Fun Facts That You Probably Didn't Know About Sarah Palin Before She Became the Vice-Presidential Nominee - and Now Make You Question McCain's Judgment (or FFTYPDKASPBSBTVPN-ANMYQMJ for short...ish).
--> The big news, of course, is that Sarah Palin's 17 year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant. MSNBC's political blog greeted its readers with the headline: "Bristol Palin Pregnant - Right Now," as if we would assume "pregnant...5 years ago." Bristol apparently came to the decision by herself to keep the child and marry the father. It was really good to hear that she has the love and support of Governor Palin and her family, because anyone put in that situation deserves nothing less. At least this pregnancy puts to rest rumors that Governor Palin's latest child was, in fact, Bristol's and that Sarah had faked the pregnancy to cover it up.
The media initially had a field day with this news, even though it should be a relatively private matter (although it was always unlikely to be so in that sort of political environment). Palin even made the covers of both US Weekly and OK!, although not exactly in a flattering way.
Obama, meanwhile, spoke to the press and condemned their attention to this issue. He made it very clear that this has nothing to do with the election, and candidates' families are off-limits, and even drew on his own experience as the child of an 18 year-old, single mother to warn the media against pursuing this story so far. This certainly will make it harder for the GOP to accuse him of fanning the flames.
This story does, however, bring up the Republican ticket's sex-education views. Palin, in a 2006 survey, stated very clearly that she believes in abstinence-only sexual education. Hmm, that seems to have worked out well.
--> Then there was the story, later proven false, that Sarah Palin was once a member of the Alaskan Independence Party - a group whose "ultimate goal" is a popular vote to potentially allow Alaska to secede from the union. So this seems to clear up why the Conservative base loves Palin - she would have clearly symphathized with the Southern right to secede during the Northern War of Aggression. However, it seems that her husband was once a member.
--> Of course, there's her infamous "Troopergate" scandal. Basically, Governor Palin ordered Alaska's public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law. When he refused, she fired him. The Republican-controlled state legislature is in the process of a $100,000 investigation into this firing, and whether or not she abused her executive power. The results of this investigation could be pretty interesting for the McCain Campaign. Of course, they still have about an hour to drop her from the ticket without agreement from the RNC. Once she's officially nominated by the Republican Party, McCain can't make that decision himself.
There's lots of other stuff to consider about Palin; there's the actuarial likelihood that McCain dies in office, a survey suggesting that former Clinton supporters aren't as blinded by rage as I thought, a Republican strategist belittling McCain's choice as being a failure, and the admission (an unsurprising one at that) that Palin was not very vetted before being asked to be McCain's running mate. In fact, she was only interviewed by McCain's top vetter the day before McCain asked her.
However, I have a ton of reading to do tonight, and a super-duper-special-secret-exciting-awaited post to prepare for publishing tomorrow. Be warned, it may be the highlight of EDC's 2008 Election coverage so far.
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