Jeez. Does this mean we might not get to have Palin on McCain's ticket? I hope the Repubs "stay the course" on this one, for the Democrats' sake.

McCain knew first, I guess?

Yeah, judgement is the word. That's right in line with Obama's theme all along that it's the judgement not the experience that is most critical.

this ... raises further questions about how thoroughly McCain vetted, and how much he knew, and knows, about the person he selected as his back-up commander-in-chief

Wow, Greg. Excellent point. Thanks for driving it.

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. Senator McCain didn't know Palin's daughter was pregnant.

That means Palin didn't choose to reveal to Senator McCain that her daughter was pregnant, although clearly it's of some concern in a political campaign.

She's dishonest and he's reckless.

John McCain, under pressure, panicked and made a reckless, irresponsible decision to put in line to be President someone he did not know personally and without vetting the person. Making rash decisions in anger or fear without obtaining all the relevant facts and understanding the consequences of those decisions is not something the President can do without jeopardizing all of America.

I didn't initially believe that Edwards was dumb enough to do what he did.

Nothing surprises me.

It is funny how some people follow different news sources and we look down on the National Enquirer.

But last night I was told that her daughter was pregnant and that there was a scandal, and I just rolled my eyes.

I was also told that there was age of consent issues and more to the story.

I chalked it up to a knee jerk reaction by the left desperate to find an issue, but if the other foot falls on this story, then there is going to be some questions of it there was parental supervision and such...

I feel sorry for the "father and now governor proclaimed husband" of this child. I guess the Alaskan State police can make life difficult if you don't get marred.

It would be better to let these two step up to the microphone and tell-all to avoid the rumors.

How about the fact that Sarah Palin, a known publicity and attention seeker. TV sportscaster, and Ms. Alaska contestant, opted not to have a wedding, but instead eloped. Much to the surprise of her own family and all that knew her as a person who craved the type of attention that a big wedding would provide.

Could this be the real reason why the then 24 years old Sarah Palin had a quicky marriage?

In her speech in Dayton today, Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she and her husband are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary, which means they were married on August 29, 1988.

On April 20, 1989 – less than eight months after they eloped – their first son, Track, was born.

There is so much left behind when the snow melts. Palin is going to be a gift that keeps on giving.
Even right wing Alaskans that I know don't support her for the "heartbeat away" slot. And I think every Alaskan I know is right wing.

So much of this can be laid to rest by simply getting a copy of the birth certificate.

Now if the birth certificate shows Bristol, game over.

But if it shows Palin -- then it should be a simple investigative matter to check if it has been falsified.

Even Palin's alleged abuse of power with the firings came to light and this is far more significant. Such a falsifying would involve many, many people because -- well, the Governor had a baby!

Someone is bound to talk.

Look I'm not advocating anything for Obama and the campaign - I never do.

But for 2 days now I've been told over and over not to talk about the baby, the pregnancies - that's nonsense.

So is saying bloggers shouldn't talk about this - bloggers are the very ones to get this ball rolling and it actually matters.

Vote For:

McCAIN/FAILIN' 2008BC

Aargh - sorry for the duplicate post.

*sigh*

I wish TPM had a real server instead of an old guy on a bicycle -

I've got a tinfoil body cast on now. This whole thing is so absurd, It can't be real. Is McCain being sabotaged? Are they setting up Palin's withdrawal? Would the fanatics accept it?

* * McCain - Palin 08 * *
Giving new meaning to
* * * * Labor Day * * * *

I understand John McCain loves shooting craps. Well, he just crapped out.

What do we still not know? When is the next development in this soap opera going to happen? Of course, the McCain folks will know all about it. Right?

"This has turned into a Reality TV show," says cmpnwtr!

AND HOW!!

How much of this is on main stream TV in the States, or we the only ones enjoying the program so much???????? LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!!

I suspect that Gov. Palin will need to spend more time with her family very soon.

Sounds like she should have been spending more time with them before.

Next will learn that Track's the father.

McCain made a quick and poor decision in leaving it up to the ?press? and blogs to vet his VP candidate. And in doing that he left the door open for all sorts of messy investigations and comments.

Governor Palin should pack her family's bags and head home to Alaska. She has a special needs baby to care for and a pregnant teenager to stand beside in the next few months. How can she realistically think she can honestly participate in a stressful national election campaign.

There are times when family values should trump political ambition. Resign, Sarah!

The Great Unraveling begins.

It's hard to believe what I'm seeing this week - after what was probably the most successful Democratic convention in modern times, we're seeing the GOP convention kick off with rampant non-attendance, a radical re-vamping of their shcedule, with the meat of the first night being tossed to Pickles and Cindy.

The VP candidate Bad News Bag has tipped over and one item after another seems to be falling out on a slow news day.

Pregnancy, DUI, secession, corruption, vendettas - and this is just in the first couple of days after the VP announcement.

I'm half-expecting Wasilla Police to find a body in the Palins' crawl space at this rate.

ASBC's Jake Tapper asks a very good question on his blog, what would the media be saying if BO had a 17 yr old daughter who pregnant? The comments make for interesting reading
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/just-askin.html

Plus, James Dobson from Focus on the Family has already released a statement on the pregnancy and he is blaming the MSM. Lol. The conservative right is in damage control mode.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/dobson-on-brist.html

To Mr and Mrs Plain, welcome to the national spotlight.

Absolutely riveting in a trainwreck kinda way...

Sarah Palin's husband has a DUI.

Looks like today is the big news dump day for the McCain camp. They're trying to sneak all this stuff in under the cover of the holiday and the storm.

Pack yer bags, Greg's got a new thread.

Tena, you have totally won me over.

1. Sarah Palin has failed her daughter on SO many levels.

2. Sarah Palin has also thrown McCain under the bus. She IS a barracuda.

3. Sarah Palin's beliefs are only for OTHER women.

4. I am insulted by her. I am a mother, and she just turns my stomach for how little regard she has for her children. Bristol looks so SAD in all the pix.......wonder why?

5. She will NOT be on the ballot on election day, as I said yesterday.

Sshe deserves everything she gets......

heh. long long overdue schadenfreude....wheeeeeeeee!!!!

Sarah Palin smiles a lot, very much like Cindy McCain. She has that beauty pageant contestant smile that never varies, and so she was a beauty pageant contestant as was Cindy McCain, and it bothers me. She's been thrust into the national arena, and she cannot seem to vary that smile, at least in the photos and TV I've seen. She didn't "hit the ground running" because she isn't ready for Prime Time Foreign Policy and so didn't appear on Sunday's political talk shows. The smile, that smile, it bothers me. How in the world does anyone expect a Hillary supporter to vote for an anti-abortion candidate like Palin? is a question that puzzles me. I suspect, under the smile, she is ruthless as her nickname "Barracuda" seems to imply, and that would mask any real emotion and any real open reaction.

Whatever happened to the argument that McCain made about Obama, that he didn't have experience? If Obama didn't have experience, Palin has even less and she's a heartbeat away from the Presidency with McCain who is 72 and has had cancer. So McCain has "flip-flopped", I repeat "flip-flopped" on that issue. Don't try covering up with her so-called experience as governor of Alaska, or mayor of a small town, or PTA leader, because it's obvious that she has No, repeat, NO foreign policy experience. So McCain flip-flops again.

The sloppy way McCain chose this woman. He met with her once, face to face, and didn't even properly vet her to discover that she was embroiled in a state investigation about her possible misuse of power. Evidently the only thing that mattered was (1) her gender) and (2) her staunch opposition to pro-choice. This was not a "considered" choice, it was a last-minute attempt to cover the criticism McCain was getting from the right-to-life conservatives. It was a "gamble" to try to (3) pick up the Hillary voters, which I suspect will fail badly. So McCain shores up his base and still loses.

And the latest... Her daughter, 17, unmarried, pregnant. Makes you kind of sick, doesn't it? First, they talk about right-to-life values, nothing about chastity before marriage. Then they, under pressure, announce the daughter, unmarried, at seventeen is pregnant. Shows you the kind of values she was brought up with by her mother and father, doesn't it? Then they claim it's private; what's private about running for Vice President, maybe President? This reflects badly on the so-called family values that this woman supposedly stands for.
Also shows how carefully McCain's campaign "vets" their choices. If they knew about it, it's damning. If they didn't, it's just as bad.

Something is very fishy here.

Real reporters better get to the bottom of this. It just doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't add up that this girl is suddenly "5 months pregnant".

So,

1. Palin's press secretary says he had no evidence she was pregnant as of two days ago.
2. Top McCain adviser Steve Schmidt now says that Palin told McCain about it last week.
3. Other McCain aides say he knew about it before that from the "lengthy vetting process".

Who is the liar?

Will someone please read one of Dobson's books on parenting here at TPM and tell us if he would approve of Palin's lifestyle (absentee parenting)? Hint: He don't.) And then ask Dobson, given his expertise in parenting, why he thinks Palin is doing the right thing, and why other evangelicals should support the ticket, given his professional views about parenting.

Seems like there's a rich vein here for the mining.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=179257&title=tim-kaine

A reminder about the difference between an Obama vetting and his opponent's method.

For example:

QUESTION: Everyone knows that divorce is tough on children. What about parent-child separation that occurs for reasons other than divorce? Is the pain any less intense for kids when a parent has a good reason to be away?

DR. DOBSON: Research confirms that the consequences of any parent-child separation can be severe. In one study of fathers whose jobs required them to be away from their families for long periods of time, the children tended to experience numerous negative reactions, including anger, rejection, depression, low self-esteem and, commonly, a decline in school performance. Those findings have been confirmed in other contexts as well.

Some of those conclusions were presented at a White House conference at which I spoke a few years ago. The other speaker was Dr. Armand Nicholi, professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. That day, Dr. Nicholi explained how family circumstances that make parents inaccessible to their children produce some of the same effects as divorce itself.

Cross-cultural studies make it clear that parents in the United States spend less time with their children than almost any other nation in the world. For decades, millions of fathers have devoted themselves exclusively to their occupations and activities away from home. More recently, mothers have joined the work force in huge numbers, rendering themselves exhausted at night and burdened with domestic duties on weekends. The result: No one is at home to meet the needs of millions of lonely preschoolers and latchkey children.

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Dr. Nicholi expressed regret that his comments would make many parents feel uncomfortable and guilty. However, he felt obligated to report the facts as he saw them. Most important (and the point of his address), Dr. Nicholi stressed the undeniable link between the interruption of parent-child relationships and the escalation of psychiatric problems that we were then seeing, and that are even more pronounced today. If the numbers of dysfunctional families and absentee parents continued to escalate, he said, serious national health problems were inevitable.