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DEL.ICIO.USSpotlight turns to teen father-to-be
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The experts who stage political conventions are far smarter than I am about how to handle stories that are likely to result in a media frenzy. But dang if I’d have brought the father of Bristol Palin’s baby to the GOP convention on one of the three most important days in Gov. Sarah Palin’s campaign life.
The third of those important days is Oct. 2 when the vice presidential debate is held at Washington University in St. Louis. The first was her introduction last Friday.
Governor Palin was spectacular on the day she was introduced to the nation as John McCain’s vice presidential nomination. She was confident and comfortable before what may have been the largest audience she had ever addressed. She easily passed the first major test.
The second comes Wednesday night when she addresses delegates and, more importantly, the nation. When her name was mentioned Tuesday night, delegates roared their approval. They share the sentiment expressed by former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee — “what a breath of fresh air Gov. Sarah Palin is” — and they’re ready to showcase her to the rest of the country.
They want the nation to see her as Thompson does: “She is a courageous, successful reformer who is not afraid to take on the establishment” and is, furthermore, a small town woman with small-town values.
That’s the reception she’d get, too. The nation that’s not jaded or devoted to the opposition will find her to be the breath of fresh air Thompson describes.
Wednesday is her day to shine.
She is a bold selection who represented some risk for McCain and the GOP. A New York Times story on Tuesday agonized about whether the woman can do it all, something incidentally I’ve never read about a man offered the vice presidency, no matter his family situation.
The point, really, is that the first few days of media attention is intense. She’ll do fine, I believe, based on her performance to date. But the young man?
Having him here on her day is daring. He and the pregnant daughter become the dominant story of the day leading up to Governor Palin’s convention moment. It may make sense to the experts to get it all out of the way up-front. But to this PR amateur, it looks like a bad call.
Comments
By MoveOn Talking Points Desk
September 3, 2008 8:09 AM | Link to this
From: MoveOn.org To: Democratic National Party, Obama Campaign Headquarters, Mainstream Media Subject: Attack Focus Next Week
You’ll need to focus your attack next week on the Palin’s family dog next week. Find out the following:
If possible, release some fleas near the Palin home. A manufactured story is always welcomed!
By the way, MAKE SURE YOUR REPORTERS DO NOT ASK PRESIDENT OBAMA ANY TOUGH QUESTIONS!!! This especially means you ABC! I expect you to remind George Stephanopoulos we’ll have his head if he tries that trick again!
By Peadawg
September 3, 2008 8:11 AM | Link to this
I do agree w/ Obama on ONE thing: Family should be off limits.
By tdh
September 3, 2008 8:13 AM | Link to this
the father of her baby.let us see if someone on fox news calls him her baby’s daddy.
By bernie
September 3, 2008 8:14 AM | Link to this
Oh good, nopw the future son-in-law; yet another prop to further the political ambitions of Ms. Palin. As if using her daughter in this way wasn’t bad enough. Typical cynical Republican strategy; energize the base by injecting a contentious social issue into the campaign to create a wedge issue. What mother would do this to her daughter; it’s sick! I hope he daughter never forgives her…
By My3Kids
September 3, 2008 8:16 AM | Link to this
It maybe a bad call, however I give the boy kudos. According to the story on the AJC, Bristol and the boy had already planned on getting married before she discovered she was pregnant. He is apart of Gov. Palin’s family now. The family apparently wants him there and he wants to be there. He is probably there to support his new extended family. This is a huge event, who wouldn’t want to be there to give their support and encouragement.
By bernie
September 3, 2008 8:16 AM | Link to this
Oh good, now the future son-in-law; yet another prop to further the political ambitions of Ms. Palin. As if using her daughter in this way wasn’t bad enough. Typical cynical Republican strategy; energize the base by injecting a contentious social issue into the campaign to create a wedge issue. What mother would do this to her daughter; it’s sick! I hope he daughter never forgives her…
By Fred Flintstone
September 3, 2008 8:19 AM | Link to this
Mayor Palin gathered up $27 million in subsidies from Washington, $15 million of it for a railroad from her town to the ski resort hometown of Senator Ted Stevens, now under indictment for failing to report gifts.
The Republicans are presenting Ms. Palin as a crusader against Mr. Stevens’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” The record says otherwise; she initially supported Mr. Stevens’s boondoggle, diverting the money to other projects when the bridge became a political disaster.
In her speech to the Wasilla Assembly of God in June, Ms. Palin said it was “God’s will” that the federal government contribute to a $30 billion gas pipeline she wants built in Alaska.
By haha
September 3, 2008 8:19 AM | Link to this
His title will be the first “Baby Daddy” LOL!
By Shannon
September 3, 2008 8:23 AM | Link to this
Ask yourself this question, “how many 17 or 18 yr olds are ready to get married? Why are they forcing these children to get married? Just for the sake of an election you are willing to force two teens into something that they are not ready for to only end in divorce a few years later! Please give me a break! This happens everyday, unfortunately she like a lot of other teens made a mistake but are we sure marriage is the answer? Lets be real, you are supposed to be married prior to getting pregnant so what is getting married after you are 5 months pregnant going to prove? I wish the media would just let this story die and go away and let this family deal with their problems privately so we can all get back to our own family issues!
By Peadawg
September 3, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this
haha @ 8:19
he isn’t a baby daddy if they’re getting married soon and she KNOWS who the father is. baby daddy is for the girl who has 6 kids w/ 6 different dads.
By Jan
September 3, 2008 8:25 AM | Link to this
Bernie
I completely agree! Rather than choose a jaded, old white man - the cynical Republicans looked long and hard for a candidate with a fine example of a contentious social issue built in to their family.
By dave
September 3, 2008 8:29 AM | Link to this
The events of the last few days have convinced me that there is nothing too low for the media and the liberals. I have no hesitation now, to donate to the “swift boating” Oboma, his wife or anyone assoicated with these people.
By threedeep
September 3, 2008 8:32 AM | Link to this
hypocrites
By CONSERVATIVE VOTER
September 3, 2008 8:34 AM | Link to this
LEVI JOHNSON AKA THE “BABY DADDY” IS A HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT.
He hasn’t completed high school. Jim Wooten has written articles demonizing poor women who decide to have children at an early age. I am still waiting for your article. They are forcing these children to get married.
Is this suppose to be conservative values? This is one independent that will not vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.
I will not parade any women especially my UNWED daughter for sympathy votes.
One more opportunity for major league HYPOCRISY. If Palin, the GOP and White House are genuine in chastizing the media for coverage of a deeply personal, family matter, why will Palin bring the unwed father into the spotlight at the Republican National Convention. Isn’t that polticizing it and using it for publicity? Why would you celebrate the bad choices and consequences of a naive UNMARRIED teenage couple on national television, if you wanted them out of the spotlight?
By Copyleft
September 3, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this
I love how the kid openly admits to being a redneck.
Only among the desperate, dwindling fragment of Bushdrones would that ever be considered a “positive.”
Meanwhile, the rest of America is ready for an INTELLIGENT administration… and President Obama is providing it.
By Goldie
September 3, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this
It’s great to see just how much the extremists of the Repug Party don’t want McBush setting the tone for their “platform”, which clearly states that no exceptions will be allowed for a woman’s choice to not be an incubator. No exception for rape, incest or the health of the mother… which is contrary to what their guy McBush believes. McBush is just too compassionate for the extremists to bear.
By jm
September 3, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this
I wonder why Mr. Wooten does not mention that “the establishment” Gov. Palin took on was the state GOP.
By mel
September 3, 2008 8:40 AM | Link to this
No, a babydaddy is the father of your child if you aren’t married, which they are not.
But you keep moving those goal-posts when it suits you…
I can’t wait to see the babymama and babydaddy onstage together. How American!
I read that Palin’s husband is part of a group that wants Alaska to secede from the US. I think we need to have that patriotism discussion again…
By Goldie
September 3, 2008 8:41 AM | Link to this
Fred @ 8:19, and Palin also calls the American occupation of Iraq “a task from God”… please, God help us all— save us from the American Taliban!
By Dutchman
September 3, 2008 8:44 AM | Link to this
It does seem strange. The media seems stuck on what Sarah Palin’s family has done and not on how little BHO has done.
Let’s see - three years in the Senate and half that time running for President - now that is experience.
Seems the lamer the attacks by the lefties, the more I will vote for McCain. Of course I was leaning that way anyway, I’ll trust a man or woman that has worn the uniform of our military over someone out of the Chicago political machine.
By yankee
September 3, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this
Anything to keep the focus off McSame.
By mscutie78
September 3, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this
Way to go Gov. Palin - drag the baby’s dad into the mix to further your own agenda and career - what a GREAT example you are for our nation!
By ckt
September 3, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this
Her introduction was spectacular??? Her introduction, Jim, was laced with bald-faced lies. Not bad opinions, but factual lies. Palin DID NOT stand against the bridge for nowhere, but actually campaigned for it, until the story became known. She then tried to drive the earmarked money into other areas of the state. Palin did not fight earmarks, as she stated, but rather, working with a group of lobbyists, brought $27 million in earmarks to the small town of Wasilla.
Yup, Jim, she sounds like a breath of fresh air. Straight from the corrupt, smelly, lobbyist controlled GOP that we’re used to. McCain is no down 6 to 8 points for a reason. He’s more of the same, and regardless of the lies perpetrated by the GOP and its kool-aid drinkers like you, people are figuring it out.
By dang y'all
September 3, 2008 8:47 AM | Link to this
The Republican convention has gone ghetto, y’all…a 44-year-old grandmother as vice prez?
By NotUnderstanding
September 3, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this
A lady raises a family and then runs a state as Governor and all you liberals get your daipers in a wad? Let me see…first Black Sec of Defense; Colin Powell under Bush; first Black Sec of State Colin Powell again. First woman VP; Republicans. You liberals have been had by the Democrats! But you just keep on smiling. Now just who are the Uncle Tom’s???
By msutie78
September 3, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this
Way to go Gov. Palin - drag the baby’s dad into the mix to further your own agenda and career - what a GREAT example you are for our nation!
By msutie78
September 3, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this
Way to go Gov. Palin - drag the baby’s dad into the mix to further your own agenda and career - what a GREAT example you are for our nation!
By Fred Flintstone
September 3, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this
Country First?
If this was one of Obama’s daughters turning up pregnant I wonder how the “forgiving” Mr Wooten and his “Common Sense Conservatives” would retell the story?
Palin being one step from the presidency is a cruel joke on the United States that would have tragic results on the international stage.
McCain made a poor decision
Judgement to lead?
By sharon
September 3, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this
My3kids if you believe that then I have a bridge to sell you. Peadawg newsflash: you are still a baby mama even if you know who the daddy is. Don’t try to glamorize the situation.
By Terry
September 3, 2008 8:50 AM | Link to this
What I find interesting is the immediate acceptance of this matter by the political and religious right. If you are in this group it is no big deal, but if you are not, look out, you will be judged harshly by this group. Sure forgive this act, but the forgiveness appears to be selective based on politics not on religion, as we have seen many times in the past.
Furthermore, selecting this person as a running mate says a lot about the lack of judgment of John McSame. And all those that say “Great choice”, are simply the same sheep who are and have been afraid to say “The emperor wears no clothes”.
By bearcasey
September 3, 2008 8:50 AM | Link to this
All this proves is that teen daughters of conservative politicians have sex (stupidly) just like everyone else.
What’s the Vegas “over-under” line on how long Bristol’s marriage will last? I want to get my bet in.
I would never have made these comments if the Republican hypocritical evangelicals weren’t always trying to tell the rest of us how to live.
I wonder what the “big invisible guy in the sky” thinks? Is stoniong legal iinn Alaska?
By Not Again
September 3, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this
@ Peadawg, sweetie its still a baby’s daddy unless you are married at the time of conception. It doesn’t matter if there is one child or ten. A lot of girls/women know who there baby daddy is, its just that after the baby is born or a year or so after they wished they didn’t. Its a big price to pay for a lesson not so well learned.
I hope they are getting married becasue they “think” they love each other. Being 17 in this day in time you always think you are in love. I hope this marriage is not just to save face for mom. I know it is suppose to be the proper thing to do but, most times than not it ends in divorce and they still become baby momma’s and bady daddies to each other.
By Just Asking
September 3, 2008 8:52 AM | Link to this
I wonder why Mr. Wooten does not mention that “the establishment” Gov. Palin took on was the state GOP.
Gee, maybe it’s because most folks who are following this story already know that. Doesn’t that bolster Palin’s credentials? Plus, the article’s focus wasn’t on her taking on the establishment.
My question remains: what is a community organizer and what job skills are directly transferable to the presidency? How does being a community organizer enable a president to understand a market economy? Or foreign policy? The communities I’ve lived in didn’t have community organizers: Were we disorganized? How did we survive? Where does one train to become a community organizer? Is there a certification for community organizers? Is there a trade group? Do all community organizers support a Cuba-style economy, or just Senator Obama?
I’m Just Asking.
By Churchill
September 3, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this
Here is why foxnews, and their conservative supporters, are so sad:
“On the pinhead front, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. The sister of Britney says she is shocked. I bet.
Now most teens are pinheads in some ways. But here the blame falls primarily on the parents of the girl, who obviously have little control over her or even over Britney Spears. Look at the way she behaves.”
Thanks Bill O’Reilly. You can read this at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317577,00.html
Let’s see what Rush Limbaugh had to say: (http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2007/12/spears-pregnancy-news-annoys-talk.html)
“CALLER: Would you tend to think that a family in this position, though, wouldn’t you think that there would be a more watchful eye as a parent to be watching over these kids so this doesn’t happen to them?
RUSH: I would certainly hope so, but it’s long past time for this to happen. The parents here are the culprits!
CALLER: (chuckles)
RUSH: I mean, the parents, they’re infected with this disease, this addiction to fame themselves. Look at Britney’s mom, for crying out loud. “Put me on TV, too! Put me on TV!” You know, celebrity parents, they can go both ways, and some of them lose whatever grounding they had as adults when their kids get famous. They want to be part of it. They like the money themselves. It’s very rare to have celebrity parents that remain grounded, but who’s going to get this family in line?”
By Jay Black
September 3, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this
Good point Conservative Voter.
By Fred Flintstone
September 3, 2008 8:55 AM | Link to this
Country First?
If this was one of Obama’s daughters turning up pregnant I wonder how the “forgiving” Mr Wooten and his “Common Sense Conservatives” would retell the story?
Palin being one step from the presidency is a cruel joke on the United States that would have tragic results on the international stage.
McCain made a poor decision
Judgement to lead?
By Dutchman
September 3, 2008 8:56 AM | Link to this
Copyleft,
Yes, isn’t it refreshing that someone is comfortable with them self and not trying to hide behind some elitist wall.
Some one who know who and what they are is far better than some balthering, eco-friendly, tree hugging, loony toon from mid-town that changes who they are to fit someone else’s ideal.
Sounds like the kid with be alright. He must have some feelings for her if he is willing to put up with the crap the media and the lefties will be throwing at him.
By CJ
September 3, 2008 8:57 AM | Link to this
The Republicans are parading around the 17 year old and her boyfriend, neither of whom have a real job or college education, as if they were heros! If it were not for the baby’s grandparents, it would come into a household with many disadvantages - all of which could have been avoided by waiting and using protection! The two are getting married because of her mother’s political career - not for any other reason.
By Hey Jim
September 3, 2008 8:58 AM | Link to this
What was so great about her first speech again? I guess she is a few steps up from McCain, but all I heard was HOPE, CHANGE, and REFORM. No substance or specifics!?!?
Are you getting emotional on us Jim?
By Peter
September 3, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this
Talk about all the Hypocrisy……..
A couple of kids, probably under age drinking had sex, who knows how many times, and now they are becoming the poster children…. for all YOUNG KIDS to have SEX and get married………
Lets show case two kids who has had Premarital sex on TV !
Gee Jim is this what the “Republican Family Values” are all about ?
SO I guess the lesson here for ALL young REPUBLICAN kids is…….. JUST Say No to Abstinence ……..the Republicans say so !
The NEW “Republican Family Value” !
Also a very interesting thought……what if something happens to any of her kids, this lady is in office, and there is a national crises, or she is around the globe on US business ?
What are her choices….. she take time off to take care of kids……… act as a leader in a real way………. OR falls apart as she is pulled in so many directions…….. while her family suffers the MOST !
By Get Real
September 3, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this
The utter hypocrisy of Wooten and the Republican Party. Who exactly was the ‘establishment’ that Palin took on in Alaska? Think it happened to be the Republican Party? Law & Order man and Leiberman left that out last night in their speeches. And Leiberman had the nerve to say Obama wasn’t ready for President, but literally begged Obama to campaign for him when he was running for his Senate seat. He was good enough then though right. Google some of the statements he had for Obama then, compared the ones he’s saying now.
And if families are off limits and the media is making this into a big story, why bring the baby’s daddy to the convention? Plenty of teens ‘talk’ about marrying their first boyfriend/girlfriend but how many actually do it? Wooten should be ashamed of himself for he has persecuted poor minority mothers for having kids out of wedlock for years. But this must be a special case as we can see.
By haha
September 3, 2008 9:02 AM | Link to this
thank you not again! I couldn’t have said it better. He is a “baby daddy” cause the child was an obvious mistake. By the way is being 17 and getting married something the Republicans stand for? It raises the question of how are you going to push abstinence when your own children don’t believe in your message if you cant get your kids to buy it then why should we?
By Jan
September 3, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this
Shannon luckily for me, my 17 yo parents got married all those years ago. And stayed married. According to the boy’s mother they were planning to marry - with or without an election. That isn’t surprising given what we have learned about the families. They would expect the teenagers to live up to their responsibility.
By h ryder
September 3, 2008 9:04 AM | Link to this
The topics brought forth of late for discussion by the media have a relevance of close to nil in functioning as President or VP if one is capable of any semblance of reasoning above that ability in a rock. I know how the candidates have related to other people in the past. How and what are they going to attempt to place into administrative governing policies if elected? The vast majority of the audio and visual media presentations are that of Phd, piled higher and deeper!
By dittohead
September 3, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this
Now we see why lots of good people stay out of politics....If you are a reformer, like Palin, you will make enemies...the loudest enemy is the Medis. They insist on being consulted...The Media insist on being part of the decision process...Media has lost all credibility..By JeremiahWright
September 3, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
Looks at all the crazy lefties on this blog, beside themselves with worry. Spreading more lies and propaganda from from moveon and dailykos. It’s pathetic, and it’s the reason Dems should never come to power again.
By lla
September 3, 2008 9:09 AM | Link to this
This is only getting attention now that suburban whites rich kids are becoming pregnant more often. However it’s considered an epidemic when young black teens have babies. Now society seems to accept it since white kids are getting married to their baby’s father. Let’s see how Bill O’Reilly puts a spend on this one.
By GaLiberal
September 3, 2008 9:10 AM | Link to this
Moron Jim said: Governor Palin was spectacular on the day she was introduced to the nation as John McCain’s vice presidential nomination. She was confident and comfortable before what may have been the largest audience she had ever addressed. She easily passed the first major test.
First major test? You mean being surrounded by the Rethuglicon faithful who applauded like trained seals? Real challenge there, Moron Jim. The tests are coming and they will only get tougher as she exposes all her inexperience and lack of character to the world. If she can’t even manage her 17 yo daughter how is she going to manage the country? Maybe she was too busy sticking her nose so far up McCain’s wrinkled butt to notice that her daughter was sexually active. If she was a good parent, she would have got her daughter birth control pills. Oh, but what would be like saying it’s ok to have sex. Well, guess what - she already was and now she’s pregnant. But that’s ok because she’s going to keep the baby and two 17 yo children are being forced to get married.
If this was Obama’s 17 yo daughter, you and your slimy Rethuglicon pals would be all outraged. Just another example of the overly permissive, morally decadent Democrats. Just another black child having babies. Just another black man running out on his responsibilities to the children he fathers. But not if it’s a good Rethuglicon white girl who’s mommy is the pick for VP. Typical Rethuglicon hypocrisy.
When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And Moron Jim is living proof.
By Shar
September 3, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this
We don’t know what Bristol Palin wants. She’s seventeen; even she doesn’t know what she wants from one day to the next. What we do know is that she’s behind in school, sexually active, “farmed out” (the Palin word, not mine) to relatives to raise and about to compound these pitiful choices with what Mr. Wooten likes to think is a lifetime commitment, but which the odds favor dissolving within a couple of years. Any parent who would allow, much less pressure, their vulnerable, confused, wrongly-directed child to marry just to satisfy their own ideology is despicable.
John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin has convinced me not to vote for him. Obama is not an attractive choice, so I’m looking again at the Libertarian candidate. There is a good chance that McCain wouldn’t survive four years of the stress of the White House, and no one can imagine that Sarah Palin is in any way competent to run the country. He chose her to appease the far right of his party, the same folks who have undermined him repeatedly, not to ensure that the country is protected in the event of the death of the president. He chose her to syphon off the simmering Hillary supporters, clearly thinking that women candidates are interchangeable and women voters are too emotionally driven to notice that the policies of one are diametrically opposed to the policies of the other. He chose an untried ideologue, a chief executive with dancing dark eyes from the country’s biggest welfare state who has a lamentable past history of trying to force by fiat what she can’t or won’t gain by negotiation or compromise. Her educational background, political experience, previous job experience are all inadequate; her ethics are under investigation, and her “family values” stance, the area that she is publicly claiming as her strength, is highly questoinable at best.
John McCain, denied his first, responsible choice of Joe Lieberman by self-interested political calculation, chose a vice president on a whim, failing utterly to reflect or investigate before setting up the country for the disaster a Palin presidency would bring. I used to respect and admire the man; now I am saddened by the example he sets of the depths to which rampant political ambition will drive even a strong, well-meaning person.
By Debra
September 3, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this
Has anyone seen the pictures of her daughter on Mediatakeout.com where she pictured throwing up gang signs (if she were black) that’s what the republians would say and bottles of booze in her hand? Wonder why these pictures haven’t hit Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc. Funny how that everytime Obama went to church, it was documented. Oh yeah, and the baby’s daddy said on his myspace page that he didn’t want any kids, but once again, the myspace page has been pulled.
By bj
September 3, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this
Who said the kids were being forced to get married? In most states if you are eighteen you don’t need permission to get married. If this so much about Palin’s political career she could have “forced” her daughter to get a abortion, right?
I am a black female from Chicago and don’t forget that Obama is under scrutiny for his land deal with Tony Rezko but we don’t want to think about that.
By doorknob
September 3, 2008 9:15 AM | Link to this
Gov. Palin of the SOCIALIST REPUBLIK OF ALASKA want’s to get here kids involved in national politics, what a great civics lesson them. We down here in the lower 48 need to teach the Palin family about hard work and self reliance. For every dollar that the SOCIALIST in ALASKA send to the Federal goverment, they receive approximately $1.87 back in the form of big government federal spending, thats almost 2:1. I hope she was a good governor because she sure does like spending our money.
By question
September 3, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this
Who led the McCain veep search committee, Jamie Lynn Spears?
By Dutchman
September 3, 2008 9:19 AM | Link to this
Peter,
You’re right. Sarah and Todd should have thrown her butt out of the house for doing that to them. They should have had the intelligence of a leftie to get rid of that inconvenient little problem by dumping their daughter on the street.
But wait… What happened… They showed family values instead. The daughter told her mother and father instead of having a school sponsored abortion.
Wait… even more… The father of the baby isn’t running to another state… He actually admits his involvement and is going to do the right - I mean correct thing. He is actually daring to take responsibility for his actions - where did he learn that?
Yes, Bristol messed up, but her family stood by her. The father of the child is standing by her. I guess thats what they mean by family values.
By ghostwriter
September 3, 2008 9:23 AM | Link to this
I guess NRA stands for No Reproductive Advice.
By Tomhere
September 3, 2008 9:23 AM | Link to this
What about ABSTAINANCE ONLY? Who gutted SEX EDUCATION from our schools? It would be one thing if these “FUNDAMENTALISTS” minded their own business and quit trying to tell the rest of us how to live our lives. OR - If they quit trying to shove THEIR beliefs down OUR throats - AT THE GOVERNMENT LEVEL. We don’t need YOU AND YOUR GOD making our laws. AMERICA DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT. PEOPLE DIED TO MAKE THIS NATION THAT WAY. Think about it.
By Stoned Mountain
September 3, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this
By jm September 3, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this I wonder why Mr. Wooten does not mention that “the establishment” Gov. Palin took on was the state GOP.
Good point, jm. Saying Palin took on the state Republican Party is like saying the company ceo took on the hr department. The governor heads her state party.
By Hey Jim!
September 3, 2008 9:25 AM | Link to this
I feel for that young boy and girl now that his life is in the hands of Karl Rove and the like. Teenagers ‘want’ to get laid, not married.
By me
September 3, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this
GET A LIFE!!!!!
By Tuffy, the Airborne Soldier
September 3, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this
Good Lord. This is what the GOP has to offer to the country?? A feeble old man with more changes in message than that of a runway model? This is particularly of note:
“They share the sentiment expressed by former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee — “what a breath of fresh air Gov. Sarah Palin is” — and they’re ready to showcase her to the rest of the country.”
Where the hell have you people been over the last 8 years? The country is in the toilet. We’ve used up any political clout that we once had and our financial standing is about as good as healthy pile of donkey dung. Courtesy of the party that brought you Dubya and Cheney and you offer this ticket as a “breath of fresh air?” A post maverick who is neither on message or capable of handling the finite details of the country’s business without inserting war and a VP candidate that started off lying about her family values, no foreign experience from the frozen tundra. The audacity of the GOP in saying that her foreign policy knowledge is related to the proximity of Siberia to Alaska or that she served as a Commander in Chief to the Alaska National Guard. Obviously the GOP surrogate that stated that never served a day in the military. Once the NG is called to active duty, they are under the command of the sitting president, not the damned Governor.
And the lies from the GOP podium just keep on coming. I guess the world is witnessing the last gasps of the GOP as they attempt to make a good thing out of something horrible. The VP is in Georgia (how convienent). Fred Thompson who was a candidate aganist McCain for 30 seconds, and the absolute nerve of LIEbermann to call for “national unity” to elect a man whose judgement is clearly in question to lead this wounded nation forward. It’s an outlandish and completely ridiculous notion to even conceive given the factual evidence to date, YET, to even have the gall to suggest this to the American electorate is repulsive.
The desparation is clear, the incompetence bared to the world. I am many millions of other Americans are not lining up for the party of EXCLUSION, CORRUPTION, AND DESTRUCTION any longer.
GO OBAMA/BIDEN !!!
By Tuffy, the Airborne Soldier
September 3, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this
Good Lord. This is what the GOP has to offer to the country?? A feeble old man with more changes in message than that of a runway model? This is particularly of note:
“They share the sentiment expressed by former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee — “what a breath of fresh air Gov. Sarah Palin is” — and they’re ready to showcase her to the rest of the country.”
Where the hell have you people been over the last 8 years? The country is in the toilet. We’ve used up any political clout that we once had and our financial standing is about as good as healthy pile of donkey dung. Courtesy of the party that brought you Dubya and Cheney and you offer this ticket as a “breath of fresh air?” A post maverick who is neither on message or capable of handling the finite details of the country’s business without inserting war and a VP candidate that started off lying about her family values, no foreign experience from the frozen tundra. The audacity of the GOP in saying that her foreign policy knowledge is related to the proximity of Siberia to Alaska or that she served as a Commander in Chief to the Alaska National Guard. Obviously the GOP surrogate that stated that never served a day in the military. Once the NG is called to active duty, they are under the command of the sitting president, not the damned Governor.
And the lies from the GOP podium just keep on coming. I guess the world is witnessing the last gasps of the GOP as they attempt to make a good thing out of something horrible. The VP is in Georgia (how convienent). Fred Thompson who was a candidate aganist McCain for 30 seconds, and the absolute nerve of LIEbermann to call for “national unity” to elect a man whose judgement is clearly in question to lead this wounded nation forward. It’s an outlandish and completely ridiculous notion to even conceive given the factual evidence to date, YET, to even have the gall to suggest this to the American electorate is repulsive.
The desparation is clear, the incompetence bared to the world. I am many millions of other Americans are not lining up for the party of EXCLUSION, CORRUPTION, AND DESTRUCTION any longer.
GO OBAMA/BIDEN !!!
By me
September 3, 2008 9:29 AM | Link to this
GET A LIFE!!!!!
By hypocrisy
September 3, 2008 9:31 AM | Link to this
Please don’t try to throw this back on Obama. He already answered the question about his experience, now it’s time for her to answer hers. Quit whining. It’s only fair.
By marko
September 3, 2008 9:31 AM | Link to this
I have nothing negative to say about Sara Palin, but I really can’t relate to her. Most Americans live in large cities and towns, while the red states can boast vast acreage, the truth is most people live in blue states. Sorry Jim, but your main man does’nt know how many houses he owns, and his number two is an expert moose skinner. The two are shinning examples of just how far your party has departed from a little place I like to call reality.
By dittohead
September 3, 2008 9:33 AM | Link to this
d. The MEDIA focus on the daughter is a deliberate political attack on the governor…The MEDIA is full of sharks after Repub blood…They went after Hillary…..now they smell Palin’s blood…Search & destroy….Media goal.
By DB
September 3, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this
Apparently, Levi is already a member of the family as it is. Given Palin’s family ties, it could be that she is just being generous and bringing him into the family fold to share what is a historic moment with her daughter/his fiance’.
This is why good candidates often shy far away from politics — not too many families could stand up to the scrutiny of a press and public determined to find something wrong with you.
The saddest thing, though, is the thought that perhaps Palin should dump the V.P. race and “stay at home with Bristol.” I daresay she has a perfectly competent husband, but I don’t see anyone suggesting that the husband deal with this while Palin takes on the challenge of the V.P. race — like thousands of political wives have done for centuries.
I daresay that “Girls Gone Wild” could have a field day if they scratched below the surface of the families of just about any other government-service family, from Senators — Democrat OR Republican — on down.
By M
September 3, 2008 9:38 AM | Link to this
Does it occur to anyone that the person wanting Levi at the convention may be Bristol, who may be feeling worried and scared with all the scorn and hatred directed at her and her family?
By tcoach
September 3, 2008 9:38 AM | Link to this
Why are all of the lefties continuing to say that the only reason they are getting married is b/c of Gov. Palin? Are you close personal friends of teh family or are you just guessing? From many accounts and reports the two have been engaged for over a month prior to the story breaking. The daughter has been seen in photos dating back to late July wearing an engagment ring. Also 1st hand accounts have spoke about how the 2 parents to be have talked about getting married anyway before any of the baby issue came up. I understand that you want to win the election and I hope my candidate wins, but you all have to understand that if you attack the girl and boy you cannot call someone else a hypocrite. You leties talk consistantly about how we should not judge and talk poorly about those who make poor decisions, and on and on. I do not condone the act of the 2 teens however, they are planning on forming the nuclear family so as to give their child teh best possible chance to succeed. Also I do not think the marriage is doomed for divorce, when people used to get married younger the divorce rate was lower, that is a statistical fact. It was only that the individual selfishness of our citizens that casued the divorce rate to climb to half. That and the stripping away of peoples ability to make their word mean something. Sorry for the long post
By tiff
September 3, 2008 9:40 AM | Link to this
Wooten, you will sprinkle sugar on s#!+ to make it look good, if it were a republicans s#!+. If this were one of the Obama kids, you would hang them out to dry in a field of locust. Hipocracy has no place in this world. But for people like you it’s a way of life. The funniest thing in this whole situation is, no one knew this lady from Joe Blow less that a week ago. Not even our esteened governor or Newt Gingrich could tell you anything about her, now all of a sudden she is the best pick for VP, and every republicant in the country is singing her praises. Give me a break. Fred Thompson had to get drunk last night just to be able to read all those lies from that teleprompter, because he sure a heck was not speaking from any knowledge he has about her. Even my young niece said “auntie is it me or does it sound like he’s giving a eulogy for someone”. When he talked about McCain there was no life, no energy, nothing but misery in his whole speech. If elected thats what McCain will bring to this whole country more of George Bush’s misery. I mean any one who would pick a woman to draw the other candidates women votes tells me McCain party has nothing of their own, he can only try and steal what Barack has. Why don’t he run on what he plans to do for the country, and not how he can copy Barack. Barack Obama is the real deal. He proved that the other night with that speech about the direction he wants to take this country. When I saw those republicans forcing themselves to even clap last night, and showing no interest in what was going on I almost felt sorry for them. “NOT”. And then it seemed to me that most of them had that just point me to the nearest bar look on their faces. Even papa Bush looked as if he had been forced to come there. McCain’s whole candidacy has been based on the fact that he was a prisoner of war. As if we owe him this because he was locked up. Someone please tell me what experience being a prisoner gives you for being president of the United States. They say it makes for bravery, I say heck i’m brave most of the people I know are brave, but I would not vote to put me or anyone I know in the white house just because I feel we are brave.
By ron
September 3, 2008 9:40 AM | Link to this
Good morning,I don’t think I’d have left Levi home.He’s going to be part of the family and as such he needs to be at the convention.To exclude him would signal nonapproval.
I believe the problem that everyone is having is they’re not used to having real people around during election time.All politicians tell you that they’re just like you and now you actually see one that is and you’re all shocked.I think a lot of you expect more from your politicians in the way morals than you expect from yourselves.
By Huh?
September 3, 2008 9:43 AM | Link to this
If he was truly a fiance and a part of the family from the get-go, Levi would have been with the family at all her major public appearances where the family was. Sarah Palin is the freakin VP nominee. That’s kinda big.
If Bristol had be 25 and engaged (and not pregnant) everyone would expect her fiance to make all the photo appearances!
The reason why folks like Wooten are uneasy is because they know this whole thing is a sham. And it’s offensive how the Republican party thinks we are all too stupid to see the truth.
By Davo
September 3, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this
I have to congradulate Jim on using rational thought…”But to this PR amateur, it looks like a bad call.”
On the one hand the McCain campaign says ‘don’t make this the topic of conversation…respect their privacy’. Fair enough. But now they trot this kid and their pregnant girl out into a national audience..to prove what, exactly?
Pretty low life move worthy of a disgraced celebrity, not a VP.
By TW
September 3, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this
Are Levi and Daddy Yankee really going to rap McSame’s introduction?
From 91% approval rating to laughing stock.
It’s over. It’s soooooo over.
By belinda
September 3, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this
jim, you are not very bright! of course the republicans want the boy to be in the spotlight because that takes the attention off their inexperienced vp candidate! go obama!
By M
September 3, 2008 9:45 AM | Link to this
Does it occur to anyone that the person wanting Levi at the convention may be Bristol, who is probably worried and scared by all the vicious scorn and hatred directed at her and her family?
By candide
September 3, 2008 9:47 AM | Link to this
They are going to make that randy boy marry Bristol Palin whether he wants to or not. The marriage will probably not last but Sarah will be passed all that.
By tiff
September 3, 2008 9:47 AM | Link to this
This boy went from boyfriend to fiance in one day. The day of her nomination. Also true they took down his myspace page because he posted the truth about how he feels about this whole situation. I wish you all could have read the vulgar language he put on his page. And the out cry about not wanting children. Talk about a shot-gun wedding these hillbillies know how to make the best of a bad situation don’t they WOOTEN.
By Lauren
September 3, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
These people are pathetic and this convention is an embarrassment. Republicans you should be hanging your heads not beating your drums. The rest of the nation is LAUGHING at you.
By Dutchman
September 3, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
hypocrisy,
BHO did explain his experience??? What, hiring someone to run his campaign? The Chicago political machine? What the heck is a community organizer? Three whole years in the Senate and half on the campaign trail?
Seems his resume is 1/2 page and double spaced.
Isn’t it a little odd that the lefties are pointing fingers at the VP nominees supposed lack of experience when their Presidential candidate has even less.
You would think that the person at the TOP of the ticket would need the experience of having run, governed, commanded or lead something.
Which has BHO done? …
By Copyleft
September 3, 2008 9:50 AM | Link to this
Dutchman: Keep going with that “proud to be ignorant” attitude, and see how eagerly America embraces it as President Obama is sworn in.
By GaLiberal
September 3, 2008 9:57 AM | Link to this
Moron Jim said: Governor Palin was spectacular on the day she was introduced to the nation as John McCain’s vice presidential nomination. She was confident and comfortable before what may have been the largest audience she had ever addressed. She easily passed the first major test.
First major test? You mean being surrounded by the Rethuglicon faithful who applauded like trained seals? Real challenge there, Moron Jim. The tests are coming and they will only get tougher as she exposes all her inexperience and lack of character to the world. If she can’t even manage her 17 yo daughter how is she going to manage the country? Maybe she was too busy sticking her nose so far up McCain’s wrinkled butt to notice that her daughter was sexually active. If she was a good parent, she would have got her daughter birth control pills. Oh, but what would be like saying it’s ok to have sex. Well, guess what - she already was and now she’s pregnant. But that’s ok because she’s going to keep the baby and two 17 yo children are being forced to get married.
If this was Obama’s 17 yo daughter, you and your slimy Rethuglicon pals would be all outraged. Just another example of the overly permissive, morally decadent Democrats. Just another black child having babies. Just another black man running out on his responsibilities to the children he fathers. But not if it’s a good Rethuglicon white girl who’s mommy is the pick for VP. Typical Rethuglicon hypocrisy.
When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And Moron Jim is living proof.
By Worried Voter
September 3, 2008 9:59 AM | Link to this
Palin: average isn’t good enough
She’s not qualified to be president, and in picking her, McCain shows that he has little respect for the presidency.
By Sam Harris for Los Angeles Times
So let us ask the question that should be on the mind of every thinking person in the world at this moment: If John McCain becomes the 44th president of the United States, what are the odds that a blood clot or falling object will make Sarah Palin the 45th?
The actuarial tables on the Social Security Administration website suggest that there is a better than 10% chance that McCain will die during his first term in office. Needless to say, the Reaper’s scything only grows more insistent thereafter. Should President McCain survive his first term and get elected to a second, there is a 27% chance that Palin will become the first female U.S. president by 2015. If we take into account McCain’s medical history and the pressures of the presidency, the odds probably increase considerably that this bright-eyed Alaskan will become the most powerful woman in history.
As many people have noted, placing Palin on the ticket has made these final months of the already overlong 2008 campaign much more interesting. Is Palin remotely qualified to be president of the United States? No. But that’s precisely what is so interesting. McCain not only has thrown all sensible concerns about good governance aside merely to pander to a sliver of female and masses of conservative Christian voters, he has turned this period of American history into an episode of high-stakes reality television: Don’t look now, but our cousin Sarah just became leader of the free world! Tune in next week and watch her get sassy with Pakistan!
Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the “Who would you like to have a beer with?” poll question in 2004, and won reelection.
This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages — and loses — both necessary and unnecessary wars.
McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. He has so little respect for the average American voter that he thinks this reckless and cynical ploy will work.
And it might. Palin’s nomination has clearly excited Christian conservatives, and it may entice a few million gender-obsessed fans of Hillary Clinton to vote entirely on the basis of chromosomes. Throw in a few million more average Americans who will just love how the nice lady smiles, and 2009 could be a very interesting year.
Tune in next week and watch cousin Sarah fuss with our nuclear arsenal … .
By CommunistAJC
September 3, 2008 10:02 AM | Link to this
Copyleft, Your homeboy Obama Hussein is actually an idiot. As was your other homeslice John F Kerry. He had worse grades than W and so did AlGore. Here is a nice little article I found just for you.
Obama’s Years at Columbia Are a Mystery He Graduated Without Honors
By ROSS GOLDBERG,
Senator Obama’s life story, from his humble roots, to his rise to Harvard Law School, to his passion as a community organizer in Chicago, has been at the center of his presidential campaign. But one chapter of the tale remains a blank — his education at Columbia College, a place he rarely speaks about and where few people seem to remember him.
Contributing to the mystery is the fact that nobody knows just how well Mr. Obama, unlike Senator McCain and most other major candidates for the past two elections, performed as a student.
The Obama campaign has refused to release his college transcript, despite an academic career that led him to Harvard Law School and, later, to a lecturing position at the University of Chicago. The shroud surrounding his experience at Columbia contrasts with that of other major party nominees since 2000, all whom have eventually released information about their college performance or seen it leaked to the public.
For better or worse, voters have taken an interest in candidates’ grades since 1999, when the New Yorker published President Bush’s transcript at Yale and disclosed that he was a C student. Mr. Bush had never portrayed himself as a brain, but many were surprised to learn the next year that his opponent, Vice President Gore, did not do much better at Harvard despite his intellectual image. When Senator Kerry’s transcript surfaced, reporters found that he actually had a slightly lower average at Yale than Mr. Bush did.
Some political observers cite such disclosures as proof that candidates’ intelligence cannot be judged solely by their political careers or the schools they attended. Grades provide a rare measure of intellect that is immune to political spin, proponents say.
“We like to pretend IQ doesn’t matter, but it really does with a lot of jobs, including the presidency,” a professor at Smith College who studies the effects of human intelligence on the economy, James Miller, said. “We can’t trust the information that candidates give us, so it’s important to look for objective data that they can’t falsify or distort.”
Mr. Miller acknowledged that Mr. Obama displayed academic achievement at Harvard, where he graduated magna cum laude and led the Harvard Law Review. Still, Mr. Miller said, he would like to see information about how Mr. Obama performed in various subjects at Columbia.
That view is not shared by other election observers, including some who have themselves indulged the public’s interest in candidates’ academic records. One of them is Geoffrey Kabaservice, a political historian who in 2000 published Senator Bradley’s relatively low score of 485 on the verbal SAT. Mr. Bradley, a Rhodes Scholar who was a star basketball player at Princeton, was running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“It’s awfully hard to correlate anything, really, about a person on the basis of their grades,” Mr. Kabaservice said, explaining that he published Mr. Bradley’s score to highlight limitations in intelligence testing. He said he doubted that candidates’ grades have affected the outcome of any recent presidential elections.
“For people who didn’t like George W. Bush, for example, the grade aspect only confirmed what they thought about him,” Mr. Kabaservice said. “And for everybody else, it made him more of a regular guy.”
The Obama campaign declined to comment for this article and did not offer an explanation for why his transcript has not been released. But observers speculated that one reason might be the racially charged nature of the election. Mr. Obama has acknowledged benefiting from affirmative action in the past, and details about his academic performance might open him up to critics eager to accuse him, probably unfairly, of receiving a free ride, Mr. Kabaservice said.
“Anyone who is a minority and who’s come up partially through the meritocracy — getting into good colleges, and subsequently good law schools — is going to come under suspicion that there was some kind of affirmative action boost,” he said. “I suspect this is an area of discomfort for Obama.”
In contrast with the rest of Mr. Obama’s life story, little is known about his college experience. He attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years before transferring to Columbia in 1981. The move receives only a mention in Mr. Obama’s 1995 memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” which instead devotes that chapter to his impressions of race and class struggles in New York.
An article in a Columbia University publication, Columbia College Today, reported that Mr. Obama has portrayed Columbia as a period of buckling down following a troubled adolescence. He did not socialize much, he has said, instead spending a lot of time in the library, “like a monk.” He has also stated that he was involved to some extent with the Black Students Organization.
Federal law limits the information that Columbia can release about Mr. Obama’s time there. A spokesman for the university, Brian Connolly, confirmed that Mr. Obama spent two years at Columbia College and graduated in 1983 with a major in political science. He did not receive honors, Mr. Connolly said, though specific information on his grades is sealed. A program from the 1983 graduation ceremony lists him as a graduate.
More is known about Mr. McCain’s experience at the United States Naval Academy, where he was a self-described troublemaker and graduated in the bottom 1% of his class. The McCain campaign has declined to release his transcript, saying that his performance at the academy can only be viewed in the context of his larger military career.
“His record stands on its own,” a McCain spokesman, Peter Feldman, said. “His time spent in college was part of the transformative years that made him who he was.”
By travis
September 3, 2008 10:02 AM | Link to this
MCSAME/FAILIN ‘08!!
By GMAN
September 3, 2008 10:02 AM | Link to this
The choice is clear…
An old dufus fart and an ambitious tart
OR
Obama/Biden - a LANDSLIDE for change in November”!
By Hyde Park
September 3, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this
BJ @ 9:13, keep it real. I’m a black man from Chicago, and you KNOW that rezko has already been convicted and Obama never entered the matter. The Chicago media has moved on from the subject, yet bitter people like you need something talk about. You can’t be serious spreading lies like that. But since you said that, please present a link with proof of your BS.
By charles corley
September 3, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this
Goooooooooood morning / I ask my old man where I was born and he said Wedlock, Texas and then he said well not really, just outside of Wedlock. As for McCain he was trying to get out of the Navy when he was shot down. The enemy had started shooting back. Can you imagine how many women and children he set on fire. Burned.The worst kind of pain. When he returned to the United States his father who was the Admiral of the seventh fleet didn’t meet him and later committed suicide. When he returned he junked his wife and went for the Budweiser $$$$$$$$. God’s justice is always perfect, if you plant beans you get beans and if you plant corn you get corn and God is watching what you plant so it will be interesting to see how little John finishes.
By Bonedaddy
September 3, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this
You knuckleheads fail to relaize Osama Obama’s mom had him at 18, then the dude ran off. BFD. I am not voting for Palin’s daughter anyway idiots. I will vote for McCain/Palin for sure now.
By Whiteman Sayeth
September 3, 2008 10:08 AM | Link to this
Gee, I guess abstinence only really doesn’t work after all.
By Truthifier
September 3, 2008 10:12 AM | Link to this
CommunistAJC at 10:02, fair enough, let’s try to find Senator Obama’s grades from Columbia. However, in the meantime, let’s also acknowledge that he graduated MAGNA CUM LAUDE from Harvard Law (that’s really, really good for those of you who may be confused). My guess is that his grades at Columbia were better than McCain’s at the Naval Academy, since a student with poor grades is not likely to be accepted to Harvard Law School.
By Copyleft
September 3, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this
Commie:
Hee, hee! Thanks for shooting yourself in the foot AGAIN with that one—your own copy/pasted article discredits you!
Yeah, calling Obama an “idiot” after he graduated magna cum laude at H