Bristol Palin
With the announcement yesterday that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is five-months pregnant, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sought to quash rumors that her four-month-old son Trig, the one with Down Syndrome, was really Bristol's child.
Of course, we have to take her at her word that Bristol is only five months pregnant and not four, or three. Palin also said Bristol will marry the father, later identified as Levi Johnston, a hometown boy.
The questions that occur to me are: (1) Did Gov. Palin encourage her daughter to use birth control? Not likely. Palin favors "abstinence only" sex education. (2) Did Bristol want to end the pregnancy? (3) Did she really want to get married to Levi, or was this forced upon her by her parents? (4) Had she planned to go to college after high school, or was settling down with a local boy her goal in life? (5) Will she even finish high school? She already missed a lot last year from "mononucleosis," we're told.
None of this would be any of our business if Palin wasn't seeking the vice presidency of the United States and presenting herself as a so-called "family values" candidate blessed by the religious right, by James Dobson of Focus on the Family himself.
By marrying Bristol off to Levi, Gov. Palin will likely be leaving her behind in Alaska and have one less distraction if she goes off to Washington as John McCain's vice president. Did "Sarah Barracuda" as she was known in high school, let her ambition dictate her daughter's life as well? We now know she threw her own mother-in-law under the bus, supporting the opposing candidate to succeed her as mayor of Wasilla because the elder Mrs. Palin, who lost the election, was pro-choice.
I had to laugh yesterday when I heard that the McCain campaign was sending a team of lawyers to Alaska for to finally do some real vetting of Palin. Marry in haste, repent at leisure.