The more I've tried to process the way the Sarah Palin saga has been played out, the more I have become convinced that in ways we might not expect, the "chaos" and confusion surrounding Palin has been to a great extent (though not entirely) a DELIBERATE tactic by the GOP to scramble the brains of the media and the public in a pathetic attempt to shore up McCain's support. Josh Marshall (and many others) are beginning to arrive at a similar conclusion.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
...while virtually all the aggressive questioning of Palin has been on her troopergate scandal, her manifest lack of qualifications, ties to a political party that embraces secession, etc. Schmidt focused on stories that if you look closely were actually never written. Yes, there was a storm of speculation on blogs. And maybe reporters followed up with inquiries. But who published any of it? Think about that for a second.
The McCain camp is using the rumors about Palin's family as a cudgel to beat back entirely legitimate questions -- which may amount to a feeding frenzy -- about Palin's political record, alleged pattern of abuse of the power of her office and political associations. When you see Steve Schmidt getting weepy, believe me, you're getting played.
I'd like to walk through the chronology and logic of this from the GOP side -- there's some speculation involved here, and (warning) I'm going to touch on the rumor of Trig Paxson and Bristol, because I think it plays an important part of telling the story. (For the record, I'm 99% sure the rumor is false, but it does need to be acknowledged).
Here's what I think happened:
As Dan Balz has reported, the decision to name Palin as VP nominee was a last-minute affair. While she had been (like 20 other people) "pre-vetted" to some extent, the haste in which she was named meant that McCain's people (and NOT the FBI, thank you very much) did not have time to do a full "personal" vet that would have involved actually sending a team to Alaska, interviewing friends and state officials, looking at the archives of the Wasila newspaper, etc. (I'm sure you all know there are many sources indicating that this didn't begin to happen until after Palin was chosen).
It would seem logical that when McCain did talk to Palin (that one time, you know, when they talked in person), she probably mentioned two things that could "hurt" her in the national spotlight: Trooper-gate and her daughter's pregnancy.
In regards to Troopergate, Palin's version to McCain was probably something like this: "My sister was involved in a nasty dispute with her ex, who is an abusive, terrible person, not at all fit to be a state trooper. We got him suspended, but then he kept on being an asshole, and some of the people around me, knowing that he caused me and my family great stress, may have had some conversations about getting him removed. They got some resistance, and then coincidentally Walt Monegan wasn't working out and I had to go in another direction with the state troopers."
The McCain camp probably reasoned "Okay, maybe the firing is a wee bit suspicious, but after all, she was trying to get an abusive ex of her sister's fired. When people hear what kind of jerk this Wooten character is, they'll at least give Palin the benefit of the doubt, and since there's no smoking gun or tape with her in regards to Monegan, this is going to be a legal matter of little significance."
As for the unborn Bristol-Levi baby -- apparently not much of a secret in Wasila, according to Time Magazine -- the GOP found themselves with a much more troubling situation. How could they fully activate the "Christian" right base (I use quotes because as a born-again Christian of 30 years I loathe people who call themselves that in the name of removing freedom, choice, and equality) if it turns out that Bristol Palin was NOT adhering to the abstinence-only pledge and was with child? ("Christians," as you know, HATE unwanted/unsanctioned pregnancies and everything that comes of them, even though their Lord and Savior was born under such a circumstance).
What kind of mother is Sarah Palin if while she's gallivanting around -- well, around Alaska, hunting moose from a helicopter or whatever -- her daughter is off frolicking with her boyfriend?
And remember this (I'm putting it in caps because I think it is significant to the kind of home environment this "super-mom" provides): BRISTOL PALIN GOT PREGNANT WHILE HER MOTHER WAS 8 MONTHS PREGNANT WITH A BABY WHO HAD DOWN SYNDROME. Please understand I am not judging Bristol Palin OR her mother in this regard, I just want to point out that it seems VERY strange that a teenage girl -- presumably sexually active -- would get pregnant in an environment where a very difficult pregnancy/childbirth was imminent. I'm NOT suggesting that she got pregnant on purpose, but it's obviously the case that she and her boyfriend were not using effective birth control for whatever reason. Either Bristol was in a frame of mind to just say "whatever," knowing that a very embarrassing pregnancy might be the result, or else she doesn't know anything about birth control (possible in an abstinence-only family, but perhaps more unlikely).
Needless to say, the McCain camp had two options. First, they could have revealed Bristol Palin's pregnancy when they introduced Sarah Palin. After all (again) it was not a total secret, and if you buy the story that Bristol and Levi are happily going to get married, then the pregnancy doesn't seem quite so terrible. It could have gone like this as Sarah was introducing her family:
"And holding Trig, that's my oldest daughter Bristol, and she's practicing to be a mommy because I'm so proud that in a few months, Bristol is going to be a mommy herself making me a proud grandma! Bristol and her boyfriend are going to get married in a few weeks and I just couldn't be happier that they have found each other and are adding to our growing family!"
Imagine how this would have played for most of us -- we would have said, "Hey, good for her, for being honest about her unmarried daughter's pregnancy. Sure, it's a little small-town, a little retro with a shot-gun wedding, but these things happen and it's nice to see that she's dealing with it in such a positive way and is brave enough to face the criticism that is likely to come from the fundamentalists."
However, some of those fundamentalists -- the base that NEEDED to be energized -- would have been turned off. She's not REALLY a family values person, they would have thought. Can't even control her own daughter. Obviously wasn't living a good example by having a job instead of being a good mommy.
But no, that's not what the McCain people decided. Because they probably discovered with their vetting -- or maybe even Palin told them -- that there was this crazy rumor that Trig was actually Bristol's baby. Yes, as many of us forget, the rumors about Trig occurred long BEFORE Sarah Palin was named as McCain's running mate. If you can bear delving into the muck a little, you'll see that this rumor dates back at least four months, and includes speculation based on some unusual aspects of Trig's birth (the announcement of the pregnancy in the 7th month which shocked people, the last-minute flight from Texas to give birth after her water broke, and the still unconfirmed rumor that Bristol missed several months of school because of "mono").
THIS RUMOR WAS KEY FOR THE GOP TO SUCCEED IN PRESENTING PALIN TO THE PUBLIC.
Because what happens:
Sarah Palin introduces her family, without mentioning the pregnancy. The GOP reasons, "We can say we didn't talk about it because it is private and personal," even though the pregnancy was common knowledge and was likely to be discovered in a matter of days by a reporter who went to Wasilla.
Very, very quickly, the activist left (and others) stumble across the rumor about Trig's birth and asking questions. Some of us are curious, thinking that maybe there's something there, others are passionately against even talking about it. I won't relive that debate here, since most of us experienced it, but it happened.
Then, after the rumors heat up -- but don't actually make it into the MSM (at least that I've been able to find) -- AND WITH THE FUNDIE BASE ALREADY ACTIVATED on Palin's behalf -- the campaign "reluctantly" reveals that Palin's daughter is pregnant, thereby quashing the rumors about Trig's birth.
This ALSO allows them to begin the hue and cry of "sexism" and OPENLY DISCUSS THE RUMORS as if they came from the MSM or the Obama camp. Never mind the hypocrisy of crying "sexism" for a candidate who once called Hillary's much more justified claims "whining." Never mind that if Chelsea Clinton or Joe Biden's daughter were pregnant and unmarried it would be even worse than Lewinsky for some people. The Fundies had their new hero, had been given their marching orders, and are asked to do the Christian thing and forgive this poor teenager for her "fall" and bless her baby as a miracle.
And that's what's happening: THE McCAIN CAMP LET THE RUMOR FESTER in order to accomplish two things. One -- sell the Fundie base on Palin without revealing what some might consider a serious moral failing (having a pregnant, unmarried, underage daughter). Two -- make Palin the "victim" of sexism perpetrated by the MSM and "the Obama people."
This cry of sexism will now be used (quite inappropriately, but hopefully quite effectively) to defend ALL of Sarah Palin's weaknesses. "She's not really a commander-in-chief," we say. "SEXISM," they say, "you'd never say that to a man governor." "She has a tendency to fire people who disagree with her," we say. "SEXISM," they say. "You're saying she's too emotional because she's a woman." "Her husband was a member of a secessionist party that hates America," we say. "SEXISM," they say. "You think that she has to believe what her husband believes because she's a woman."
That's why Steve Schmidt's "outrage" at the press is so significant today, as Josh Marshall and others have pointed out. It is the GOP that is talking about the false rumors -- not the press. It is the GOP that are playing the gender card and insisting that Sarah Palin be held to a different standard because she's a woman. It is the GOP playing into the sexist bias by some in the MSM who now say that Biden has to be "soft" on Palin because she's a woman -- thereby putting critics of Palin in a box.
According the GOP, you can't attack Sarah Palin FOR ANY REASON because she's a woman, and attacking her would be sexist. Because, you know, she's a woman and it's not nice to attack a woman.
Fortunately, the controversies about Palin are more complex than this one issue. Even more fortunately, most of the women I know understand sexism much better than the GOP (damning with faint praise, I know) and aren't likely to fall for this. Too, the MSM is (not entirely but at least somewhat) realizing that at some point Palin's record does have to be analyzed and evaluated, and the more they get pushback and ire from the McCain camp, the more determined they will be to tell the truth about Sarah Palin.
And every day that goes by, the baby story will fall farther and farther into the distance. The GOP gambled that their bait-and-switch with the false rumors would play out long enough for people to rally to Palin's support and see her as a victim ("Just like Hillary was," they say in complete ignorance of historical fact). But it hasn't even been a week and the baby story has been replaced by question after question after question after question. At some point -- soon -- Sarah Palin's gonna have to sit down with the same reporters who have seen past Baby-gate and answer some tough questions about who she is, what she stands for, and how she explains her questionable governance of both Wasilla and Alaska.