Sarah Palin has commanded the attention of a nation and its media for the past few weeks.  Critics wonder why the press has backed off from the many obvious issues in her personal and professional life that have most people wondering if she's qualified to hold any job, let alone that of Vice President.  I'm not sure that it's true that the press has any desire to give her a pass or to let things go untold.  I think, perhaps, they're overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what may be in her closets.

Sarah’s shiny and new and a polebrity if ever there was one.  She’s a different breed.  She’s not even trying to be a respectable, smart, take-me-seriously politician.  She’s being herself.  She’s making people laugh, being popular, reveling in her infamy and her inborn confidence that’s she’s the one to whom all eyes should turn.  All moose-massacring, enemy-firing, earmark-grabbing, college-hopping, plane-selling, lying, thieving, cheating, mother-from-helling, bible-thumping, gun-waving manic redneck lunacy ala Paris Hilton in The Simple Life or Denise Richards but on steroids. Trying to manage her in the ways that one might manage a real political opponent is not going to work, and I hope that Obama gets that message soon.

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/...

Last night on the News Hour, and citing unnamed sources close to the McCain campaign, Mark Shields laid out this scenario for how the Palin nomination actually came down. It was Lieberman who was McCain’s first pick for Veep all along. However, when the powers that be within the Republican Party learned McCain was actually daring to take that direction, he was told straight off. That’s not going to fly with us. So, ever the supposed maverick, McCain basically says, yeah? I can’t have Lieberman? Well try this one on for size.

Forget "Babygate". It's bogus and a distraction. I also think getting into a debate about Palin's experience is a minefield that could backfire on the Obama campaign, because truth be told Palin's experience compares well with Obama's, and he is at the head of the ticket.

However, one relevant fallout from the whole episode is a very reasonable question to ask Governor Palin in a debate, or any upcoming interview:

"Governor - you have expressed opposition to sex education in schools and have promoted an 'abstinence only' policy to avoid unwanted teen pregnancies. Do you still feel such a policy is wise and effective?"

doug

I have taken all of the various charges and missteps of Sarah Palin and her family and consolidated them (with supporting links) in one easy-to-read document. Want the "inside scoop" on Sarah Palin? An all-in-one outline of the many, many things she's messed up and the details of McCain's failure to vet? You've come to the right place.

Here we go again: Another diary dealing with the question of the actual mother of Sarah Palin's son was removed either by the writer as a result of pressure from critics, or by some other force.

I was in the midst of adding my own comment to a diary written by a woman with an apparent medical background that had the title, "Babygate 2: Why Did Gov. Palin Risk Trig's Health?", and when I clicked to publish my comment, the woman's diary had already vanished. Instead, I got a message that said:

Sorry. I can't seem to find that story. j 1 k 1 l

The critics whose comments prompted my attempt to post my own raised the now familiar grounds for not addressing any aspect of the strange events surrounding the birth of Trigg, and the tone of the critics seemed like SNL’s Church Lady; and some critics had obviously not read the full diary, but instead just piled on like sycophantic followers of those they view as the "leaders".

So, I log onto aol.com to check my mail - by the way, I hate aol.com's main page with the white hot intenisty of a million suns - when it's not celebrity horsecrap or "top 10 embarassing moments with a cell phone" ("OMG!  I wrote a nasty text message to my ex-boyfriend and I sent it to my dad!"), there is right wing crap like this:

"A Family Drama Plyed Out in Public", with a picture of Sarah Palin lovingly holding her beloved daughter, looking concerned.

I see Sarah Palin as a politician who would say anything to get ahead.   This is a lady who lied in her acceptance about being against the bridge to nowhere (after she was for it) -- a topic nobody brought up.  It was her choice to bring up the bridge.  I was her choice to lie about it.  

Recently the Palin's released a statement saying Levi and Bristol are getting married.   This seems to be enough for the religious right.  Apparently, a promise of marriage takes the distaste out of the revelation that another underaged teen is pregnant.  

I wonder, if this marriage was just another lie... just to get through the election... how would some of the more pious and earnest Christians feel?   How would my Aunt feel?  

I’m not a McCain supporter by any means, but what on earth does Palin’s daughter Bristol’s pregnancy have to do with the campaign?

From what I’ve read, there was an ill-fated bloggers’ attempt to discredit Palin with an outrageous smear that she was trying to cover up Bristol’s pregnancy by falsely claiming to have given birth to her 5th child and that she was “really” the grandmother and not the mother.

To stop the smears, Palin ended up providing the actual facts about what the media should have left alone as a private family matter.

Palin did nothing wrong here. The bloggers show themselves to be muck-raking scandal mongers of the worst kind. And as for Bristol? What? Nobody has ever heard of a 17 year old becoming pregnant and marrying the father? Geez. Obama’s mother herself was just 18 years old when she was pregnant with Barack and married her first husband, Barack Obama senior. So what?

I believe this picture was taken on March 7, 2008 on the day of the interview with CBS 11 KTVA reporter Andrea Gusty when Palin went public with her pregnancy. I believe the interview took place in the Alaska Legislature. The story is listed on YouTube as:
Governor Palin: pregnancy won't interfere with duties

More below the fold...

Congrats guys, We really did it this time.

Here it is:

OK, there is a visibly-pregnant Sarah Palin talking with a CBS 11 (Dallas Juneau) reporter at the Governor's meeting in Texas end of the Alaska legislative session.  She clearly appears to be pregnant.

Unless someone has counter evidence, we can drop this crap now.  Yes, there are still some interesting questions, such as why she flew to Dallas and back when she was this pregnant, and why the Alaska Airlines crewmembers insisted that she was not visibly pregnant on the flight.  Nevertheless, until this photo is debunked, we look stupid pushing this rumor.

That is all.

It's true, folks.  

Confused conservative Andrew Sullivan has just taken Sarah Palin's "BabyGate" mainstream:

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Questions for the McCain-Palin campaign:

   Where has Bristol Palin (far right, holding Trig, with a ring on her wedding finger) been for the past year? Has she been attending high school? Or was she absent because of infectious mononucleosis for between five and eight months, as is now being reported on the Internet?

   Why would a 43 year old woman, on her fifth pregnancy, with a Down Syndrome child, after her amniotic fluid has started to leak, not go to the nearest hospital immediately, even if she was in Texas for a speech?

   Why would she not only not go to the hospital in Texas, but take an eight-hour plane flight to Seattle and then Anchorage?

   Why would she choose to deliver the baby not in the nearest major facility in Anchorage but at a much smaller hospital near her home-town?

   Why did the flight attendants on the trip home say she bore no signs of being pregnant?...

If you have been to drudge withing the last half hour the buzz surrounding baby gate has put a link on the news aggregate site Drudge report.

Red Pen of Freeperville seems to think he/she has ended the BabyGate controversy. Instead his "proof" picture raises more questions than answers and using a Freeper site has of course yielded a bunch of crap information.