I read on Yahoo that Palin is saying that she is the mother of the fifth child, AND that her daughter is pregnant and will marry the father. She got knocked up at the age of 16. She also asked that everyone respect the family’s privacy.

Typical conservative BS. They go around telling everybody else what to do, but when one of their own messes up, all of a sudden it’s a private matter.

This is unfortunately the outcome (teen pregnancy) in many fundamentalist Christian families where “abstinence only” is taught and teenagers are not informed about birth control.

As far as the objections above – while it’s more likely to happen with an older mom, most cases are from mothers younger than 35, and this could be one. It’s true that some women don’t show much, but pictures of her from earlier pregnancies show that she is not one of those women. And while fifth-time mothers may be more relaxed, I’m not seeing any mother all that relaxed about a premature baby.

This isn’t even close to X-Files or conspiracy theory stuff. This used to happen in this country all the time, and still does. I can completely see a traditional family deciding to handle this the old-fashioned way and a small closely-knit town helping with what would seem like a harmless deception for a good cause. I can especially see this happening in Alaska, which very much has that kind of mentality.

No one could have foreseen the national spotlight being turned on the Palins. It’s just their bad luck that this one time it does matter to people outside their family. I’m not faulting her for trying to save her daughter’s ‘reputation’, if that is what is going on, but if it is, I am faulting her for having the insanely bad judgement to think she could get away with it during a presidential campaign. That would be poor judgement on an epic scale for someone next in line to be president, and that makes it everybody’s business.

I would definitely call this more than a white lie. If she is this bastion of morality she’s made out to be, her own family “transgressions” are merely being covered up with lies. What kind of lies will she be willing to concoct when her administration does something really bad?

Wouldn’t this also make her a bad mother? Bristol (the 16 year old, who in a recent picture seems to be sporting a Wedding Ring) has probably already faced more scrutiny and embarrassment than any other teenage mother. Perhaps second only to Mary herself. Is it Bristol who is now suffering for her mother’s ambition? Would there have been nearly the same attention if Bristol was initially identified as the mother?

There are also pictures floating around of Palin during a past pregnancy. She was huge. Stark contrast to these recent pictures.

Birth announcement in the paper Note the date and hospital.

Birth announcement calendar from Mat-Su hospital. Note Palin’s name is absent.

All circumstantial evidence, but there is a fair bit of it.

Again, it really is none of our business. Had Palin not been McCain’s VP choice, it really wouldn’t be any of our business.

But, do we have a right to know any personal details of public figures in such a high office? Is there a line somewhere? Does it matter if the personal details are perceived to affect the person’s ability to perform the responsibilities of their office? On which side of the line would something like this fall?

On some level, if this is a lie, it is a lie being told because of her religious views.

Oh, wait. She does.

The last few years have shown Republicans to be hypocrites when it comes to moral issues, so if it was not her baby, she’s in good company.

HJ

The fact that she carried the pregnancy very discretely is not unheard of, particularly for long-waisted, athletic type women. And the idea that she flew home to deliver with her own doctor in her local hospital – while unusual – doesn’t seem unbelievable to me. It was her fifth pregnancy and by that time, mothers are pretty relaxed about giving birth and quite familiar with how much time they have to labor.