There is no clear or reliable evidence for that, yet. We will see. Its just a 'rumour.'

But for now, what we know:

PALIN-tology - 45+ Problems for McCain's VP in just 35 hours

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/201818/606/27/580690

WOW This is more serious than I thought!

Sarah Palin Is NOT The Mother [Photos+Video]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/30/121350/137

This just keeps gets better and better! Hey Gotham you should get a job for the National Enquirer, you would be the Top dog ova there!

The whole thing is weird with the Palin pregnancy. It should be on the table. The woman could be our next president and not only is McCain's judgment in question...because his pick was just wildly insane. He met her once and he wants us to believe he has good judgment? He needs a little Ritalin because I see this as impulsive. Keep this man's fingers off any and all buttons.

So back to Palin and judgment. This storyline of faking pregnancy is wildly insane. But if true her actions are wildly insane.

If this story is not true her whole decision making process while pregnant is wildly insane as well.

She was pregnant. She went to speak at a governor’s convention in Texas(That's when McCain says he met her for the first time.) She went into labor and went........most sane people who care about their own lives and the life of their unborn go where......to the airport???? to fly on a plane to Alaska? WTF!

This woman got on a plane and flew home....she did not go to the hospital? She has sound judgment?

No, she flew home, delivered a preemie baby and went to work 3 days later? The woman is not a waitress working for tips concerned about her electricity being turned off or being fired if she doesn't make her next shift. She is the damn governor....She went to work? 3 days later?

Her staff and everyone were surprsied when she announced publicly that she was a pregnant at 7 months.

So covering up her daughter's teenage pregnancy seems a little like she followed the plot line of Desperate Housewives...but it is somehow more palatable then her other actions.

She may be prolife but her flight back to Alaska seems like she was risking the life of her unborn child.

Holy Crap...McCain really has brought himself into the 21st century. Beauty Queen turned Mayor turned Governor...yes this script couldn't have been dreamt up by even Hollywood's best screen writers.

I say let this whole thing blow up on it's own. We dems can just sit back now and let this crazy move implode all on its own.

Did ya eva think she and her husband may have adopted this child?
You are one judgmental little F*&@! If you where not having sex at 16 it wasn't be cause you didn't want to you. DUH!
Oh wait, this is about gettin your man elected, nice call there, little boy..Keep on dishin the dirt. Your true colors are as pretty at originally thought.

For you 1-800- NatEnquire
I hear there hiring : )

Dear Tammy, its not about adopting a child, if she adopted one, there is no point in faking preganancy (if indeed she faked). That would be illegal, but the motive doesn't add up for taking the risk for a cover up.

Tammy, you know personally, right now, how a pregnant woman behaves. Palin participated in some very bizarre behavior in her 8th month of pregnancy, boarding a plane after experiencing amniotic fluid leakage, when she'd already had 4 deliveries. Her 5th could have presented itself well within the window of her 8 hour flight, which probably involved a total of 10-12 hours door to door. Once the amniotic fluid is leaking, the clock is ticking, the baby is at risk by about 24 hours.

Say what you will about her personal life, this behavior is strange in the extreme, may have involved her airline and doctor in legal trouble, and demands some kind of accounting for.

Look at what folks are will to say about one another to get what they want. For the sake of what, having your dude or dudet elected, sad.
Listen FryJay! you haven't a clue what your takin about, do you? Or maybe you where with her and her husband and the family that day, You don't know anything and guessing just makes you sound like a royal IDIOT!
YA! GO OBAMA, says freyja. ( who is to much of a coward to use a real name. ) So there! put that in your peace pipe, and suck back a few more glass of the medicinal read wine dr fryjay, and don't forget that BIG ol hand full of pills you need sleep. Yup

Sadly yes, if you didn't come of like such judgment pick! What is the point, are you showing compassion? love, what? What was the point, call me dumb, I dunno?

Gotham, I agree.

I simply fueled the rumors.

This story is all over the place and I am sure there will be some coverage regarding the events surrounding her pregnancy from the traditional media. If the Enquirer picks it up, some of them may report at least that the "Enquirer reported it."

For now, the traditional media has to "take her word" on this and not report any hint of a rumor or question her judgement in taking care of teh baby during pregancy. I am sure we will hear a lot about it by 11/4.

This stiry hs bene around for some time now in Alaska, and could be a bad case of McCIan's vetting, knowing the rumors existed, and they are a net neagtive even though there may not be ANY truth these claims...like so many Obama smears and lies were "talked about" in the media.

Gotham, I agree.

I simply fueled the rumors.

This story is all over the place and I am sure there will be some coverage regarding the events surrounding her pregnancy from the traditional media. If the Enquirer picks it up, some of them may report at least that the "Enquirer reported it."

For now, the traditional media has to "take her word" on this and not report any hint of a rumor or question her judgement in taking care of teh baby during pregancy. I am sure we will hear a lot about it by 11/4.

This story hs been around for some time now in Alaska, and could be a bad case of McCain cmapaign's vetting, knowing the rumors existed, and they are a net negative even though there may not be ANY truth these claims...like so many Obama smears and lies were "talked about" in the media.

Tammy, no I don't intent to smear Palin due to political bias. But I do question a mother's careless behaviour during preganacy that MAY have been dangerous.

Even if someone faked pregnancy to protect her teenage daughter, I admire that quality in a mom. You know like a lot of children in the years past grew up with their gradmothers thinking she was their mom. But I am sure a lot of conservatives have trouble with the family values of a mother with a preganant teen.

But yes, we are missing the point Gotham is making.

It would be bizzare though if nothing about the rumors or atleast the facts surrounding it are not reported in the traditional media.

These are the risks McCain took with a new face with improper vetting, but this for me is nothing compared o the Troopergate scandal that is being investigated for the misuse of her governor power. Her case comes to hearing before the Nov. election.

As ruth would say, I get it! ...McCain got his Dancing Queen!

Sorry folks, that song keeps coming on and off in my head...

But seriously, maybe the media people are becoming more conscious and sensitive...

However, inevitably, whatever is hidden will come to light,...sooner or later...

Would you like it sooner or later?

Funny, I didn't see Gotham whispering an early blog regarding the Edwards affair.

Here's to tolerance and compassion Gotham!

Steve

word is amber is voting for 'bama! will beachboy be next? hmmnn!

"However this blog is not meant to fan the flames or spread the rumor, more to instigate a conversation on "media literacy."

Bullshit...

This blog was meant to do exactly what it's done, get all the left wing nutjobs cranked up!

Maybe Tammy is right...you should go to the National Enquirer....

I find when libs can't come up with substance, they always go for sensational....

Go Light G.....

It is remarkable how the most powerful and advanced nation on earth can have a political party that ends up with a presidential ticket like the Republicans just did.

This nation, the United States of America, has the best universities with science and technology departments second to none. The world’s brain elite is teaching on these institutions. Yet the majority US citizens still feels faith is more important that fact and that fiction is better than reality.

Can you imagine the two political parties still running neck on neck in the race for the White House? One party is trying to change things around while the other is counting on a couple of intellectual duds to give the world more of what we have had for the last eight years. There is not another developed country in the world where nutcases like the ones the Republicans just found, could end up being considered for the top job of their nation.

Maybe that little prayer at the end of many political speeches should be changed from “God bless America” to “God help America”, or indeed the world!

Hi Skep...

Or maybe the prayer could be changed to echo Obama's pastor.... "Goddamn America...."

hope you're well up there in the north...your appearance here is liable to give Baby D a heart attack!

:)

Hey Skep
Nobody I know takes the nomination of Palin serious. As a matter of fact they take it as an insult and the hollow arguments about her experience are also not taken seriously. When I watch the Republican spokes persons they don't look like they are speaking with any true conviction. There is no humility or confidence. Only insecurity and fear. When I observe the countenance of the republicans without the sound it is quite obvious.

derek

Hey Norm, hope you and yours are well too. Let me know when I should have my first puff of that Montecristo?

Say, isn’t that a Cuban Cigar? A Neocon smoking Fidel’s weeds?

About Baby D. He is one of those guys who does not need evidence and keeps forgetting that the spoon bender was someone else. I tried to honestly reason with him but he has faith that I am the other guy. The one who keeps calling him names (deservedly, I think).

That’s fine with me, spares me the time to actually do it.

you are the master of trickery and confusion, dude! nice try!

yeah...and skinny is voting dem this time round, cause he's afraid if he held his nose too long in the voting booth it could be hazardous to his health or at best make him back fire inappropriate gases in public...

whoahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa!

Republican and conservative 'thinker' Andrew Sullivan:

"I’ve voted a straight Republican ticket every year of my life since 1975, when I first came of voting age, but I was stunned and horrified by McCain’s choice of Palin. I simply cannot even consider voting for McCain after this choice, which speaks loudly of his own selfishness and fundamental frivolousness.

So I was shocked when I turned to the conservative blogs looking for others who shared my dismay and found a celebration going on. They really honestly believe that Palin’s "inexperience" and Obama’s "inexperience" are equivalent. I have had no luck at all in the past 24 hours trying to explain that Obama is quite obviously an impressive man (with whom I disagree on almost every major issue) with extraordinary qualities of organization, discipline and leadership. I see nothing in Palin’s record to suggest that she has any such qualities.

He is a man who has spent his adult life thinking serious thoughts about serious issues and having serious conversations about them with other serious, well-informed people; while Palin quite as clearly has done none of those things. He was the president of the Harvard Law Review; she was the point guard on her high school basketball team."

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/the-shock-of-pa.html#more

Ref. 2

New Daily Kos Rec Diary:

Sarah Palin Baby Story Ender
by The Red Pen
Sun Aug 31, 2008 at 08:50:00 PM PDT

Here it is:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/skater314159/palin_preggers_400.jpg

OK, there is a visibly-pregnant Sarah Palin talking with a CBS 11 (Dallas) reporter at the Governor's meeting in Texas in her 8th month.

Unless someone has counter evidence, we can drop this crap now. Yes, there are still some interesting questions, such as why she flew to Dallas and back when she was this pregnant, and why the Alaska Airlines crewmembers insisted that she was not visibly pregnant on the flight. Nevertheless, until this photo is debunked, we look stupid pushing this rumor.

That is all.

The Red Pen's diary :: ::

UPDATE: I found the photo on Free Republic.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2072180/posts

It is a photo of a real CBS 11 Reporter (I watch CBS 11 news.)

Yes, it may be a fake pregnancy suit, but we have no evidence of that, other than self-serving testimony of Alaska Airlines crew claiming that they had no idea Palin was pregnant (if they'd had any idea, they should have kept her off the flight).

http://dailykos.com/story/2008/8/31/234157/516/1017/581734

I don't know about a fake pregnancy - it's certain plausible, and understandable.

What is not so easily understandable would be the judgment of a woman whose water had just broken to fail to seek medical attention - choosing instead to wait to give a 30 minute speech, and then board a commercial airline for a more than 8 hour trip (not counting 4 hr stop in seattle airport) without giving the crew notice of her medical condition -

choosing to bypass state-of-the-art medical facilities to have a premature, special needs baby delivered in a small, remote hospital?
There's this scenario.

And then there's the scenario in which she simply lied and deceived.

I don't know which scenario puts her judgment in the most questionable light.

Daily Kos: Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

Gustav is about to hit... fingers crossed on this Abbreviated Labor Day edition.

EJ Dionne:

'That only a handful of conservatives have so far expressed doubts about Palin demonstrates that ideology is what drove them during the Miers fight, and drives them still. Miers's lack of experience was, for many conservatives, a convenient rationale for opposing someone they worried might become another David Souter. Palin's lack of experience is irrelevant because she is right -- actually, quite far right -- on the conservatives' issues.'

::::

William Kristol: Okay, I love the Sarah Palin pick, but isn't it funny that now that we are energized it's safe to admit that McCain was going down to obvious defeat. That was something we refused to acknowledge (Daily Kos was absolutely right about McCain losing). Believe me, we won't admit it again.

::::

Paul Krugman: John McCain, stay the hell out of the Gulf where you have no business. Let the disaster people do their job.

'What we really need is a government that works, because it’s run by people who understand that sometimes government is the solution, after all. And that seems to be something undreamed of in either Mr. Bush’s or Mr. McCain’s philosophy.'

::::

Howard Wolfson: I endorse Obama. I'm on board.

'No one in recent history had attempted this kind of a political conversation with 75,000 people. Barack Obama pulled it off.'

::::

Michael Kinsley: Experience? No, honesty.

'That's why the important point about Palin's lack of experience isn't about Palin. It's about McCain. And the question is not how his choice of Palin might complicate his ability to use the "experience" issue or whether he will have to drop experience as an issue. It's not about the proper role of experience as an issue. It's not about experience at all. It's about honesty. The question should be whether McCain -- and all the other Republicans who have been going on for months about Obama's dangerous lack of foreign policy experience -- ever meant a word of it. And the answer is apparently not.'

::::

David Broder: Wow. This is a masterful choice that shows John McCain is really a mavericky, reforming centrist with his 72 year old eye on the future. I confirmed this by asking a 22 year old what they thought.

Sarah Palin: Compassionate Conservative?

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-compassionate-conservative.html

Daily Kos: Secessionist Sarah: VP pick Sarah Palin and the Alaska Independence Party

In spite of the rethug efforts to delete Sarah Palin's history, particularly between 2004 and 2006, we found a real gem on you tube this evening.

The clips show the connection between Sarah Palin and the Alaska Independence Party. (We downloaded the clips and re-uploaded them into our own you tube account in case they get taken down.)

Read on...

http://dailykos.com/story/2008/9/1/4231/18477/878/581881

Here's a more detailed dKos Front-page diary:

Does Palin Have A Connection To The AIP?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/1/84544/50180/809/581942

Has IB become the handmaiden the Dailykos? Do us all a favor and stop leaking their sh#% here:

Sunday, August 31, 2008
Lefty Bloggers Go After Palin's Daughter
Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 5:47 PM
Members of the lefty blogosphere haven't stopped perpetuating the rumor Sarah Palin "faked" her last pregnancy and are now humiliating her daughter Bristol on the blatantly incorrect suspicion she is the real mother of baby Trig.

"Sarah Palin is NOT the Mother" is the title of this DailyKos blog that accuses Bristol, a completely fit-looking adolescent teen, of having a "baby bump" in a photo they allege was taken March 9th of this year.

"Sarah, I'm calling you a liar" wrote blogger ArcXIX. "And not even a good one. Trig Paxson Van Palin is not your son. He is your grandson. The sooner you come forward with this revelation to the public, the better. " Photos of Bristol with detailed commentary about her abdomen are contained in the post.

Not only is the DailyKos disgustingly inspecting Bristol's midriff with all the fervor of LA paparazzi examining J-Lo's or Jennifer Aniston's washboard stomachs for evidence of a "bump," the DailyKos is wrong on when the photo was taken. It was taken, and published, by the Anchorage Daily News in 2006. Baby Trig, a child with Down's Syndrome, was born on April 18, 2008. That's a long time for a teen girl to be carrying a "bump" which looks nothing more than the curve of a tight sweater.

Shortly after Palin was announced as McCain's VP, bloggers at the Kos started ginning up the rumor Palin faked her pregnancy, allegedly to cover for an illegitimate grandchild, because she looked so fit and trim in photos taken a few months before giving birth.

#30 Ambasteve, pleaed don't leak your TownHall wingnut shit here.

Daily Kos is a community blog, anyone can register and go posta blog. Check Front-page diaries for goods shit.

dKos is unlike the sick right wing blogs runs by conservative pundits.

I hope you don't get a heart attack seeing this evidence:

Daily Kos: AMAZING Palin Photo Evidence

After reading several EXPLOSIVE diaries on DailyKos, I traveled up to Frozen Alaska, where I spent the last week combing through the icy archives of the State Library and Igloo and was able to find this AMAZING PHOTO EVIDENCE that will once and for all BLOW THE DOORS off the Palin Candidacy.

With this incredible PHOTO EVIDENCE, we can FINALLY make the case we need to BEAT McCAIN!

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/1/83058/42602/806/581937

Ambasteve quotes "Shortly after Palin was announced as McCain's VP, bloggers at the Kos started ginning up the rumor Palin faked her pregnancy,"

For you information, this rumour is NOT started by Dialy Kos. This has been around for months in Alaska, and most of it was circulated by REPUBLICANS in Alaska.

It's just that Daily Kos is a VERY popular progressive blog with memebrship going into hundreds of thousands(It got over 38 million page hits in the month of August)-- it has a history of exposing the right wing blogs and pundits. The right wing blogosphere envy it, and detest it.

Oh, btw, Daily Kos had several bloggers going after Edwards' scandal long before it got its due attention from the traditional media.

(And Edwards was the Daily Kos's favorite when the primaries began)

Dialy Kos is huge and diverse. It doesn't have monolithic mentality of right wing sheep.

Over 10,000 blog entries have been posted on Daily Kos in the last month alone.

If you wnat to know where the Kos mainstream opinion lies, see the Front Page bloggers' diaries (about 20 rgeulars)

NOT A WORD ABOUT PALIN PREGNANCY.

Has IB become the handmaiden the Dailykos? Do us all a favor and stop leaking their sh#% here:

Who is the "us all" you are talking about? Your republcian cousins at Drude Report and Town Hall?

If Intentblog is tolearant of YOUR shit that you keeping shitting (and tolearnt of your attack of intentblog community as whole--menaing thsose who don't agree with YOU--and sometimes its authors), it is certainly good enough for any material.

And moreover READ Gotham's blog before commenting. You missed the point. And none of teh commenters in this thread said that Dialy KJos blog was THE EVIDECENCE. Most are skeptcial and do't buy it, and see the Dialy Kos comment thread, the Daily Kos community believe the rumor. Dialy Kos is not spreading the rumour. They could do it very effectively, if they do wanted to. There were many blogs posted at Daily Kos not agreeing with the rumour. But you won't consider them do you? Cherry picking idiot.

#34 (The first sentence is a quote from #30)

Apologies for the multiple typos.

A big one; corrected: "the Daily Kos community 'DO NOT' believe the rumor." and is not interested in spreading the rumour.

But you know what? The site that is more powerful than Daily Kos interms of popularity, traffic and readership (not te substance of their content) is DRUDGE REPORT who consitently spread gossip, distortions and misleading headlines with a conservative bias and a GOP agenda. And not to mention the right wing blogs, which have a mearge popularity and can only survive on aggressive bias against liberals and democrats. And very few of them are community blogs and their content is no match to the successful progressive blogs.

Gotham,

The problem here is that you and your sister have never had to exist in the real world, so you two have nothing better to do than live off daddy's money and gossip all day in an effort to get what you want in the way of a candidate. But I say to you, "be careful what you wish for".

It is clear that you and your family are more than just racist(yes the R word)toward the European white peoples which settled this country and founded the priciples this country is supposed to be based on. Those principles have been stolen and preverted by the Washington elite and liberal lames. Likewise you, your sister and your father continue to demonstrate your dislike of America and the American people unless they happen to be communist,socialists liberal lames like yourselves.
Like most wolves in sheep's clothing you hide your true intent while sucking up the resources. ( I mean let your daddy try selling his books in third world countries or even try getting his books on the best seller list in China, Russia, Iran, etc.)I doubt China has a best seller list.

You know as well as I that the American political system is broke, but yet you people are willing to go alone with the status quo as usual because it serves your purpose. You cannot possibly believe Obama will bring CHANGE, take a look at who he picked as running mate. He is bought and paid for by the Washington elite because he will serve their interests.
After reading all your father's books and listening to his CD's I truly thought you people would be WAY ABOVE the kind of crap you post on this blog. I know you don't care but I must tell you I am sooooooooooo disappointed in you all.

So have a good day living on and spending all that money that your father has made off us stupid white American's.(because that is who buys his books and CD's)

As an added note. Yes I know you liberal lames will scream about every terrible thing America has done and been,nationally and internationally. but America (the American people) is/are always trying to fix themselves/itself. That's more than you can say about most countries in the world today.
However when you liberal lames get involved the result is perversion and destruction in a major way. Look at all the things that liberal lames supposely fixed and look at the incresed problems created. Liberal lame democrats have done more to hurt minorities than to help. (all for the vote I might add.)
By the way when there is a disaster in the world the American people are always 1st there, 1st to help. You cannot say that about China, Russia, Iran, etc.
Why don't you people try and find something good about the United States and talk about that.
Even a dog won't bite the hand that feeds him.

Much compassion~paulisoso

Paulisoso #34

"The problem here is that you and your sister have never had to exist in the real world, so you two have nothing better to do than live off daddy's money and gossip all day in an effort to get what you want in the way of a candidate."

Do not make personal attacks and ad hominem arguemnts about the contributors.

This is not the first time you did that.

You are free to criticize with out resorting to ad hominem arguements. Be happy that if you made such attacks on any other moderated site about a blog author, you will be instantly banned.

paulisoso, if you disagree/offended with the content of Gotham Chopra's post, state it and say why. Do not attack the messenger.

I stand by what I say. Sometimes people need a reality check.
At least it is the truth and not outright lies and innuendo's.
Why should I care about little Gotham's feeling's when he certainly has none for the person he is blogging about.(And certainly none for their reputation either, Palin's daughter is an innocence victim here, but you people don't care. Your only concern is to defend the unjust.)
Can you imagine the individuals who would have to be in on a cover up with regard to Palin's daughter giving birth and Palin claiming it as her own.
Ghee's you people need to get a life!

Much compassion~paulisoso

Yes that's it ban anyone who holds a mirror up to your face, disagree's with you or makes a valid point. That's democratic for sure.

Much compassion~paulisoso

#38 Paulisoso

"However this blog is not meant to fan the flames or spread the rumor, more to instigate a conversation on "media literacy."~GC

Your attacks are your own projections. You got issues, dude. Sort them out.

Paulisoso,

Can you please let us know what "much compassion" in your message actually means ?

"Yes that's it ban anyone who holds a mirror up to your face, disagree's with you or makes a valid point. That's democratic for sure."

Why do you make straw man arguments?

You can make valid points, criticize and disagree WITHOUT making ad hominem arguments and personal attacks.

BREAKING: Palin's Daughter Pregnant, Campaign Announces

"ST. PAUL, Minn. — John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin said Monday that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant, an announcement aimed at rebutting Internet rumors that Palin's youngest son, born in April, was actually her daughter's.

A statement released by the campaign said that Bristol Palin will keep her baby and marry the child's father. Bristol Palin is five months pregnant, and the baby is due in late December."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/01/palin-my-daughter-is-preg_n_122947.html

Markos: So much for abstinence-only education
Mon Sep 01, 2008

I don't think the evidence is there to claim Trig is Bristol's son, as some have speculated, but a second rumor floating around Alaska circles turns out to have been true:

"The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. "

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/us/international-usa-politics-palin.html?ref=politics

Maybe one more abstinence-only supporting politicians will realize the limits of such an approach. Teens will do what they will do. It's obvious Bristol would've been better served with a discussion about safe sex. Instead, she's now facing a shotgun wedding to the baby's father.

I guess that settles that.

Silly rumors

drek

is drek related to shrek?

What's up, pauli? You and me will have our blind-spots, too.
'Hypocrite' is not a word I like but it conveys a truth rather than being a 'sin' As I see it, it is the nature of existence here in material to be two-faced. It is the nature of the beast!
Seek a seeming 'good' and automatically it will generate a seeming 'bad.' It's all the distinguishing that causes the personal angst, and the ongoing stir. Peace reigns in the eye of the storm. Let your eye be single! Yo to the paradox.

Daily Kos Rec Diary: BREAKING: Bristol Palin Pregnant

"Let's show some respect here about what Bristol is going through. Yeah, so Sarah Palin advocates abstinence programs, but lets remember Bristol is a real person and none of us would want our children put under the spotlight like this. Any "political gain" can find its way without us in individual voters' families - everybody will hear about this news. I posted this diary to put the rumors to rest."

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/1/1235/07414/653/582106

Apprently a lot of rumours began from the High School blogs in Alaska, and sevral were propagted by the Governor's Republican rivals. The secodary rumor is true.

But this only reinforces Palin's bad judgement and carelssness in taking a flight from Dallas to Alaska when her water broke 8 months into pregnancy with a special needs child, and not even informing the flight crew.

What does it say that the McCain campaign is trying to give the Palin family credit for making a choice, while campaigning on a platform of anti-choice?

Palin is for abstinence-only birth control and against sex education.

Palin's stance on post-rape abortion essentially gives rapists a license to chose the mother of
their offspring, whether they're held criminally responsible for the actual deed or not.

Aloha Everyone

The truth will follow, it always does. Amazing the illusion of the ego's sense of entitlement. McCain needs to self realize what everyone hates is an authority who betrays. He has major issues with the American government and people, only then will he realize we live in a thought responsive universe. In choosing Palin, no one is going to look at him. The mass weapon of distraction. love patty

Very good, Senator Obama:

"Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown reports: At a press avail in Monroe, Mich., Barack Obama on Palin: "Back off these kinds of stories."

"I have said before and I will repeat again: People's families are off limits," Obama said. "And people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor and/or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18 and how a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn’t be a topic of our politics."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Obama_on_Palin.html

On charges that his campaign has stoked the story via "liberal" blogs:

"I am offended by that statement. There is no evidence at all that any of this involved us," he said. "Our people were not involved in any way in this, and they will not be. And if I thought there was somebody in my campaign who was involved in something like that, they would be fired."

Now, let Obama never speak of this again. But how does the media get off charging that Obama had anything to do with this story? There is no evidence to support it. In fact, The Fix reports that Obama has taken great strides to stay away from it:

"Some Republicans have already insisted that the Obama campaign is behind the rumor-mongering about Sarah, Bristol and Trig -- although in our experience the campaign has not pushed the story AT ALL, in fact they have been encouraging reporters to focus on the issues of difference between the two candidates rather than personal stories."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/bristol_palin_is_pregnant.html

So why is the media allowing anonymous GOP aides to attack Obama on this? In any case, let the media and tabloids deal with this. We have an election to win.

What's Wrong With This Sentence?

Politico:

"Besieged by blog rumors about her 17-year-old daughter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — named Friday as running mate of John McCain — released a statement Monday saying her daughter is pregnant and plans to marry the father."

What does one thing -- the news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy -- really have to do with the other -- scurrilous rumors that were never pushed by any mainstream US media outlet, nor by anyone remotely connected to the Obama campaign? What -- the plan was to keep Bristol Palin's pregnancy a secret from us, until she was rushed to the hospital to deliver her child a week before Sarah Palin's inauguration?

I think it's wonderful that Bristol Palin has chosen to have her baby, and I'm sure that she'll make a wonderful mother.

But if it's such a wonderful thing, let's be out and proud about it -- not try and change the subject. Let's disclose this in the People magazine interview. Let's not bury the news when there's literally a hurricane bearing down on Louisiana. And let's sure as hell not confuse the overheated rantings of the liberal blogosphere for the series of decisions made months ago by mother and by daughter that led to a 17-year-old child becoming pregnant.

The media ought to be more responsible than to take the McCain campaign's spin at face value. If that irrelevant distraction about rumors in the blogosphere belongs in this -- than certainly things like these do: What is Palin's position on contraception? What is her position on sex education? Does she believe that sex outside of marriage is immoral? These questions are not remotely personal, but they're certainly a part of the story.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/whats-wrong-with-this-sentence.html

What did McCain know about Palin?

Apparently, not much:

"They've bragged that Palin opposed the famous "Bridge to Nowhere," only to learn that Palin supported the project and even told residents of Ketchikan that they weren't "nowhere" to her. After the national outcry, she decided to spend the funds allocated to the bridge for something else. Actually, maybe it's more fair to say that coincident with the national outcry, she changed her mind. The story shows her political judgment, but it is not a reformer's credential.

Likewise, though she cut taxes as mayor of Wassila, she raised the sales tax, making her hardly a tax cutter.

She denied pressuring the state's chief of public safety to fire her sister-in-law's husband even though there's mounting evidence that the impetus did indeed come from her. Ostensibly to clear her name, Palin asked her attorney general to open an independent investigation—the legislature had already been investigating. (I am told that the campaign was aware of the ethics complaint filed against her but accepts Palin's account.)

McCain's campaign seemed unaware that she supported a windfalls profits tax on oil companies and that she is more skeptical about human contributions to global warming than McCain is.

They did not know that she took trips as the mayor of Wasilla to beg for earmarks.

They did not know that she told a television interviewer this summer that she did not fully understand what it is that a vice president does."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200808u/mccain-palin

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Ambinder writes:

"Privately, one campaign official says they were aware of several of the more scurrilous rumors about Palin making the rounds of the blogosphere, although the official declined to "dignify" them with any comment."

Those rumors were being circulated in Alaska by Republicans -- including, rumors say, the Republican state senate leader who is a vicious political (and personal?) enemy of Palin's. They were making the rounds on wingnut radio, and on wingnut forums. That's definitely where I first heard them months ago.

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As for Bristol's current pregnancy, definitely rumored for some time now (again, mostly in Alaska wingnut radio), apparently few in the McCain camp knew about that:

"Sen. John McCain knew. A few members of his senior staff knew. Most members of his senior staff did not know. Palin's spokesman in Alaska did not know. Palin's campaign-appointed spokesman did not know. McCain staffers -- at different levels of the campaign -- are a bit stunned."

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/bristols_revelation.php

Todd Beeton of MyDD writes:

The buzz in the blogosphere yesterday was the rumor, advanced by ArcXIX at dailykos, that 4 month old Trig Palin is not Sarah's child, but her daughter Bristol's. Today, to nip that rumor in the bud, the McCain campaign has released a statement from the Palins that Bristol, who is 17 and unmarried, is actually 5 months pregnant now. While the Palins' statement is pretty standard stuff, Reuters is reporting a statement from a "senior McCain aide" that takes a more politically confrontational tone, desperately attempting to connect the rumor and the Obama campaign.[...]

Once again outclassing his opposition, in a statement at a press avail earlier today, Barack Obama called out the McCain campaign and called on everyone to "back off these kinds of stories."[...]

The desperation inherent in their invocation of Barack's name when railing against the internet rumor implies to me their deep desire to change the subject altogether, to distract from what is clearly a piss poor job of vetting of Sarah Palin. The McCain campaign claims to have known about this pregnancy, but why then wouldn't they have released it on their terms instead of in this reactionary way? And why the hell would a Palin spokesperson not even have known about Bristol Palin's pregnancy just two days ago?

Talking Points Memo has a good catch from The Anchorage Daily News:

"The Daily News had asked Palin's press secretary, Bill McAllister, over the weekend to address rumors that Bristol was pregnant.

"I don't know. I have no evidence that Bristol's pregnant," he said on Saturday."[...]

McCain is trying to turn this on offense but clearly Palin has turned into a headache for them and considering her connections to Ted Stevens and her upcoming deposition in the firing of her ex-brother in law, that's not likely to go away any time soon.[...]

!!!
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There's only one of two possibilities here:

First, liberal blogs have become SO POWERFUL that a single non-frontpage DKos diary about a pregnancy rumor forced, within 1.5 days, a presidential campaign to announce the teenage-pregnancy of the VP candidate's daughter.

-OR-

This rumor was already circulating among traditional news types, and the McCain campaign actively flacked the DKos diary around to reporters as "proof" of how vicious and scurrilous the left is. And then conveniently let hang the (completely false) notion that Obama staffers fanned the flames of a negative story 'during a hurricane.'

Take a guess.

Did John McCain spend any time at all vetting Sarah Palin, or was she simply a desperation pick to distract the media after Barack Obama's stellar acceptance speech?

Here's John McCain in October '07:

"The 527s need to be eliminated...527s are a disgrace and they have to be eliminated because they're clearly in violation of the law."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303815,00.html

And from today's Washington Post:

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state's political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political organization organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

Palin's relationship with Alaska's senior senator may be one of the more complicated aspects of her new position as Sen. John McCain's running mate; Stevens was indicted in July 2008 on seven counts of corruption. "

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/01/palin_was_a_director_of_embatt.html#more

Indeed, the complicated aspects of Palin's new role are piling up faster than the "my friends" in a John McCain speech.

Eeeoww! One of my Non-American friends pointed out that we think The World = America. This entire discussion again proves it! I'm sure there is so much more to discuss about happenings around the 'world'! There are places where people do not have money to enrol into a hospital for childbirth!Are they reported? Do we do a thing about them?? At least spread awareness?