"Pregnancy hypocrisy" is a losing issue

[geek_sabre]

While Sarah Palin is anti-abortion, it doesn't necessarily mean that her offspring will be clones of her. While she can do her best to teach values as she sees them to her children, ultimately they are all individuals. Teenage pregnancy happens (its pretty rampant in Alaska), and ultimately this whole situation will endear the Palins to average Americans as a whole. Bristol's decision to raise the child and her parents supporting her will endear them even moreso to the Evangelicals. And it will neutralize the "Out-of-touch elitist" arguments against McSame.

My parents are rampantly anti-abortion Catholics, but I came out pro-choice. Does this mean they were bad parents? No, it means they did a good job raising me to be an individual. Hypocrisy in this situation would be Sarah Palin forcing her kid to get an abortion. What they're doing is "walking the walk" in terms of conservative values.

I'm not "defending" Palin here, but I'm defending the thousands of Americans who go through this situation. Teenage pregnancy does not make someone a bad parent.

[TwilightGardener]

1. Accepting the VP slot with a daughter who is undergoing very difficult and embarrassing

circumstances, and exposing her to national scrutiny, makes one a bad parent in my book. She should have thought of her family first and turned it down.

[madrchsod]

11. and a downs syndrome baby....she`s a loser

[TwilightGardener]

13. Yes--she has a daughter that needs her, and a brand-new infant that needs her, and

other kids too--and she accepts the VP slot and is either away or distracted all the time. Sorry, she gets a big thumbs-down for putting her ambitions ahead of her family.

[geek_sabre]

17. are we really arguing

that her place is to stay at home tending to her children?

Really?

[Curtland1015]

21. Of course not.

There is a HUGE difference between keeping the great job you already HAVE, and being able to watch after your family, and choosing glory over that family, and willingly dragging them through the dirt for your own gain.

It's nothing to do with sex.

This was a bad choice, man OR woman. You choose the job that allows you to take care of your family when they need it the most.

[Sanctified]

20. Is that just because she is a woman or would you hold a man to the same standards? n/t

[TwilightGardener]

22. I have no problem with working mothers. But sometimes you do have

to put your family first, instead of dragging them through the national spotlight and taking the VP slot when you have a brand-new infant. She's not working at Target, or some other ordinary job, like the rest of us--she could potentially be President. I like to think that women can do it all, but at some point that argument gets silly when we're talking about the toughest, most important job on earth. If she became President, who would suffer--her children, or us? And if Obama left his wife with a newborn to run for President, I'd think he wasn't a very good father, that he couldn't wait a couple years to realize his ambitions.

[Curtland1015]

28. I can't speak for every man here, but...

If I were in the same position Sarah Palin was in. If my wife had just given birth to a beautiful little baby with Downs Syndrome four months ago and I just found out my 17 year old daughter was pregenant, you bet your ass I would turn down an offer to campaign as Vice President of the United States.

Nothing, NOTHING is more important than family.

It hasn't got a damn thing to do with Sarah Palin being a woman, not to me anyway. It's got everything to do with her being a parent.

[Sanctified]

29. Really so you would turn down a job promotion at work.

Because basically moving from Governor to VP is a job promotion, I personally would take the job because I know I could better provide for my family with the better job.

[Curtland1015]

30. If it meant all the things for me that it does for her? In a heart beat.

If it really meant I'd be:

1. Leaving a job that, while not making me a millionaire, likely pays almost as well as the job I have now.

2. Taking that job (which pays little more mind you), that makes me work way more than I do now, be away from home sometimes weeks at a time, when I have a special needs baby at home and a pregnant teenage daughter.

3. Smearing my precious teenage daughter's name and making her embarassing situation basically the public knowledge of everyone.

...and I'd be doing all that for a TITLE promotion. For a job which I knew I wasn't qualified for, that I wouldn't be making much money for?

No, I sure as hell wouldn't take that "promotion".

[Sanctified]

31. I am not positive but I think VP is way easier than Governor.

VP is like the backup quarterback, you have to show up for practice but come game day your on the bench. Governor you have to call the shots and make decisions. I would rather be VP than a Governor, as VP you move yourself and family to Washington and have a cushy little job until that old man McCain kicks the bucket then you have a job. Hell she will probably have more time for her baby and daughter as the VP than Governor.

The only time you have a VP who really works is when you have a complete retard for a President like our current one.

[DJ13]

2. It undercuts Palin's credibility with the GOP base

....who's support happens to be the only reason she was chosen for VP by McCain's campaign.

[geek_sabre]

19. time will tell I suppose

but what i've read so far it isn't hurting her among their base. I doubt that they read this situation as her "going against their values," but rather the complete opposite.

[geek_sabre]

26. From James Dobson:

James Dobson: “In the 32-year history of Focus on the Family, we have offered prayer, counseling and resource assistance to tens of thousands of parents and children in the same situation the Palins are now facing. We have always encouraged the parents to love and support their children and always advised the girls to see their pregnancies through, even though there will of course be challenges along the way. That is what the Palins are doing, and they should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.

“Being a Christian does not mean you’re perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I’ve been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I’m sure the Palins have.

“The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a ‘hypocrite,’ but all it really means is that she and her family are human. They are in my prayers and those of millions of Americans.”

[Orangepeel]

3. teenage pregnancy doesn't make a bad parent...

but supporting abstinence only education and restrictions on birth control makes someone an idiot.

[magellan]

4. Um, it's conservative right who think teenage pregnancy equals a bad parent

...not the Left.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Perhaps you misunderstand where the hypocrisy lies.

Palin is on the record as wanting to replace sex education in public schools with abstinence misinformation.

Palin is proud of her daughter's choice to keep the baby, a choice she is on the record as wanting to deny everyone else's daughters.

Palin's decision to accept the VP nomination knowing full well that her daughter would be exposed to national media attention is interesting in light of her being portrayed as super hockey mom. It seems instead that she puts career over family.

McCain's failure to fully vet his VP choice is another glaring example of his poor judgement.

[malaise]

9. 100% correct

No surprise. :hi:

[malaise]

6. Spare me please

These fucking hypocrites are promoting abstinence policies in schools and attempting to brainwash people's children re birth control while their children are practicing the opposite. Their charities are collecting millions in the name of these bogus policies. Forget the simple issue of one pregnant girl here and deal with reality. These fucking lunatics have to be kicked out of office.

[Liberal Veteran]

7. Yes, yes. They can bash us with lies to their heart's content, but heaven forbid we use the truth.

Because we might hurt someone's feelings?


Fuck that.

[TwilightGardener]

14. How many people still believe that Obama is a muslim? That he isn't

a US citizen? That the Michelle "whitey" tape exists? That he snubbed the troops in Afghanistan? These were all smears by Freepers and Michelle Malkin types, founded on NO truth whatsoever, and they hurt Obama in the polls. But we're supposed to feel bad when Palin is forced to fess up? Please.

[Liberal Veteran]

16. Bingo. You've hit the nail on the head.

The right wing doesn't fight fair or with any sense of decorum or facts, so why should we bind our hands behind our backs and not go after them with facts?

[madrchsod]

8. she threw her child under the bus because of "internet rumors"

those rumors started with reasonably intelligent men and women who smelled something very strange about her pregnancy and her "water breaking". now it seems that story may not be true but it does`t absolve her of her selfish action at that time. she was more worried about her speech instead of her baby`s health and her own.

she`s as phony as a three dollar bill....the more we dig the worse it gets

[CitizenPatriot]

10. no way

they admit it themselves on freeper sites. this is republican/extremist christian hypocrisy at its worst.

Palin argues FOR abstinence and against sex ed? this proves that argument is null and void forever.

[Joanne98]

12. It's not a losing issue. It show lies and deception. Plus Palin is against sex-ed

in school. Now here 17 year old daughter is pregnant. Maybe no one told her about the birds and the bees.

[LostInAnomie]

15. I wonder if the baby was conceived under Palin's own roof.

Or someplace else where she wasn't keeping tabs on her daughter.

[fishwax]

18. Palin and the GOP would like to force her fundy values on all of us

That makes it relevant.

[TwilightGardener]

25. Yes--watch teenage pregnancy EXPLODE under fundie rule if she gets her way.

Abstinence only, birth control discouraged, no abortion. Holy God, forgive me if I don't feel bad at ALL about pointing out the hypocrisy.

[Matariki]

27. That's what they want, ultimately. AND for women to feel shame about sex.

It's a control thing. Creepy.

[high density]

23. Just imagine if Obama's 17 year old daughter was pregnant

The right wing would be ripping him to shreds for being a bad father, and not having the proper moral values to be president.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

24. Of course it's a loser.

There are much more important things to be talking about. Unfortunately, not even Democrats are immune from the sensational.

[NashVegas]

32. You Don't Have to Play It As "Hypocrisy" - Play It As "Pro-Teen Pregnancy"

We play it as bad common sense and poor judgment and tell people that young Miss Palin's pregnancy only highlights the dangerousness of the "abstinence only," anti-sex education, anti-reproductive choice crowd and we say that while we respect Mrs. Palin's right to set a Pro-Teen Pregnancy policy for her own family, we don't believe she should be given a mandate to impose a Pro-Teen Pregnancy policy on the rest of the American public.

[w4rma]

33. Agreed. Palin is 'pro-teen pregnancy'. (nt)