Palin: Daughter Pregnant! (Again?)

From Politico.com:

Besieged by blog rumors about her 17-year-old daughter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — named Friday as running mate of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — released a statement Monday saying her daughter is pregnant and plans to marry the father.

The governor and her husband, Todd, said their daughter, Bristol, plans to keep the baby.

"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," the Palins said in the statement. "As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."

Liberal bloggers have speculated extensively about the possibility that Palin's fifth child, born this spring, was actually her daughter's.

Hmmmm ... this doesn't sound good and doesn't exactly kill that rumor. At. All. Now people will be even more determined.

This is very much starting to turn into an Tom Eagleton situation, but let's see what happens. There's a hurricane going on in the gulf coast so this isn't going to get the kind of attention it normally would in the 24-hour news cycle.

A politician's kids should not be part of the debate, but with Gov. Sarah Palin using the culture wars and her own family values as her conservative credentials, the private and personal becomes the public and judgmental pretty fast. And left is BRUTAL on family values candidates who have a house out of order, often calling them hypocrites.

I feel sorry for 17-year-old Bristol Palin. Her mom really should have thought about what this campaign, what the press would do to her when there is this juicy of a rumor floating about the internet that her mother's youngest is really her baby. And saying she's pregnant now doesn't really kill the rumor, but make people even more curious. It's just messed up because as much as I don't want McCain/Palin to win, the daughter's exploits should be separate from her mother's campaign ... even if the mother is using her family as evidence of her piousness and judgment.

If anything, this makes John McCain look very reckless in his VP pick. (The New York Post claims McCain knew about the pregnancy before he picked her.) Most politicians wouldn't have risked this due to the unknown fall-out. I still think Palin was not vetted and McCain went with his gut.

His dangerous, Crazy gut. And that's why the prospect of him in the White House frightens me. If he can be this out-of-control when picking a veep I'm scared to see how he's going to deal with Vlad the Putin.