It's glorious in its puffery...you'd think it was written for People:
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) -- Levi Johnston, who's having a baby with Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter, can't believe all the things he's hearing.
No, he wasn't held against his will on the campaign trail. No, he's not being forced into a shotgun wedding with 17-year-old Bristol Palin.
"None of that's true," Johnston, 18, said in a rare interview with The Associated Press. "We both love each other. We both want to marry each other. And that's what we are going to do."
But wait...there's more...
The article calls him "soft-spoken" and Johnston blames his adolescent MySpace page on his friends.
Johnston, a Wasilla heartthrob, said he wanted to set the record straight. For starters, he said his much-maligned MySpace page was a joke -- the one that claimed he said: "I'm a ... redneck," and "I don't want kids." Johnston said his friends created the page a few years ago and he had nothing to do with it. Johnston said he has dated Palin since his freshman year in high school.
Yes, he's actually a quiet, classy guy.
Last July on a caribou hunt he lost a "promise" ring that Palin had given him. He said he decided to tattoo her name on the finger and not bother with more rings because he'd just lose them anyway.
Yes, the article describes him as a "dark haired, tall and muscular, sports a bit of stubble and drives a red Chevy Silverado truck...the perfect cover for Field & Stream."
The fawning is positively nauseating in spots.
The really telling bit of this article, however, is the statement about Johnston's future:
The baby is due Dec. 18. Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.
So he won't have a complete high school education. In a day when a college education is the key to improving one's life in nearly every way (higher pay, longer expected lifespan, less unemployment, higher quality of life, etc., etc., etc.) why on Earth is this drawing praise from the media rather than pity or concern?
I just don't understand.