I was catching up on the news and read that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, veep hopeful, has a teenage daughter who is pregnant. I guess that's embarrassing when you're a Republican. But all the candidates in the world seem to be lining up to support the idea that people shouldn't be judged by their kids. I'm sure they'll get no trouble from the vast numbers of voters who are parents.
But I was struck by this item:
She and her husband, Todd, have four children, Track, Bristol, Willow and Piper
That's a heck of a string of unusual names. Clearly they learned as they went along. I like Willow and Piper. But Track? Bristol? Makes me wish I'd named a kid Liverpool.
No: name them Essex and Sussex, but preach to them about abstinence their whole lives.
We shouldn't because it detracts from what we should really criticize her for. We should really criticize her for her lack of experience and for not being qualified to be president (which is a very real possibility given McCain's age). There are a bunch of other questionable things we can criticize her for once we're done without ever talking about the teenage daughter.
ReplyDeleteThe pregnant teenage daughter thing is just ironic given that she supports abstinence-only sex education and has cut programs that help teenage moms even as she opposes abortion rights.
My theory is that McCain knows he's going to lose anyway and Palin is a way for him to blame his loss on the religious right. In fact, he probably is right to blame them in any case. He could have won in 2000, but they insisted on the moron Bush.
Even the conservative Economist was shocked by Palin's nomination: http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=12066224
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line from her supporters is the constant refrain that she knows foreign policy because she has to deal with officials from Russia and Canada, in spite of her own admission that she has never paid much attention to foreign policy.
The fact that she'd be one McCain heart attack away from the presidency should he win makes her lack of qualifications even more stunning. It's like Harriet Myers getting nominated for the Supreme Court, except Bush had a long history with her and McCain barely knows Palin from all accounts.