Vice-presidential
nominee Sarah Palin turned heads in the Republican
Party when presidential hopeful John McCain added her name
to the ticket last week. Now she's turning
heads again with the announcement that her 17-year-old
daughter, Bristol, is pregnant with her first child.
Sarah Palin
confirmed the pregnancy Monday after bloggers began
reporting that Bristol was five months pregnant. Some
blogs suggested that Sarah Palin's newborn son
was actually Bristol's first child and that the
Alaska governor had been passing the baby off as her own,
though those rumors were quickly denied.
"Our beautiful
daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents
we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever
planned," Sarah and Todd Palin said in a
statement. "We're proud of Bristol's decision to
have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.
"Bristol and the
young man she will marry are going to realize very
quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why
they will have the love and support of our entire
family."
In response to
the announcement, Democratic presidential nominee Barack
Obama kept it clean, telling an audience full of supporters
that the family members of politicians should remain
off-limits.
"I have
heard some of the news on this, and so let me be a clear as
possible: I have said before and I will repeat again, I
think people's families are off-limits, and
people's children are especially off-limits.
This shouldn't be part of our politics," the
Democrat said at a press conference to discuss
Hurricane Gustav. "It has no relevance to Governor
Palin's performance as governor or her potential
performance as a VP. And so I would strongly urge
people to back off these kinds of stories."
Top McCain
campaign staffers told Reuters the Republican presidential
nominee was aware of the pregnancy when he made the decision
to add Sarah Palin to the ticket. But many Republican
pundits who have already dubbed Palin a risky choice
fear this is the first of many skeletons the VP
nominee has in her closet.
Response from
most conservatives has been predictably supportive, with
many praising Palin and her family for living up to their
"pro-life" and
"pro-family" views. Focus on the Family
founder Jim Dobson commended Palin for practicing her
values "even in the midst of trying
circumstances."
The Obama
campaign was quick to dispel rumors that it had in some way
been involved in leaking news of the pregnancy to the press.
Obama told reporters, "If I ever thought that
there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in
something like that, they'd be fired." (Ross von
Metzke, The Advocate)
