Bristol Palin Pregnant - Right Now

Joe.My.God.: I haven't said anything about the whisper campaign that Sarah Palin's 17 year-old daughter Bristol (above right) actually gave birth to her Downs Syndrome baby because it just seemed ridiculous and cruel. [LSB: Now scrubbed from this site as well, although the info presented didn't seem ridiculous and it spoke to Palin's ability to tell the truth - which is still an open question.] Even over at Daily Kos, many commenters demanded that posts on the subject be taken down. And yet the story continued to grow and entered the MSM.

Today the McCain campaign addressed the rumors by revealing that Bristol Palin could not have possibly had that baby four months ago, because she's five months pregnant right now. Oh my. So much for all that born again abstinence.

Bristol Palin, one of Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins' statement said. "Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," the Palins said. The Palins asked the news media to respect the young couple's privacy.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the statement concluded.

Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter's pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.

So the secret pregnancy story is dead but now we have a new one. What does this mean to the campaign? Sarah Palin is a good mother because her daughter won't kill her baby or Sarah Palin is a shitty mother because her underage unmarried daughter got knocked up? The Freepers have already made their judgment: "Obama wants to kill babies and raise taxes. Palin wants to kill taxes and raise babies."

UPDATE: Gov. Abstinence's own words come back to haunt her. In 2006 the Christianist/pro-life group Eagle Forum gave all candidates for governor a questionnaire which included the issues of abortion and sex education.

Question: Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

Sarah Palin: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.

Question: Will you support the right of parents to opt out their children from curricula, books, classes, or surveys, which parents consider privacy-invading or offensive to their religion or conscience?

Sarah Palin: Yes. Parents should have the ultimate control over what their children are taught.

Among her other answers, Palin pledged that same sex partners of state employees would not get health benefits and that she would oppose any expansion of hate crimes laws. Oh, and she also promised to she would "fight" to keep "under God" in the Pledge Of Allegiance.

UPDATE II: Obama says "leave the kid alone."

I have heard some of the news on this and so let me be as clear as possible. I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics, it has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18. And how family deals with issues and teenage children that shouldn't be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that is off limits.

John Aravosis (DC), AmericaBlog.com: So much for family privacy. From the LA Times blog:

Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of the pregnant 17-year-old Bristol Palin, plans to join the family at the Republican Party's nomination here of mom and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for vice president....

So much for family privacy: Imagine the attention this couple will confront in the media-filled Xcel Energy Center where the hurricane-truncated convention is playing out....

The Palin family already has captured the attention of this hall, after Sarah Palin and husband Todd announced Monday that their daughter planned to have the baby and marry the father. They also asked the media to respect the young couple's privacy.

Good luck with that this week, as the small-town hockey player makes his national TV debut.

The McCain campaign just spent the entire day yelling at everyone to leave these kids alone. Now they're going to put them on stage before millions of Americans. Is John McCain in charge any more? Is anyone?

Joe Sudbay (DC), AmericaBlog.com: Palin personally cut funding that gave unwed mothers a place to live. Yes, Palin did it herself. The Washington Post has a photo of the budget with her handwriting on it. She's such a compassionate, right wing theocrat:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.

According to Passage House's web site, its purpose is to provide "young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives" and help teen moms "become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families."

Sarah Palin apparently wants those unwed mothers out on the street. I guess Bristol is lucky that Levi is going to marry her. Alaska's a tough, cold place for young, single moms.