Analysis: GOP contradicts self on Palin family
Published Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!ST. PAUL, Minn. -- People: Make up your minds.
For two days, the chorus from Republicans on TV news and in the halls of the convention has been resounding: Back off and let the Palin family be. "That's out of bounds," said Minnesota's Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty. "There's no need to be intrusive and pry into that."
Yet Wednesday found the following scenes unfolding:
• Sarah Palin's pregnant, unmarried 17-year-old daughter and probable future son-in-law stood in a nationally televised, politically packaged airport receiving line to meet and greet the Republican candidate for president.
• The extremely cute and bubbly Piper Palin, 7, made her debut on her mother's behalf, appearing in a video on John McCain's daughter's blog. "Vote for my mommy and John McCain," she said, giggling as Meghan McCain grinned.
• Bristol Palin and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Levi Johnston, joined the narrative together at the convention Wednesday night. They sat and held hands as they watched the Alaska governor deliver an acceptance speech that, in its opening minutes, focused heavily on her family and children.
Huh? The Republican message about the Palin offspring comes across as contradictory: Hey, media, leave those kids alone - so we can use them as we see fit.
If you doubt this scenario, consider this: On Wednesday morning, a teenage boy from Alaska stood in a receiving line on an airport tarmac, being glad-handed by the potential next president of the United States - because he got his girlfriend pregnant. TV cameras were lined up in advance. The mind boggles.
"Either the children are out of bounds, and you don't put them in the photo ops, or you don't complain when somebody wants to talk about them. You can't have it both ways," said John Matviko, a professor at West Liberty State College in West Virginia and editor of "The American President in Popular Culture."
"Right now, it looks like they're being used by the campaign more than the media are using them," he said.
Though candidates for national office, and those close to them, are under more intense scrutiny than ever before in the American information culture, there is more to this situation than simple celebrity chasing.
These are two young people trying to figure out what to do in a difficult personal situation. The global scrutiny of it is a teenager's worst nightmare, and under normal circumstances they would be allowed to find their way unbothered.
But one big obstacle stands in their way: Sarah Palin the candidate.
Yes, she has asked the media to "respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition." Yet Palin has packaged herself as a PTA member and "hockey mom" - culturally loaded terms calibrated to evoke appealing images of middle America, the middle class, exurbia and strong 21st century family values.
"Our family has the same ups and downs as any other, the same challenges and the same joys," she said, one of many general and specific references to her family in her speech.
Using one's relatives as accessories in the political arena can have its pitfalls, despite McCain's remark to ABC News on Wednesday that Palin has "got an incredible resume, including a beautiful family." Candidates open themselves to charges of hypocrisy if they demand the ability to boast but reject the attention that can ensue when the road gets rougher.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, however, takes issue with that conclusion. He says both positions are possible.
"There's a long-standing precedent of children of the candidates being in the public eye as members of families involved in public service," Bounds said Wednesday night. "There is also a long-standing precedent of candidates' children being left out of the hardball politics of campaigning for higher office."
Barack Obama said flatly that the Palin kids should be "off limits," but he has engaged in the same thing - though to a lesser extent.
In July, he and wife, Michelle, appeared on a four-part "Access Hollywood" interview with daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Obama later expressed regret about his decision to put them forward, saying, "I don't think it's healthy, and it's something that we'll be avoiding in the future."
Nevertheless, the Obama girls have made other appearances. They stepped on stage twice at the Democratic National Convention last week - once to talk to their father via video hookup after their mother's speech, and again after Obama accepted the nomination during the convention's climactic moment.
Let's remember one thing, though: Behind all the political machines and maneuverings, these contenders for the country's highest office are human beings and parents. And a parent is no more infallible than a candidate.
On her blog Monday, Meghan McCain expressed solidarity with the Palin kids, saying she understood the things they were grappling with. "It's a rough go being the son or daughter of a politician," she wrote. "You can't fully understand it unless you have lived it."
The road is bumpy for sure, and the media probably aren't helping. Sadly, though, the candidates themselves aren't doing much to make things better, either.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
It's a good point - you can't have it both ways - and that goes for both parties.
My thoughts exactly! I am glad I am not the only one that noticed.
I think that after all the b.s. and vicious attack on her family she was obligated to present them to a public which genuinely wanted to meet them as they really are, not as victimized by harpies of the night.
Basically I like Governor Palin as our governor, but I had the same thought tonight. You knock up your girlfriend and you get to meet a presidential candidate, not to mention the free trip to the lower 48. This is going to get interesting folks.
Sorta reminds you of a shotgun wedding......how the young man was hustled out of Alaska at the last minute and made to look like all was well in the relationship, and surely to be used as the campaign sees fit to further their cause. It surely will not be a pleasant time for either of the young couple, being propped up like they are. And you wonder what the young man must think since the world has now read all his rude and vulgar comments from his MySpace page, not to mention that he said he does not want to have any kids. I feel sorry for them.....especially the girl.
I think it's pretty harsh to judge a high school kid on their MySpace page. LOL. My MySpace page says I don't want kids, either, but if I have one in five years does that make me a bad person or something? I would HOPE a high school kid's page said they don't want kids! When I was in high school I wanted a lot of things that are different from what I have (or want) now. He's 18!
Thank goodness we didn't have MySpace when I was in high school - there is a lot to be said for writing in your diary - flammable! But MySpace is forever - thanks Internet! As for "rude and vulgar" - he's 18!
I feel sorry for people who think they can possibly know what is in the heart or mind of another person, or the relationship of two people they don't even know. "Made to look like all was well?" Maybe all is well.
Kinda presumptuous and rude.
So are you saying that she should "hide" her children? Get real, she has a right to have her family by her side without the public divulging into their personal life. As far as the young couple, give them a break, they aren't the only ones in this situation. This family has more backbone and moxy than most people I know.
She had a "by" in keeping her family out of the spotlight. But instead, they pranced them on stage. Crap, the boy who knocked her teenage daughter got to meet the potential President of the United States. Now Bristol is getting gifts from Celebrities.
A Cute photo-op is one thing... or little girls saying cute stuff. But, when your entire "family" platform relies on abstinence, and instead you see your own daughter being rewarded for NOT following through with it. What type of message does that give?
If Obama's daughter was 17, and got knocked up.. you think he's making her have an abortion? Probably not. I imagine he'd be along the same lines as Ms. Palin. It's about RIGHTS. Just like Alaskans want Guns and be left alone... it's the same thing, but with your own body.
Why was the "Baby's Daddy" flown out to the convention? Shouldn't he be in college, some training classes, or something to prepare himself to CARE and PROVIDE for his family.. if indeed he is to marry her? So what type of example does THAT show? Knock up a chick, and her family will take care of the baby?
They're being fake, and flip flopping more than Kerry.
Fake would be hiding the situation and pretending no one knows about it. I give them credit for being "honest" which is something we can't say about 99% of the rest of politicians.
Pathetic story line. Try harder in the future.
I know one thing for sure--there is no way, absolutely no way-had my mother been nominated for VP and had I been preggo at 17--that I'd be sitting in front of the entire world holding my boyfriend's hand like absolutely nothing was wrong with this picture. Girls get pregnant, one makes the best of it, you don't celebrate it. What a poor example to other teenagers and her own sisters. What were they thinking? Why is this boy not in high school as the senior he is supposed to be?
Easy Hybrid - those "L"s and "O"s will fall right off your keyboard! :)
I have no problem admitting I'm a liberal - I don't think it's a dirty word or anything. I'm certainly not "in full retreat" - I'm definitely concerned she strengthens McCain's ticket enough to give him a shot, but hopeful that Obama/Biden will win the election.
I've spent my fair share of time the past week defending Gov. Palin - and her family - on my hometown (NY)forum. That doesn't mean she shares my ideology or that I will vote for her - just that I think she should be criticized on real issues, not over things that don't matter.
But ok, I'm retreating! I'll jog over and jump into the Chena, ok? :)
Hey, you've got a 50-50 shot at being right!
60 days to go! I look forward to each and every one of them. This is the first exciting election in a long time. My biggest hope is that it inspires more Americans to register and to vote. I'd like to see a record turnout and some real participation.
As an introduction to the world stage, I thought it appropriate to have the Governor's family present. It was just as appropriate for Senator Obama's family to be highlighted during the Democratic Convention. What I heard from both sides is that using family members as a target is off limits. Relying on family for support is natural and both sides are doing that. Media focus on the families is going to be short lived. The policies and character of the nominees are what defines the candidates.
I just think that Palin should trying being a mother for once. She ran for the Wasilla Council when baby Bristol was only 1 year old. Now Bristol got pregnant in her junior year of high school and Palin is running for VP so that she can not be a mother to her other teenage daughter, her 7-yr-old, and her 4-month old Downs syndrome baby. Impressive family values. Too bad right-wing fundamentalist "Christians" only care about babies until they're born. What a crock! She's looking for the spotlight - the only thing she's ever cared about - and she'll use her beautiful "family" as much as it takes to get it.
CHICAGO (AP) - The daughter of Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a police officer early Saturday, police said.
Ashley Blazer Biden, 21, of Wilmington, Del., was with a group of people on a North Side street where several bars are located when someone else threw a bottle at a police officer, police said.
When offic More..ers went to arrest another person, Biden blocked the officer's path and made intimidating statements, Officer JoAnn Taylor said.
Biden was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a police officer. She was released from custody and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 20.
Sen. Biden's spokeswoman, Margaret Aitken, declined to comment Saturday, calling it a private, family matter.
Hmm... wondering why we did not hear about this. Now I know why someone was so quick to say that kids should be "off limits"!
I'm sorry, Christina, but your response that "he's 18" as an excuse for using vulgar and threatening language does not hold up in my book. I was not that way.....not one peer of mine was that way. Of course, those were different times, but I am still offended whenever I hear vulgar language on the streets or in restaurants or where ever else. I guess it is the sad state of todays youth.
You wouldn't have heard it but for this story. Unless you and Levi are MySpace friends...? :-)
Was there threatening language? That's not cool. But "vulgar" language? F-bombs are in the vernacular of today's youth. I used to get in trouble for saying something "sucked" - times change. You're allowed to be offended by his choice of words - that's fine. But you shouldn't be implying that you "know" the state of another person's heart or relationship, which is what you did when you said the kids were "pretending all was well". "Presumptuous and rude" stands as far as that goes, as does my statement about his "children" status on his MySpace page. I don't want kids now and my MySpace reflects that - in five years, if I have one, does that "say" something about me as a person?
Great video coverage at: www.impalin.com
The media sucks for bringing her children into it. If for no other reason I will vote for her so that when she wins it will make the media look just as worthless as they are. Any of the rest of you who think the media is doing the right thing to the kids are sick S.O.B.'s
The professionally "DISTANCED" (from and by Barack Hussein Obama) Chicago Mud slinging machine is working hard to denigrate Sarah Louise Palin and to keep the Palin children and private family concerns in the middle of the complicit Marxist Media spotlight.
The folks from outside who obviously have a Socialist/Marxist/Democrat Leadership agenda (yes i know it is redundant again ;-) ...LOL ) are enjoying casting stones at the Palin family. What gonad-less wonders!
Typical Barack Hussein Obama electioneering machinations.
No surprise there. LOL.
We know better since the transparency of the Barack Hussein Obama political organism is amusingly obvious.
Oh yes and that site of impale-crap etc.... Just another disinformation site for the same Barack Hussein Obama political organism.... hilarious!
She was the best thing about that convention, her speech was the absolute best thing. Hands down. That was probably the communication major in her. She is starting to make McCain look bad. Nevertheless she better not promise too much about breaking up that good ol boy network, where would the republican party be without them, or politics in general. There is something strange going on with the republicans though, they are acting like they haven't been in Washington for the last eight years (well more, whenever they stopped being Lincoln's party - maybe they can start again). This corruption they speak of, that's the other republican party and the democrats. That anyone believes in this process anymore is surprising. Democrat or republican, it doesn't seem to matter, we have short memories and can't always recognize that they ALL say what is convenient and our media does very little to deal with the absurdity. Its about winning at all cost. It is sad. More people should be sad. HybridAlaska you should be sad not happy. No matter who wins this election we are still getting 2 more politicians in office.
Hold up: The media DIDN"T bring the kids into it until SARAH LOUISE PALIN announced to the world that her 17-year-old unmarried high school daughter was knocked up by a Wasilla high school hockey player. Great family values, eh? Sarah Palin dragged her kids smack-dab into the middle of her political career; blame her, not the media, for her daughter's teen pregnancy and the spotlight it caused.
Sarah Louise Palin did a MASTERFUL JOB!
Congratulations to her and to Senator, President to be John Sydney McCain.
I searched on MySpace and found fourteen results for Levi Johnston. How do YOU know which one is the real profile?
http://searchservice.myspace.com/index.c...
As Slyarcticfox correctly pointed out...and think it is very revelatory of Palin's true nature...it was Sarah Palin who first brought her daughter's pregnancy into the limelight. Until that time I doubt if anyone outside Alaska even knew she had a daughter. But Palin, faced with the ridiculous speculation that Trig was not her baby, decided it was best to sacrifice her daughter's privacy in order to maintain her image untarnished. Now, Bristol and Levi are going to get married. Wonderful. Two teenagers being forced into a marriage for which neither is probably ready. Gee....I wonder what the chances of that being a happy, successful marriage are?
Underneath all those right-wing smiles and Christian sound-bites, Palin is one heartless piece of work. What a fitting successor to Cheney....
What is really interesting to note here is the power of visual pictures. The Palin family is a family that many of us could identify with. Their clothes looked like they had just gone down to JC Penneys and bought them. Obama went for the staging of the set. Outside venue, fireworks, a real show. It is very masterful on both sides. We essentially will vote for the person who they will persuade us to like. It is just like buying a product, we quit often pick it by package or because of an advertisement we have seen. However, I still don't hear on both parties side anything about how are they going to tackle the deficit. Neither party is discussing what our role should be as a country in the geo-political sense and what the consequences is of their world view. It is a visual feel good campaign by both parties that I am very disappointed in. I probably will vote third party of not at all.
This article is a crock of BS. Someone's opinion masquerading as news. It should be moved to the Opinion section, or better yet, to the garbage can. Why do you keep printing this trash from the AP?
Comments like dobieman and SlyArcticFox just show how far we have to go go yet. Sarah didn't throw her daughter in the limelight, she was forced to handle a situation the media took upon themselves to make an issue of. The accusations of Sarah's baby belonging to her daughter in the media was answered honestly and forthright; gee, should she have hid her daughter? A good mother supports her daughter. Obviously, neither of you are a mother...... come back when you have walked in a mother's shoes.
Akblugirl -- really like your comments. As for the rest of you -- I am prepared for whatever the outcome will be come Nov. 4. If McCain wins, fine, I will survive. He can't do worse than Bush, that's obvious. But based on what some of you write, and the hatred you have towards those of us who disagree with you, I just wonder, what will you do if your side loses? For 8 long years, we have lived with your president, your Congress (for 6 of the 8), your policies, your Karl Rove. Did we have a choice? In fact, over the past 40 years, only 12 were under a Democratic Pres. Yet we survived. So I am just curious: what if, by chance, our candidate wins? What then?
If that hockey player wanted to marry Bristol he would have married her a long time ago. Obviously the RNC has sweetened the pot to get him to play ball, which is a crappy reason to get married. He'd better insist on cash up front, because if McCain loses in November all deals are off.
I have walked in a mother's shoes and I WOULD NOT subject my children to this public pressure. Sarah Palin is about Sarah Palin and how to get the spotlight. She'll spin and twist herself and her family in any direction she has to to get the spotlight. Chances are nil that those teenagers will end up staying married; and what about that little Downs syndrome baby. Who's being a mom for him?
The Democrats media have loss Britany to write about so they have replaced her with Bristol. Paris Hilton come to the rescue and give these lost Democrats some dirt to talk about.
The Daily News Minus should get another gold star for re-printing an AP "news" story. God forbid should one of their own write something of merit, like how Sarah Palin has more strength and moral vicissitude than the rest of us. She knew what type of attacks she would endure and she showed the world that she is not afraid of the leftist media. She actually smiled in their faces and pretty much said, "I don't care what you write about me or my family, I'm going to Washington to serve my country and do a far better job than what you want me to do."
That shows me that gal has more going for her than 98 percent of the rest of the politicians out there. None of us know what has transpired between Bristol and Levi, but the Oba-media would want us to think otherwise. Speculation and conjecture is designed to throw the spotlight off Mrs. Palin because the left is shaking in their boots. They know that Obama can not win the general election without the middle of the country or "rural America's vote." Sarah Palin has that appeal along with John McCain's character, and it has been quite evident since his announcement of his VP pick. Why else has there been such vicious attacks? And those liberals that have commented in here know it just as well. What a shame when the left cries foul when the right clearly shows the ineptness of their ways ... all this haranguing about the Palin family will come back and bite them really hard in their collective asses.
Would it have been as big of a deal if McC/Palin had presented the boyfriend with the rest of the family as their daughter's fiance? And just stated that the two are expecting a child?
Had the campaign have done this it would have settled rumors about the fifth Palin child and calmed media interest in her daughter. Instead they used the pregnancy politically, to rebut bloggers who are just about at the bottom of anyone's interest list.
As far as being a mother, she's got support from loved ones all around. It's not like she's got to be the one who has to do the mothering alone. I would have thought those who are feminists would be completely ecstatic because one of their own has climbed up the ladder being a woman, mother and working at the next top spot!
What tops her down to earthness is.. she admitted there family isn't perfect. Considering the fact that the mainstream media has no other outlet to spew it's venom, they pounced on what they want everyone else to think is outright shocking news, when it isn't. If that is all they can round up.. they are digging themselves into a grave so deep, that they can't come back out. Soooo, let em. I'm confident the Palin family can withstand attacks from the media. It's better than the calm before the storm.
Salute to McCain/Palin! Two tough cookies that can handle torture and vicious attacks.
Bring em on I say, bring em on!!
@ noone:
"Their clothes looked like they had just gone down to JC Penneys and bought them."
hahahaha!
Girlfriend's suit was NOT purchased at Pennys, nor did it look like it was!
Funny you should say that because as I watched with my friends last night I commented on her expensive suit and heels, and her flawless make up. She looked gorgeous, but not like a Penny's girl.
I have to disagree! Loved the hair.
No dear, I'm from New York. I only live in Fairbanks.
ONAPA - Well said at 9:34pm. It's just common sense. If you are partisan, then the insults, defense, huffing and puffing start. There are always two sides to a story, good and bad about each candidate. It seems to me if people got honest and really understood the candidates, they wouldn't vote for McCain or Obama.
Governor Palin is in a no-win situation here. Disclose, and be thought of as "using" the information to get out of an easily disproved rumor (among other accusations)...OR don't disclose, and have the nation "discover" the situation at some later time and then be accused of hiding, lying, etc.
Either way, the young lady would have had attention focused on her, either way she would still be pregnant and either way, she would still be the child of a politician.
The truth as I see it here is that Sarah Palin couldn't have "won" in the eyes of many of you, no matter what choice she made or when she made it.
I think the name( Backseat Bristol) that is becomming pupular is a bit crude and uncalled for. I have heard it more than once today around town.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.