Palin Pregnancy

There has been total media overload this week surrounding John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. This should be expected, as she is new to national politics and quite unknown. Of course, one of the biggest revelations has been the pregnancy of Palin's 17 year old daughter. Barack Obama responded to a reporter's question after the news broke on Labor Day.

At a brief press availability in Monroe, Mich., ABC News asked Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., if he had any response to Gov. Sarah Palin's statement that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant.

"Let me be a clear as possible: I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits," Obama said, "and people's children are especially off limits.

"This shouldn't be part of our politics," he continued, "It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor, or her potential performance as a vice president.

"And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories," he said. "You know my mother had me when she was 18, and how a family deals with issues and, you know, teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that's off limits."

I have to say that I agree with Obama's statement, but at the same time, it is difficult not to be interested in the story. I will not condemn Palin's daughter, as there were several unplanned pregnancies in my family, and I must say that they were all blessings, as a couple of them lead to me being born. Pregnancy out of wedlock is not the huge issue that the religious and conservative right has made it out to be in the past, and it is a welcome change to see them accept Palin's daughter. I just wonder if they would have been so accepting if Chelsea Clinton or one of Gore's daughters had become pregnant as a teenager.

Actually, on September 1, Fox "News" host Sean Hannity said, in reference to Internet rumors about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter, "[T]hey tried to make the attack that she has a young daughter, pregnant and engaged. Is that fair that they would attack that? I mean, I don't remember Chelsea Clinton being attacked. I don't remember Al Gore's children being attacked. I thought there was a general rule that children of candidates ought to be left alone." Well, Hannity has a habit of making false statements, and this is just another example. Republicans did attack Chelsea Clinton, including John McCain and Rush Limbaugh.

McCain reportedly told a "joke" about Chelsea Clinton in 1998, saying, "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." She was 17 or 18 at the time.

On his TV show, early in the Clinton administration, Limbaugh reportedly put up a picture of Socks, the White House cat, and asked, 'Did you know there's a White House dog?' Then he put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton, who was 13 years old at the time.

To avoid lowering myself to that level, I am going to try to respect Obama's request and not discuss Palin's pregnant daughter. But, if I am pushed by the hypocrisy of the Republican party and their media arms, I might have to break this promise. Still, I will only try to discuss those items and not her or her boyfriend.