Hidden amongst the wall-to-wall Gustav coverage is the disappointing news that 17 year old Bristol Palin is 5mos pregnant. I've been reading the comments from liberals on various websites this morning and most are difficult to argue with. Here's a smattering...-Great, McCain picked Lynn Spears to be VP.
-Hey neo-cons, how's that abstinence-only and no-access-to-condoms-for-teens working out for ya?
-The hypocrisy of conservatives knows no bounds.
-And you conservatives are questioning Obama's judgement? What about McCain's judgement for picking for VP, a woman with a knocked-up teen?
I hate to admit it but, those are good points all. This is the problem when you set yourself up as the party of Christian morals, family values, and unquestioned ethics. Nobody can live up to those standards and when one of you fails, all you do is invite the hypocrisy charge. Liberals don't have the same problem with hypocrisy because they are proudly immoral to start with.
The democrats, and late night talk-show hosts, will make tons of hay off of this. And it might cost the GOP some values voters. I hope it's not the factor that costs McCain the election. So far, Obama has taken the high road, but you can bet all the rest of the liberals won't.
UPDATE: So I've been watching the reaction to this news from conservative commentators on FOX and other stations all day, and the consensus seems to be that, how the family handles news like this is far more telling about the morality of the family than the mistake by the daughter itself. And I have to agree with that. Teens will always do stupid things to screw up their lives and it has nothing to do with hypocrisy or morality or rearing. Bristol Palin is doing all the right things to deal with her mistake such as not aborting the baby and getting married to the father. As parents and as a society, what more can we ask? And the democrats can't say too much since Obama's mother was 17 when she conceived him.
I'd like to hear your thoughts in the comments thread.
4 comments:
This is going to hurt. Let's just hope there aren't any more surprises. Although I have to believe McCain knew about this when he picked SP. And, if so, McCain is either confident or stupid. Time will tell.
As you said, the cat is out of the bag now. How they (the family and the campaign)deal with this issue is critical.
How about we ask all of the liberals who are bashing the Palin family if they had unprotected sex before they were married? I mean, that is really all it boils down to. And I would bet that most of them have, so really they are being hypocritical for bashing her. People make mistakes, and the best way to judge people is to see how they handle the mistakes, which so far it seems that Bristol is handling it well. To be quite honest, I don't see this being an issue.
I don't think it will matter much - even though the dems will try to make it matter. A lot of her appeal is how real she is - how real her family is. It happens. It's a reality.
If they are uncompromising in their beliefs, I don't think it's hypocritical. I'm sure the Palins still believe teens should abstain and schools shouldn't be in the business of handing out condoms.
They still believe sex before marriage is a sin. They aren't claiming their daughter didn't sin or that it wasn't wrong.
Usually only the unscrupulous are so eager to point the hypocrisy finger at anyone who has standards.
Conservative Christians don't claim to be infallible. We make mistakes, but recognize it as such. When we fail to do that, then, and only, then can they legitimately scream hypocrisy.
Dick Cheney's daughter didn't keep him from being elected VP.
(No, I wasn't pregnant when I got married :)
The Palin family has managed to turn a potential disaster into a positive. The child has been pregnant. One must assume that as there were ongoing discussions between McCain and Palin, this came out, and it was decided to handle it as was done. Mrs. Palin, who by the way is really attractive, and her family espouse family values and offer a very stringent pro-life viewpoint. It would have been political Hari-Kari for Bristol to have aborted this child. The kid did exactly as she was taught to do, learn from and live with your mistakes. She will get married and become a mom. Is she the 1st 17 year old girl to have a child? Is she the first unmarried female to give birth? The answer to both questions is no.
Palin is an excellent running mate for McCain, and seemingly, so far, an excellent role model for us all. When disaster struck, she calmly handled it with diplomacy and grace. I'm down with the Palin's.
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