Gail Collins Mocks Bristol Palin

Gail Collins, New York Times, seems to have had a lot of fun with her column, "Bristol Palin’s New Gig."

Leftists get such enjoyment out of mocking Sarah Palin and her daughter, Bristol.

I think it's one of their favorite pastimes.

Collins writes:

“Just because you’re wearing high-heeled sexy shoes doesn’t mean you should have a baby,” said Neil Cole.

I believe we can all rally around this sentiment.

Cole is the head of Iconix, a company that makes the Candie’s line of teen fashions. A couple of years ago, under fire from critics who accused him of dressing high schoolers like tarts, he established the Candie’s Foundation, which fights teen pregnancy. And there he was on Wednesday introducing the foundation’s new teen ambassador, Bristol Palin.

...[W]hen it comes to combating teen pregnancy, the Palin family has done enough damage already. What worse message could you send to teenage girls than the one they delivered at the Republican convention: If your handsome but somewhat thuglike boyfriend gets you with child, he will clean up nicely, propose marriage, and show up at an important family event wearing a suit and holding your hand. At which point you will get a standing ovation.

Now a single mom on the outs with the father of her baby, Bristol wants a new kind of happy ending.

“I just want to go out there and promote abstinence and say this is the safest choice,” she said on “Good Morning America.”

“It’s not going to work,” said her ex-boyfriend, Levi Johnston, in a dueling early-morning interview.

If you have ever watched Levi Johnston on TV for two minutes you will appreciate how terrifying it is when he has the most reasonable analysis of a social issue.

Because Bristol’s own philosophy seems, at minimum, tentative, it’s hard to tell whether she believes that cheerleading for abstinence should be coupled with education about birth control methods. She and Levi used condoms, except when they didn’t.

Collins says the "Palin family has done enough damage already" when it comes to combatting teen pregnancy.

And has Obama done enough damage already when it comes to using illicit drugs, like pot and coke and who knows?

Has Obama done enough damage already when it comes to being a life-long smoker?

I wonder how Collins would assess Obama's efforts to combat those public health and social issues. He doesn't exactly have the sort of moral authority that the Left is always yapping about when it comes to preaching on the subject of drugs and smoking.

Teen pregnancy isn't a crime. Obama's history with drugs is another matter. Details are murky on that.

Collins berates Bristol Palin for "cheerleading for abstinence."

What's wrong with Palin raising awareness about the challenges of teen pregnancy and offering an option to avoid it?

I don't get why Leftists like Collins are so threatened by any mention of abstinence.

...Bristol appeared Wednesday at Event to Prevent, a teen town hall, during which she said very little except to assure her audience that having a baby is no picnic. (“You have so much responsibility. It’s just hard work all the time.”) It’s hard not to suspect that for her, being the anti-pregnancy ambassador is just a good excuse to get out of Wasilla.

Cheap shot.

Elitist Collins doesn't seem to understand that millions and millions of Americans choose to live in places like Wasilla. They want to be there, not escape.

But where were her parents? Her mom ought to know by now that the only way to protect your family from becoming tabloid fodder is to make it clear to the media that the kids are absolutely, totally off limits. You can’t put them on network TV one day and then complain the next when a reporter asks whether the baby’s other grandmother is still facing drug charges.

I am so sick of this tired argument.

Sarah Palin exploited her kids by trotting them out on TV.

Every politician with presidential aspirations brings out the kids, including Bill Clinton and Obama.

Remember Chelsea walking between her parents and holding their hands when the Lewinsky scandal blew up?

Yet Chelsea was totally off limits.

Obama puts his daughters on network TV. They were on 60 Minutes, on stage at the Democratic National Convention, and on TV too many other occasions to mention.

I guess Obama has relinquished the right to say that they are "totally off limits."

He can't complain if they're mocked and harassed, right?

...“We contacted the governor’s office, and the next thing we knew Todd Palin was on the phone and said Bristol wanted to talk,” Cole said, explaining how his ambassador had been recruited. And indeed, there was Todd, beaming as his beautiful daughter stood in front of about 50 shrieking photographers, smiling a fixed smile.

We have seen so many bad plans about breaching the public-private divide lately. Elizabeth Edwards’s book tour. Eliot Spitzer’s media blitz. (Can we point out here that when 51 percent of the public tells pollsters that they would rather have Spitzer as governor than the current incumbent, David Paterson, that is not the same as saying they would like Spitzer to come back? You could probably get 51 percent of the voters to say they would rather have Vlad the Impaler than David Paterson. Or at least 30.)

But when a teenager goes out on this kind of mission, you have to wonder where her parents’ heads were. What does this say about Sarah Palin’s judgment?

Although we’ve sort of answered that question before.

Todd Palin should be proud of his daughter. She took responsibility for her actions, brought a beautiful baby into the world, and is helping to raise awareness about teen pregnancy.

I think Leftists are still seething that she didn't abort the baby, so they dehumanize Bristol and her parents. They mock them and paint them as caricatures.

It's pathetic, really.

Obviously, Sarah Palin still gets under the skin of the libs. They act as if she poses a tremendous threat to them. So, they keep up the attacks.

I think it's funny that Collins raises the "many bad plans about breaching the public-private divide."

Let's talk about bad judgment.

The decision by the White House to have the press report on the Obamas' date nights as breaking news and pushing video of the couple "privately" strolling the White House lawn for the cameras is bizarre.

But, hey, if Barack and Michelle want to breach the public-private divide, if they want us to watch, it's their choice.

Some Obamaphiles eat up the breach of that divide.

I know Chris Matthews gets off on it.