Michael Braun's Blog

The news keeps rolling out about Sarah Palin and family. First, I had been actively following online rumors that Sarah Palin’s fifth child (Trig, the one with Down’s Syndrome) is actually her eldest daughter’s (Bristol’s) baby. The rumors were completely unsubstantiated and fairly libelous. There was a lot of talk about Palin not informing others she was pregnant until into her eighth month, flying on a plane after she had (supposedly) gone into labor, not looking pregnant at all, and Bristol being absent from school for five months with a case of (evidently extreme) mononucleosis.

But now, there’s some real news that makes the whole rumor even more interesting. It turns out that Palin’s daughter Bristol is actually pregnant. That’s right, the daughter who was rumored to be the mother of Palin’s fifth child is actually going to be a mother (perhaps again) for real. She’s going to marry the dad and live happily ever after. They released this information to the media in hopes of quieting down the rumors. In my opinion, those rumor flames just got fanned to the extreme; if she is going to have a kid, isn’t it possible she already had one? This could be the second oops baby for Bristol Palin.

Whether the rumor is true or not, one thing cannot be denied. This sucks majorly for a lot of people involved. Let’s go through them.

1. Bristol Palin, America’s new most famous pregnant teenager.
She’s got a nutjob mom (Evangelical Christian) who probably forgot to teach her about a little thing called safe sex. She meets a nice boy and does what feels good. Unfortunately, that good feeling ends in a pregnancy. And her mother, whom she needs at a time like this, is the governor of Alaska. Kind of sucky, but what’s she going to do? Mom tries to be supportive. But then she learns her mom isn’t exactly satisfied with just being governor. She’s going to run for Vice President of the United States! And to do that, she’s got to tell the whole world that her daughter is knocked up. Suddenly, poor Bristol goes from being a regular pregnant teenager to a world famous pregnant teenager. She becomes so famous that Barack Obama has to put out a press release about her pregnancy. And her mom won’t even be able to be by her side while she goes through this; she’s too busy touting off-shore oil drilling across the country. That really sucks.

2. Sarah Palin, the mother who proved abstinence-only education does not work.
Sarah Palin tried to do right by her children, teach them values, responsibilities, how to be good citizens. She just forgot one thing; she forgot to say, “if you’re going to have sex, for god’s sake, use a condom.” And that one little mistake now makes her look like a bit of a monster. She’s got five kids, 4 under the age of 18, 1 an infant with Down’s Syndrome, and 1 a pregnant high schooler. And she’s also running for Vice President. There are some amazing people in this world, and mothers are some of the most amazing. But I seriously question the commitment of any parent (mother or father) who agrees to engage in a campaign with so many issues at home. And this is bound the be the same question asked privately (if not publicly) around the United States. No parent is that amazing.

3. John McCain, the man with infinitely questionable judgment.
First, he picks a complete unknown for his running mate. She’s got little experience. She’s got five young kids. She makes him look like he’s pandering to women (who boo when she mentions Hillary Clinton in a speech). Basically, this “maverick” choice makes McCain look like a moron. And now, it turns out he knew that her daughter was pregnant before he picked her. This tops all other questionable judgments that he’s made. He has picked an Evangelical Christian as his running mate, except that it just so happens that she wasn’t able to use Jesus well enough to keep her on the straight and narrow. Jesus saves, but he doesn’t do a very good job at handing out condoms. So now McCain is stuck explaining something else to everyone: how does he feel about hauling a mother of five kids (two of whom now have special needs) onto the campaign trail? And how in the world did he think it would be a good idea to pick her for a running mate?

Applause for Obama for saying that her family is off limits. But even if this does not come out on the campaign trail, a conversation is starting in households across America. Is Sarah Palin right for the Vice Presidency? Ignoring her Evangelical Christianity, her serious ties to Big Oil, her support for the Bridge to Nowhere, her insistence that we drill in ANWR, her lack of experience, her questionable actions now being probed by an Ethics Committee, and her second place finish in the Miss Alaska contest – ignoring all that and just focusing on how she has been running her family – is she really fit for the second highest office in our nation? I’ll leave you to answer for yourself, but my answer is a resounding “absolutely not.”

What will media outlets like CNN do when Hurricane Gustav is just a memory? Probably go back to smearing Obama for not being 30 points ahead in the polls. But for now, they are off and running with hurricane news constantly. Right now (1645, Monday), on CNN.com, 11 of 21 stories relate to Gustav. I bet the Weather Channel website has a lower percentage.

It would seem that CNN and other media outlets do not want to let Gustav slip by, like George Bush did with Katrina. I’m not sure what kind of coverage CNN had of Katrina, but it seems likely they see even more possibility to cash out with a big hurricane hitting New Orleans, again! And of course, with the Republican National Convention getting severely scaled back due to the hurricane, CNN needs something to cover. If they can’t cover “the original maverick,” they can at least glorify the horrors of a storm-battered city.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are trying to take advantage of the hurricane as well. McCain has spoken about turning the event into a big service project. Service for what? McCain can’t lift his arms above his head, he shouldn’t be out in the sun, and he may need a walker soon – how is he going to help? Plus, people will need help after the storm has left, not while the waves are crashing. In other words, Republicans really timed the convention wrong. They should have planned for the Democrats to meet while the storm raged, and then they could have come to help AFTER the damage had been done. Instead, when people need help, McCain will be back on the campaign trail.

It will be interesting to see if the change of schedule does affect the Republican convention. I almost wonder if it could help McCain. After all, the Republicans do not have a bevy of speakers lined up to praise McCain. They can’t find speakers nearly as passionate and eloquent as Michelle Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and Obama himself. McCain has barely enough passion to get out of bed in the morning, let alone deliver a good speech. Plus, the speeches would all be about worshiping Ronald Reagan, how Obama wants to raise taxes on the middle class, and how the Democrats have no real solutions. Those points are tired and old, just like John McCain.

We’ll have to wait and see how bad Gustav really is, but until then, expect CNN to milk it for all its worth.