Fusing Politics and Motherhood in New Way

Sarah Palin’s baby shower included a surprise guest: her own baby. He had arrived in the world a month early, so on a sunny May day, Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, rocked her newborn as her closest friends, sisters, even her obstetrician presented her with a potluck meal, presents and blue-and-white cake.

Most had learned that Ms. Palin was pregnant only a few weeks before. Struggling to accept that her child would be born with Down syndrome and fearful of public criticism of a governor’s pregnancy, Ms. Palin had concealed the news that she was expecting even from her parents and children until her third trimester.

But as the governor introduced her son that day, according to a friend, Kristan Cole, she said she had come to regard him as a blessing from God. “Who of us in this room has the perfect child?” said Ms. Palin, who declined to be interviewed for this article.

Since that day, Trig Paxson Van Palin, still only 143 days old, has had an unexpected effect on his mother’s political fortunes. Before her son was born, Ms. Palin went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that his arrival would not compromise her work. She hid the pregnancy. She traveled to Texas a month before her due date to give an important speech, delivering it even though her amniotic fluid was leaking. Three days after giving birth, she returned to work.

I thought it quite incendiary myself.

Obama’s running for President and not Trig!
Amazing, this will be good for a few more points with the transparent sneering.

There hasn’t been any in depth discussion of someone like B.Hussein Obama’s birth.
I would love to hear the story of that day.

Will you also tell it to me Jodi??

I don't see why people are making such a fuss of all this. My son had a two-vessel umbilical cord and the doctors predicted lots of doom and gloom for him. Thankfully, their predictions were wrong, but it was touch and go throughout my pregnancy.

I gave birth to my 3rd child on a Monday and was back at the office on Friday. I had our 25th anniversary celebration as an organization coming up five days later, no support staff, and had spent 6 months putting the event together. You knuckle down and get the job done.

Mothers, particularly stay at home mothers, do the same thing every day. Sick? Too bad, the kids have got to get off to school. Ill? Suck it up, there's homework and laundry and dinners and activities. Tired? Sleep when you can. Those who presume that stay-at-home mothers don't work are grossly uninformed!

Millions of Americans like and understand Sarah Palin because she is ONE OF THEM. As much as a media wants to imply that Conservatives prefer women to be sheltered away, the reality is that we admire strong women. America was not settled by faint hearted whiners; it was settled by iron-backed, gun weilding women who plowed the fields alongside of their husbands.

Millions of women like and understand Sarah Palin because she is ONE OF US. Juggling work, family, and life, while staying true to your faith.

Sarah recognizes that the world is a mess and is working hard to clean up as much of it as she can. As a fellow Mom, I recognize that this is an act of love for her children, more than anything. She wants them to have a better world, as I want mine to have a better world.

And this will never, ever be understood by those who aren't able or willing to knuckle down and get the job done.

Plus, McCain's playing hardball with the access. Trash Palin unfairly and he won't give your news outlet the time of day. Sarah Palin is the most popular, most talked about woman in years. She could be a major force in American politics for many years. She can kill a moose with her bare hands. It wouldn't hurt to be a little civil.

Plus, for the past few years, the MSM has gotten their marching orders direct from the DNC. But the DNC is in complete disarray. They have no idea what their message should be. It would be like trying to get orders from Hitler's bunker in the final days. You're better off just winging it.

I agree. I teach in a community college in a military town, so there are lots of pregnant students. They manage to come to class, make good grades, have their babies, and return to class soon after birth to finish the course.

I have a funny story about that from this past April. One of my anatomy students was pregnant and had it all planned that she would go home to Ohio, have the baby who would come right on time, and return to class after the Spring Break. Of course, he didn't cooperate by arriving on time, but that is another story. We were having an exam and Rachael came up to my desk - I thought to ask a question. Instead, she said,"Mrs. Morton, I am not feeling too well and I need to go get some water." Before I could answer, I realize that she is beginning to sink to the floor!

I am a Medical Technologist, but, when it comes to situations like this, I tend to forget everything I know about first aid. I grabbed her to try to keep her from falling, but we both kind of slumped to the floor. Thank goodness, my students reacted better than I did. One put her head in her lap, another ran for some water, and another put her legs up and started fanning her. I called security just as we are supposed to do and mentioned that a pregnant student had fainted.

Before they could even get there, she had come around and was feeling better. When the security chief and another male security guard got to my classroom, she was already insisting that she was fine and that she just wanted to finish her test (which she did). The funny part of the story is that the first thing chief said when he came in was, "How far along is she?" I will NEVER forget the look on his face when we all said, "Nine months." He said, "Nine months?" and I know he thought for a moment that he was either going to have to help deliver a baby or get her to the hospital ASAP! As I mentioned already, her son ended up being born late and she finished the test. I still tease the chief about how he almost had to deliver a baby!

The baby is now five months old and Rachael is a full time student in a very demanding program and is doing well. She never misses class and is never late. I know that this is not the same as being a Governor or Vice-President, but women cope with having babies and going on with their lives every day of the week! I am a good case in point. I was seven and one half months pregnant with twins, and, had I not been off the day they arrived 6 weeks early, I would have been reading cultures in the microbiology department of a hospital laboratory 35 miles away from my own doctor.

Hmmm, neither hugh nor series.

I think that what we are seeing here is another example of the media bubble. They — collectively — believe that the (15 point?) McCain/Palin bounce was completely due to the sympathy factor, so they are going all soft-focus on us to lull us back to sleep.

Apparently, they forgot that we actually LOVE Sarah, and not just because they attacked. They will only stay soft-focus until it is obvious that those numbers aren’t going down, but rather up. And then the attacks will begin anew.

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