Kind of right under our noses, there's a shocking, freaky 'Breaking News' story on the National Enquirer website (regarding the Palin family, naturally ... ) I understand the general reluctance to discuss such topics here, but my real question is this: the National Enquirer is available in every supermarket across our great land, and people trust it far more than other comparable rags ... will these wild Enquirer stories incinerate the Republican ticket? I think they might.
The new allegations in the Enquirer concern the Palin kids' hard drug abuse, openly claiming that Track, the eldest son who is headed for Iraq, was addicted to Oxycontin. The pregnant Bristol is also portrayed as a hard partyer ... it's very, very explosive and wild stuff, portraying the real Palin household as just the total antithesis of the white picket fence image the Republican machine has crafted for the ticket.
Last week's Enquirer cover story was also on Palin and her frantic attempts to hide her daughter's pregnancy and get the teenagers married before Palin's convention speech. The pregnancy, according to the Enquirer, was announced literally hours after the Enquirer informed Palin that they were going to break the story anyway.
I don't know how many kos readers also follow the Enquirer, but I assure you its impact is not insignificant; they claim a readership of over 15 million, and that is not counting the considerable number of its readers who hardly ever pay, but rather wolf the thing down in line at the supermarket (and yes, I count myself among the latter ...)
The Enquirer also promises details of the alleged affair between Sarah Palin and her husband's ex-business partner (who tried and failed, fellow Palin addicts may recall, to have his divorce records sealed.)
Again, I know we don't like to talk about this sort of thing, but I think that this is literally the deepest, most significant thorn in the side of the McCain campaign. With the credibility of the Enquirer riding quite high now on the heels of the Edwards business, I don't see how the McCain camp can claim that it's a partisan attack, or claim that the Enquirer has no credibility (let us not forget how quickly Edwards cracked and admitted that the reports were correct.)
I should have thought it impossible that I would ever say this, but the exposure of Edwards, which was very painful to so many of us, has wound up helping Democrats in a way we could none of us have predicted.