Palin in March, “wearing her pregnancy suit”
You know, my instinct is to not even address this crazy stuff, to just ignore it. But it’s “out there,” buzzing, so, I may as well jump in.
The doyens of uterine politics have decided that what matters about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is not her politics, not her policies, but her periods.
Like some old, suspicious grandmother from the middle part of the twentieth-century, Alan Colmes counted back on his fingers and decided that - not that it’s anyone’s business - but maybe, just maybe Gov. Palin was pregnant when she got married!.
Oh, I know…you’ve got the vapors, don’t you? Apparently Colmes had them too. Sales of smelling salts just went sky-high!
The party that has claimed that pre-marital sex is groovy and doesn’t matter, and - quite rightly - that one’s worth should not be judged by one’s sex life, is apparently all-of-a-doo-dah because of some scintillating rumors, good for whispering behind the hands, like a bunch of puritanical washerwomen. Puritans indeed. When they finished fainting, they apparently decided to start sewing the scarlet A, for Mrs. Palin. A-for-ADULTERER (cackle, cackle!)
No one should ever be judged, except Christians. If they have sex and don’t abort, they’re fair for ridicule, smears and sport. And a woman’s choice should always be respected; unless she’s the wrong sort of woman, the kind with an R after her name.
Apparently, since the left can’t really go after Palin on her experience (Obama has equal or less, and he’s running for the TOP job, not the bottom) or her record, which seems very appealing to a reform-minded electorate, the left has settled on the uterine comings-and-goings of not just Sarah Palin but of one of her “witchy-named” daughters, too.
Yes, the washerwomen are whispering and what they’re whispering is imaginative: According to them, Little Trig, (aka “that seriously disabled” Down Syndrome Baby that should have been aborted) whom Palin seems to have taken to the office and breastfed is not Palin’s son but her grandson. One of her daughters, you see, is the actual mother, and oh yes…some of these whisperers even suggest that the baby has an extra chromosome because of…wait for it…incest.
Nice, eh? This is why good people do not go into politics, because this is what they’re subjected to. Apparently, in pictures last winter, layered in clothing (she lives in Alaska) Palin doesn’t look pregnant enough for some people.
My best friend in the world wore a running suit to her baby shower and although she was 7 months along, she did not look pregnant at all. I hated her very much.
Anyhow, Andrew Sullivan seems to have decided to lead the charge on this one; he is calling for medical records to be released, ob-gyns to be interviewed, and he feels justified in this intrusion because “this would be a private matter if the McCain-Palin campaign hadn’t made the baby a key campaign point.”
Hmmmm…I thought the “key campaign point” was that Gov. Palin was a kick-ass reformer who knows energy and oil backward-and-forward, and that as regards little Trig, the material point - not the campaign point - is that a baby, known in advance to have an extra chromosome, was allowed to live. That is the fact that is so heartening to so many, but I’ll play along…
Let’s suppose it’s true. Not the incest part, that is so icky-poo disgusting and utterly groundless - saying much more about those who suggested it, than about anything else - that we’ll just kick it to the curb. But let’s pretend it’s true, that the Palin’s daughter, succumbing to the same temptation so many teenagers succumb to, found herself pregnant.
She goes to her parents. They say “we’ll deal with this as a family.” Sometime during the pregnancy, because we know Palin discussed it before Trig’s birth, the baby was found to be a male with Down Syndrome.
(Let’s forget for a moment that teenage mothers are rarely given amniocentesis tests, but mothers over 30 almost always undergo the testing. And let’s also forget that for a mother over age 42, the chances of Downs Syndrome are 1 in 20. We’re just pretending, after all.)
So now, the Palins are facing the possibility a teenage daughter perhaps giving birth to a baby who will require some mature parenting. Supposedly, they take the daughter out of sight and invest in a pregnancy suit for Grandma Sarah.
Then they let the baby live, and they love it. They announce the birth with joy, and claim the baby for their own, so their daughter - the public daughter of a public figure - will be allowed her privacy, and a chance to get on with her life.
This makes the Palins look bad…how, exactly?
IF it’s all true, then the Palins handled their private business their private way, kept a family matter in the family, and shielded a daughter. Sullivan’s “key campaign point” of a commonly-aborted baby with an extra chromosome being allowed to live, and being parented by Gov. Palin and her husband is still valid, is it not?
A “hating” commenter on another post says this information - if it’s true - will “shatter” us. Really? I have just supposed the whole thing true, and I don’t feel shattered. If the wild story is true, then I feel admiration.
As my center-left L’il Bro Thom wrote:
“I think that if it turns out the baby is indeed her granddaughter, she might be perceived as doing something honorable, for the child and for her daughter.
Seedubya writes:
But wait–let’s assume for a second that this goofy idea is true. Let’s say for a second that Governor Palin decided to adopt her daughter’s unplanned special-needs child and present him to the world as her own…That would make her kind of a saint, wouldn’t it?
I hate to give this absurd nonsense any more space. This “story” still only boils down to a baby that is - in our society - often looked at as “disposable,” being loved and welcomed by a family (see these adorable pictures of Trig being held by various siblings and his mom, Sarah).
And assuming it is true, so what? Then it’s about parents helping one of their children out of a rough patch, with discretion and privacy. Something that both the press, and the Democrats, should more than understand. Remember “hands off Chelsea?”
I have a question. Andrew Sullivan writes here that all of these whisperings and wonderings are coming to him from “mainstream media sources.”
Could it be, perhaps…just perhaps…I mean…let’s pretend…that the press decided that they did not completely trust this wild rumor. Possibly these “mainstream media sources” - unsure that this story will “shatter” the GOP, and realizing that they will come off looking pretty dreadful if the story proves false (and a bit spiteful no matter what) - are carefully spooning it all out to a blog - because they don’t much respect blogs - and hoping it turns to poison?
Frankly, seeing this “internet rumor” hit the UK papers makes me think that bloggers hyping nonsense do not do the credibility of the medium, or the bloggers in general, any favor. These terrified uber-haters are just making themselves look foolish, and further energizing the right by creating more sympathy for Palin.
Todd Palin holding his son, Trig (Source)
Don Surber has another picture. Although true-believer whackjobs will never accept any evidence. How sad that it has come to this. As Betsy Newmark wrote, I hope Palin - who is, after all, hormonal and nursing - can handle everything that that will be thrown at her. If she just stays calm, she should be okay.
Ann Althouse says: stop prying into other people’s vaginas. Yeah. So much for “sisterhood.”
Maxed Out Mama: This stuff really, really convinces women that Democrats are for women I don’t get it, either. They’re not the Democrats I knew.
Ace has more preg-suit pictures and more unhinged theories
The Maternal Optimist: Spots a working mother who shops at Costco
Think they can’t get any more petty? Think again! The woman goes to an emergency area, and they’re so small, all they can do is criticize her freaking EARRINGS.
Also: some sanity from Lee Stranahan
UPDATE: Sullivan is grudgingly walking it back, apparently until further notice. He links to a Kos diarist sounding the charge to go back to the first tactic: criticize her labor situation. But I’m bored with that one; covered it here. Happy Labor Day!
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