Barack Obama had some tough words for the smear-meisters leaping on the story of Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter, Bristol.
He was also ticked off after being told that a McCain aide blamed the Obama campaign for spreading the rumors.
OBAMA: I've heard some of the news on this, and so let me be as clear as possible. I have said before and I will repeat again: I think people's families are off-limits. And people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories.
You know, my mother had me when she was eighteen. Uh, and you know, how family deals with issues, and uh, you know, teenage children...that shouldn't be the topic of our politics. Uh, and I hope that anybody who's supporting me understands that's off limits.
QUESTION: An unnamed McCain advisor is quoted on Reuters as saying, 'The despicable rumors have been spread by liberal blogs, some even with Barack Obama's name in them.'
Have you issued, have you issued any directives to your...?
OBAMA: I am offended by that statement. There is no evidence at all that any of this involved us. I hope I'm as clear as I can be. Uh, so in case I'm not, let me repeat: We don't go after people's families. We don't get them involved in the politics. It's not appropriate and it's not relevant.
Our people were not involved in any way in this, and they will not be. And if I ever thought that there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they'd be fired.
No one from Obama's campaign has to be overtly involved to keep the story chugging along.
It's very easy for Obama to keep his hands clean when he has the Huffington Post to do the dirty work.
From "Levi Johnston: Bristol Palin's Baby Daddy Revealed (PHOTOS)":
Bristol Palin's baby daddy has been revealed to be 18 year-old Levi Johnston. Sarah Palin announced that her 17 year-old daughter is five months pregnant Monday.
That story links to the New York Daily News story on Palin's daughter.
Doe-eyed Bristol Palin, 17, and ruggedly handsome Levi Johnston, an 18-year-old self-described "f---in' redneck," have been dating a year, locals in Wasilla, Alaska, told the Daily News.
...Sarah Palin admitted yesterday her "beautiful daughter" Bristol was five months pregnant and would marry Levi. The baby is due in late December.
In a photo taken on Aug. 28, Palin holds her infant brother Trig close to her belly during a campaign rally where Sen. John McCain introduced her mom as his running mate.
The campaign released word of the teen's pregnancy to knock down claims on Internet blogs that the teen - not her mom - secretly gave birth to Trig, who has Down syndrome.
There's also a link to a New York Post story that mines Levi Johnston's MySpace page.
Daily Kos has removed its rumor-mongering smear from its site, but it's still available online as a cached page.
How low can the Leftists go?
Sarah Palin Is NOT The Mother [Photos+Video]
by ArcXIX
Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 01:12:31 PM PDT
Yesterday, with the news of Sarah Louise Heath Palin inexplicably being chosen as a Vice-Presidential nominee, the attentive American public was also introduced to her character. Unfortunately for all of us, it was filled with multiple instances of backtracking and outright lies. While Alaskans had been giving her an 80% approval rating, recently 87% of Alaskans polled on the subject of TrooperGate believed she was lying.
Now, I've known liars in my life. Their single core problem is not with themselves, but those around them. If they're never called out on their twisting of truths and fabrications, they simply continue to make larger lies.
Well, Sarah, I'm calling you a liar. And not even a good one. Trig Paxson Van Palin is not your son. He is your grandson. The sooner you come forward with this revelation to the public, the better.
ArcXIX's diary :: ::
The story begins on March 6th, when Sarah decided to come forward and announce to the world that she was pregnant, a monumental occasion for an acting Governor. Republican Governor Jane Maria Swift of Massachusetts was the first sitting Governor in United States history to give birth in office just seven years before, and now here we were once again. Yet, no one could believe the news:JUNEAU -- Gov. Sarah Palin shocked and awed just about everybody around the Capitol on Wednesday when she announced she's expecting her fifth child.
...
Palin said she's already about seven months along, with the baby due to arrive in mid-May.
That the pregnancy is so advanced astonished all who heard the news. The governor, a runner who's always been trim, simply doesn't look pregnant.
Even close members of her staff said they only learned this week their boss was expecting.
"I thought it was becoming obvious," Palin said. "You know, clothes getting snugger and snugger."
But people just couldn't believe the news.
"Really? No!" said Bethel state Rep. Mary Nelson, who is close to giving birth herself.
"It's wonderful. She's very well-disguised," said Senate President Lyda Green, a mother of three who has sometimes sparred with Palin politically. "When I was five months pregnant, there was absolutely no question that I was with child."
...
Palin said she's not aiming to take any time off from her job as governor, assuming all goes well with the pregnancy.
...
With Palin riding extraordinarily high popularity ratings, pundits have mentioned her as a potential vice presidential candidate. But she said Wednesday night she's "not pursuing or perpetuating it," adding, "I have no desire to leave my job at all as governor."
...
She's known as a fashion plate, but said she hasn't been dressing differently to cover her barely perceptible bulge.
Funny quote on her having no desire for the Vice-Presidency aside, the article is direly clear. No one knew she was pregnant, not even her own staff. Quite a feat. Why the secrecy? Sarah has never given an answer, and upon further reading, no one has bothered to ask.
Seven months into a pregnancy, and no one noticed.
Even Harry Houdini would be impressed.
And how could anyone tell? Sarah's waistline never changed. Her wardrobe still remained tight and professional. In a video posted in February (nearing five months of pregnancy at the time), Sarah is seen trim, and walking around all of Juneau, Alaska.
...After previous pregnancies (in this case, four), and at later ages, the female body is meant to adjust and show changes earlier, not later as in Sarah's unprecedented case.
ArcXIX goes on and on.
...Sarah Palin was not pregnant with child.
Her sixteen year-old daughter was.
Checking with the Anchorage High School that Bristol Palin attended, reporters were given word that her family had taken Bristol out of school due to contracting infectious mononucleosis. The amount of time Bristol was absent shifts from five to eight months.
Mono can last anywhere from two weeks to three months, but an eight month infection is a freak oddity. Yet it remains a common excuse given by girls in private & Catholic schools around the nation when pregnancy comes into play. Not the first time, not the last time.
...People like to think the vetting process is secure, and completed months ahead of time, but ABC News has reported otherwise, painting a picture of a quick vetting process for Sarah by a small, but secretive group of McCain's legal staff. A proper vetting process under those circumstances would only go so far, and the true media vetting process has just begun.
It doesn't come as a surprise that this story was never properly researched. Palin was never on the National scene for more than a few minutes at a time, and local reporting only goes so far on a governor with an 80% approval rating. However, the motivation to cover daughter's pregnancy aligns with her political standings. She valiantly did not perform an abortion, but fell into the fundamentalist way of thinking, and covered up for the illicit (but natural) action's of her daughter.
There could be calls below to delete this information. Calls that this type of information is muckraking and 'below us'. The truth is not below any progressive, nor any citizen of the world that is one heartbeat away from having Palin as leader of the free world. We simply ask that she be forthright, honest, and not waste our time with such juvenile games that anyone with eyes can see as fabrication.
Bristol Palin rightfully should be able to embrace her child in public as her own, with no shame, and no quarter. And a mother should be just as accepting.
What trash!
Andrew Sullivan did his part to keep the rumor mill spinning.
And there's more.
I think Obama needs to have a conference call with the Lefty bloggers that do his bidding, the ones he embraces, just to make sure that they get the message to back off NOW.
The thing is Obama's statement doesn't reference the ugliness of the rumors about Sarah Palin not giving birth to Trig. He makes no mention of the conspiracy stuff. He just says to leave the families out of the politics.
That doesn't sound like he really wants to put an end to the story to me. And like it or not, they are Obama's people. They may not be on the campaign payroll, but they're his people.
13 comments:
Bristol left the school she attended with Levi, the father, and went to a new school in the middle of the school year. But no one knows why?
The rumors are she was out with mononucleosis for most of Spring 2008.
What happened to make her leave her former school midyear?
That is a question that has not been answered.
The question that needs to be answered:
Will the American people stand for the shameless promotion of these lies and Left-wing attacks, all in the attempt to derail John McCain and Sarah Palin?
I don't think so. To the contrary, I think it will galvanize supporters.
Good grief. The loonies are pathetic. Maybe now real Democrats will take back control of their party.
I watched Obama make his statement. If sure seemed to be genuine. Its the first time that I've had any respect for him whatsoever. He actually seemed human in an unguarded moment.
Water Breakgate - Latest Update - New Issues for McCain
http://www.politicalbase.com/profile/jnail/blog/
Water Breakgate - Latest Update - New Issues for McCain
http://www.politicalbase.com/profile/jnail/blog/
Cue "Twilight Zone" theme.
Who cares that Bristol is pregnant!?
I do, however, care very much that Palin's total administrative experience comes from being the recent governor of Alaska. How on earth is she even remotely qualified for being Vice President? She has a bachelor's degree in Journalism with a MINOR in political studies. Does anyone understand just how little education she has on her side? If you take 6 classes in the same subject category you can minor in it.
My fear is that Palin is a throw away for the VP candidate. McCain wants someone to show off as a pretty face who looks like a wonderful PTA mom, but really she won't have much to offer in the white house. It seems to me McCain found a woman who will stand by her man... er, President.
It is not that I care that Palin has a daughter who is pregnant. Their family business is exactly that: their's. My concerns are related to the entire shebang, though.
First, the Republican Party is supposed to be the Party of family and values. Yet, during Clinton's infamous scandal, they chose to impeach him over lying about a blow job.
Secondly, they decry teen mothers as an affront to family values--but when one of their own gets pregnant, they finally see that it is not as clear cut as heathen or heavenly.
Third, clearly abstinence only doesn't work if, say, you don't abstain. Had these children had easy access to condoms, though, this may not be as much of a problem. In fact, if her mother had said "I prefer that you abstain, but if you don't, use a rubber," this may not even be an issue.
Many of my friends tried to go the abstinence only route. I grew up in a very conservative, very Christian area. Guess what, the ones who tried to go abstinence only ended up having more pregnancy scares than the rest. Why? Because, even though NJ is progressive enough to talk about condoms and BC, their parents made it seem like worse than murder to even consider any other route.
So, you're right, Palin's daughter should not be scandalized for being human. However, I think the Right should be a little bit more compassionate to those of us "Liberal Trash" who *also* aren't perfect.
Bristol Palin's pregnancy is relative to this discussion because Sarah Palin is running a household, as well as the state of Alaska. And in her household, her 17-year old daughter, while she was out of school with infectious mononucleosis for eight months, was sleeping with someone. And her mother seems to condone it. The level of irresponsibility that that reflects, regarding the safety of others, not to mention common sense, is enormous. I wouldn't want this woman running the local YMCA, let alone the country.
It amazes me how little Leftists understand about conservatives.
So, you Republicans really don't think there's anything odd in Sarah Palin keeping her pregnancy a secret until ONE MONTH before giving birth and not looking pregnant when she DID reveal it? Couple that with the fact that the daughter was out of school for "mono" during that period? Come on. This IS important. We already know that Palin is a liar (Earmarks and Bridge to Nowhere). If she lied about this, too, how could we ever trust her? SHE'S the one that parades her family around like their props, so she's the one who put them in play -- not the media.
Good grief.
Keep spreading those utterly lame rumors and despicable conspiracy theories.
You are galvanizing support for McCain-Palin.
By the way, when I was pregnant with my children, I could dress in a manner that made it difficult to tell until late in the third trimester.
I was only weeks away from giving birth and people cautiously asked me if I was pregnant, not wanting to be rude if I had just experienced a weight gain unrelated to pregnancy.
It's not that unusual.
Get a grip.
And about Palin using her family as props --
Bill and Hillary introduced the country to Chelsea. She appeared with them at the conventions in the 90s, but she wasn't "in play" as you put it.
Gore surrounded himself with his family.
They all do.
Why is it Palin's kids are deemed as props but no children of other candidates were or are given that designation?
Double standard.
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