallison]

2. And perhaps greater parental involvement vs.

renewal of their professional ambitions. And I'd say that of a mother or father in the Palins' position.