The scandals swirling around Palin, and the questions they raise regarding McCain’s poor judgment, are all over the front pages this morning, and I couldn’t be more delighted. There’s something eminently satisfyingly about the exposed hypocrisy of the Christian Right up in arms defending Palin’s unwed 17-year old daughter Bristol’s pregnancy.
Rick Scarborough, a founder of the conservative group “Vision America” was quoted in the New York Times, in defense of Palin’s daughter, saying “Families get in trouble all the time” – a euphimism for kids have sex and girls get pregnant all the time. Of course they do. Particularly when their children are not taught safe sex. How can the religious right insist on abstinence only campaigns in the same breath as they acknowledge that families get into trouble all the time?
One would think that, after recognizing this problem, and the failure of the abstinence only campaign to solve it, the religious conservatives would wake up and try a different tack, if for no other reason than for the well-being of their own children and families. One would think they would try to curb this problem by say, providing condoms and educating children on birth control. Clearly, telling their children not to have sex – with nothing more – is not working. Bristol’s pregnancy is just the latest proof of the failure of the abstinence only message. Kids have sex. It’s (an unfortunate) reality.
But, that’s not the whole of the scandal swirling around Bristol’s pregnancy. Apparently there are rumors that Bristol is not even pregnant now, that she was never pregnant, and that Palin’s supposed fifth child, Trig, who was just recently born with down syndrome is not Palin’s baby, but rather her daughter Bristol’s. People are saying no one new about Palin’s supposed pregnancy until a month before she allegedly gave birth b/c she was not showing, and for the 5 months before the birth, her daughter Bristol was yanked out of school allegedly b/c she had mono. Mono. For five months. Right before her mom has a baby after not looking pregnant for the preceding 9 months. Ok. Is it just me, or is the Republican Convention looking more and more like a desperate soap opera?
The facts relating the two pregnancies are not really a concern to me in and of themselves, however, they do raise serious questions about McCain’s judgment. Picking a vice presidential running mate is the first major decision McCain took as part of his bid for the presidency, and by many accounts, it has been a huge error in judgment. According to reports, McCain did almost no vetting of Palin prior to choosing her as his running mate. Alaskan officials are saying that – across the board – no one was asked about Palin or her background prior to Palin’s candidacy being announced.
Did McCain not understand that in picking Palin he was picking the person next in line to be leader of the (free) world? How can people even contemplate voting for McCain when he was willing to put this country into the hands of a person with almost no experiencewho is already surrounded by controversy? Did McCain not get the memo that picking the V.P. is serious business, that this country has enough problems at the moment, and that the next administration has to focus on fixing the country’s problems, not dealing with internal scandals?
And let’s just talk for a moment about what McCain’s choice of Palin says about his view of female voters. According to McCain aides – who have been quite open about the motivations behind picking Palin as the last minute choice - McCain picked Palin to capture “disaffected Hilary supporters,” the people who loved Hilary and wanted her elected over Obama. Hilary is a liberal, who supports choice, universal healthcare, equal rights, and a solution to the environmental crisis, who has many, many years of experience as Senator in addition to her 8 years in the White House as Bill’s first lady. Palin is an extreme religious conservative who is anti-choice and wants to drill in Alaska; her experience consists of being Mayor of a town not much larger than my highschool, and less than 2 yeas of experience governing a State with a population the size of Austin, Texas. In short, other than her sex, there are no similarities between Palin and Hilary.
So, why on earth did McCain think that disaffected Hilary supporters might vote for Palin? Does he really think that women are so stupid that they will vote for Palin just because she is a girl? Hate to break it McCain, but women are far more sophisticated than that. His ill-advised, unvetted, and last minute choice of Palin was an insult to female voters and an insult to the country. Nice work. I can’t wait to see what he does next. At this rate, the election is going to be a slam dunk for Democrats.
-BC
