What kind of mother joins a VP ticket knowing her teenage daughter is pregnant?

Not really. The girl is young and unmarried, but that is not a crime. That is not Sarah Palin’s problem as a candidate.

Using one’s office as governor to apply pressure and threaten to fire the head of the Alaska State Troopers because he won’t fire her former brother-in-law, now that’s an issue for a public official. Being a member of an Alaska Secessionist movement might well be an issues for a national U.S. public official.

You have too much time on your hands…....

The question has nothing to do with the daughter—the daughter is a victim here—a victim of her mother’s bad judgment. Stepping into the national stage is a disservice to the family, and obviously, family is not Mrs. Palin’s priority.

The is an issue of judgment and character.

And thanks Chee—that was very thoughtful and profound.

Was the daughter raped? Is that how she became pregnant? Or did Palin’s bad judgment somehow enter her daughter’s vagina, travel up her fallopian tube and, disregarding all scientific knowledge of human reproduction, fertilize one of her ovum? If not, she’s not a “victim.”

She’s less than a year shy of being a legal adult. She made a decision to have sex, and is now faced with the consequences of her actions. She made that decision knowing that her mother is in the public eye, and that any bad decisions on her part would most likely become public knowledge.

The only people that care about this are the media whores. It’s none of our business.

I’m a very profound person…...

@poser- ＊High-Five＊

Poser is truly wise!

By your logic, allen, isn’t Obama just as irresponsible a parent? Assuming he wins, his daughters will literally grow up under the public eye? What kind of parent would put any child through that, pregnant or not?

What kind of parent would join the military, knowing they’d be called away—possibly to their death?

Is it not possible that, occasionally, people feel summoned (“called,” “destined,” call it what you like) to something far more monumental than just being parents? Is it not just as noble for a parent to serve their countrymen, or do only unfettered patriots deserve that right?

@Cheeb and Scamp—thank you for the compliments.

She is a mother who still has a life to live regardless of her daughters actions. I don’t see what it changes, her daughter will still be pregnant whether Palin run’s for VP or not. I don’t believe it makes her a bad mother at all, just a mother.

Isn’t a parent who answers the call of public service teaching by example?

This is interesting.

On his MySpace page, Johnston boasts, “I’m a f….in’ redneck who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes. But I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some s… and just f…in’ chillin’, I guess. Ya f… with me I’ll kick ass.” He also claims to be “in a relationship” but states, “I don’t want kids.”

Holy Shit! A teenager acting like a teenager?! Stop the presses.

Holy Shit! JP censored himself?! Stop the f…ing presses!

;-)

I just don’t understand why she is running at all. She has 5 children, one of whom is a newborn and has down syndrome. I doubt that she will have time for them with her busy schedule being The VP of our country. I’m not saying that mothers can’t be vice president. I’m just saying that when you’ve just had a child FOUR MONTHS AGO, it might be more important to nurse and take care of your child.

And the Palin family has invited this elegant young man, now their daughter’s fiancee, to attend the GOP convention. He should add a lot of class to the goings-on.

Actually, I think he’d fit right in.

Can I be the first to call him “The Alaskan K-Fed?”

@ Poser – On the money. He could stay in the Billy Carter wing.

I’m with AllenGreen here. Oh good heavens did I just say that? Stop the presses!
Sarah Palin has an unmarried seventeen year-old daughter who is having a baby, she has two other daughters who according to wikipedia are 13 and 7, she has a four month old baby boy with special needs and now she is going to commit to the second highest job in the land? Family values? Where exactly is the family going to fit in if she and McCain are actually elected? Not to mention on the campaign trail for the next couple of months. I’d say her priorities are pretty out of whack. This lady needs to get her own house in order before we trust her to be a heartbeat away from running our nation.

Would anyone say this about a man? I don’t get it. This is the 21st century.

They have a high-level, two-income family. They can hire help.

What’s with all the judgment?

Just dishing it back after eight years of “holier-than-thou” gay sex in the bathroom double standards sanctimonious bullshit.

Shouldn’t we be concentrating on what she stands for and not on what mistakes her daughter has made?

If it were Obama’s daughter, how would the right wing handle the question? I would assume they would say something like, “Get your own house in order before you try to manage mine.”
I was an unwed teenage mother myself. I agree that the poor girl should not be going through this in the public eye. I feel so sad for her and the young man, regardless of his lack of creativity in the use of the English language if the quotes above are correct. Her private life SHOULD be a non-issue, but we all know that if the shoe was on the other foot the Conservative Right would be all over it. Obama took the high ground. It’s US who are continuing the conversation.
I hope that Gov. Palin really thought out the impact this election would have on her children. I’m sure that is a question every politician has to ask themselves, but going in with this “scandal” around the poor girls neck says something to me about her priorities and her judgement. Then again, I never would have voted for McCain anyway so I could be biased. If it were Obama’s daughter I may be defending his decision to continue, then again, his policies support people who find themselves in this girls situation.

@dayeshere: When I concentrate on what the woman stands for, I like her even less. She’s anti-choice, anti-environment, and pro-gun.

Well, I don’t think it is the choice that I would make, however, before I pass judgement on her choice, I would want to be in her shoes for a bit. Every parent has choices to make, no matter what they choose, it will not be a perfect decision. I could see myself deciding to run as VP, if in my heart, I believed that I could do more good for my family and the country as Vice President, than as I could not being Vice President. It is the same type of decision that people in other professions have to make. Take police officers, soldiers, etc. they put their lives on the line, it will be their family that has to deal with them dying or being permanently injured, but they feel that more good can come out of their decision to put themselves at risk, than bad. Perhaps that is Palin’s feeling. She has a child with disabilities, if she is VP, she has more power to implement policies and change to help all children with disabilities. That is just one example. Or she could be a power hungry egomaniac who doesn’t care what effect her decisions have on her family. I doubt it, but I don’t know. I don’t know enough about her to form an opinion. But I do know that if everyone (male or female) who considered public office decided that they didn’t want to subject “one’s family to public scrutiny during a difficult period”, then we would only have unattached orphans running for office. No offense to unattached orphans, but I’m thinking that we wouldn’t want that to be the only pool we’d have to drawn from when it came time to pick candidates.

@ Marina, I agree that this is a double standard but I think that a mother, if present, is an important staple in many homes. I think that it’s just how society works and it doesn’t make men and fathers any less important. Mothers need to bond with their children at a young age and Palin “supposedly” has strong family values but isn’t showing it. Yes, you can hire a nanny and someone else to breastfeed your child while you go and campaign but is it really necessary? Was there no one else in the republican party who could do a better job at being VP? Nobody?.

In classic “compassionate” Conservative fashion, Palin opposes programs that teach girls how not to get pregnant, lobbies against their right to decide whether to have a child, then kills social programs that exist to cushion the impact of those policies. She then has the gall to trot out her own pregnant daughter as a symbol for “family values.”

@breedmitch You’ve made your decision based on her platform then and not the situation her daughter is in. That was my point. I’m not voting for her either, but it’s not because of her daughter being pregnant.

I’ve never seen such a brutal collision between the fantasies of ideologues – “Sarah Palin is the future of the GOP” – and reality than this Palin pick. Well, actually I can: the Iraq war. Same neocon fantasists behind it, same absolute fixation on ideology and political tactics, same contempt for good governance, same unhinged arrogance, same ignorance of the actual facts and then pathological attempt to cover them up.

I totally agree with you! I said the same thing last night to my husband! It is not sexist! I would say the same thing about a father who put his daughter in the public eye during a difficult time in her life I would feel the same way. To me it screams of selfishness. I also think that she is using here daughter to make herself look better in front of the religious right. Sarah Palin is truly scary!
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html

How dare she leave the kitchen….....~

I happen to like her. If it was her husband running it would be ok. I think she is showing a strong example of a modern working mother who does love her family. She should not have to give up on her dreams because her daughter got pregnant. Her daughter grew up in the public eye to some degree. Her daughter knew at the age of seventeen that her mother was a public figure and any of her mistakes would be put out into the street for all to see.

Yes she will be on the campaign trail, but she could take the baby with her and still be with him and care for him.

I am a stay at home mom, because that was my dream. I am doing what I love. As American women we have the freedom to do what we want to. Why should Sara Palin be any different? You may or may not agree with her politics, but don’t judge her as a mother. Remember we know what the press tells us. We can’t see into her heart or judge her love for her family.

mzgator;
Do you mean to tell me that if Obama’s daughter got pregnant it would “be OK?” The Republicans would eat him up over it.

I have refrained from commenting on this subject, since I first became aware of the topic.

I shall continue my refrain.

Stratman37 will understand…

September 4, 2008, 11:01 AM EDT

They wouldn’t accuse Obama of being a bad parent just because he was trying to get a new and better job. They would expect for his wife to be home and there for their daughter. Why can’t Palin’s husband be at home and taking care of their daughter? Both a mom and dad share equal parenting responsibilities.

I just don’t think that having a teenage daughter get pregnant, whether you are Obama or Palin, makes you a bad person or that you should give up on your dream. We can live and reach our children, but we can’t prevent them making mistakes as hard as we try. My opinion dies not come from political preference. I would feel this way if we were judging either candidates. If a preacher has a daughter who gets pregnant, should he not be able to preach? Her pregnancy does not make him bad parent or a bad preacher. It’s the daughters mistake.

@mzgator
Is Palin’s husband going to stay home and take care of the children? I haven’t heard what his plans are if his wife moves to Washington.

@mzgator: She has every right to live out her dream. Her daughter’s pregnancy should be completely a personal matter for their family alone. The family has stated, with pride, that it was their daughters choice to keep the baby. What angers me, however, is that if she’s elected, she will work to take that very choice away from other families.

Respectfully, the question asked was not about choice. It was if she was a bad mother because she decided to run having a pregnant unwed daughter.

There are plenty of parents who both work in all levels of employment having unwed pregnant daughters. They make sacrifices of their time and each pitch in to help raise their families. This situation is no different. That is all I was saying.

I have a daughter and two step daughters. If any of the three got pregnant and decided to keep the baby, I would be proud and so would their dad.

It’s different because this mother is applying for a job that made her daughters personal embarrassment (I use that word that only because of her obvious conservative Christian upbringing and even though I am politically liberal leaning, I am personally conservative and I know that her situation is embarrassing in the Church community) the center of national and even international news. I don’t know their family, this girl, or their family dynamics, but I pray that the mother consulted with her daughter and had the foresight to see what a nightmare this whole thing could be for that poor girl. My daughter followed in my footsteps and got pregnant before she got married. I had difficulty with her accepting a job as a high school teacher while being unmarried and pregnant, in part because I wanted to protect her from ridicule. I hope Ms Palin knew what she was getting her daughter into, and I hope that this girl is as tough as her mother seems to be and can weather the media scrutiny and the international noseyness into her private life.

Honestly, after reading some of these answers, I can’t believe we don’t live in caves still…
Why should being a woman be something to be embarrassed about???? Thanks for setting us back 50 years~

I am talking about the conservative Christian Community and being pregnant before you’re married. I don’t think you should be embarrassed about being a woman but I am talking about hypocrisy.

I’m 21, I have a son who will be 3 years old on christmas eve. I don’t plan on ever getting married….there is no benefit to getting married, other than taking half of someones stuff when things go south….and that’s just not my idea of a good time.

not YOUR hypocrisy, hers.

I was 19 and single when I had my first child as well.

I don’t even care about the pregnant daughter, I’m worried about the 7 yr old and the 4 month old baby. Is she even breastfeeding?

I have absolutely no problem with her being a mom, or having a pregnant daughter. I do not care for her decision making during her last child while in labor. But that is her business. In the end, every single bloody woman has as much right to do any job as I do to take care of my kids while she does it. OR to support in what ever other ways WE decide.

For me it is a complete non-issue.

Would this question even be asked if she were a man with 5 children, one with special needs, and a grandchild on the way? Probably not. Whether you like her politics or not, in this country she has the right to work, run for office and even help lead the country. It’s no different than if she worked in a law firm, a hospital, or in a coal mine. Why shouldn’t a woman who is having the same sorts of family concerns that many Americans face run for office and represent a populace for which she has a commonality unique to other politicians? Would I choose to do it? No, but I sure won’t condemn any woman for working or for challenging set stereotypes and established limitations for women.

@mamasu: Great answer! This is exactly what I was saying.

You know the self righteous republicans would be ALL OVER Obama if it were his daughter. I can hear the “Baby daddy” jokes now!

Could you imagine if Chelsea Clinton got pregs at 17—all those sanctimonious pricks would be foaming at the mouth ready to stone her to death as an abomination. Hypocritical bastards for sure.