I’m off for the Labor Day weekend. Little would I have known that my scheduled weekend away, right in the heart of Palin country (known to Alaskans as “The Valley”) would fall on the weekend she became one of our Vice Presidential nominees. No, it still hasn’t sunk in. I’ll be passing through Wasilla itself and will post more pictures when I return, and get some local reaction on the ”day after”. I’ll have internet access, though it will be dial-up. Eek.
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UPDATE: Just watched the back-to-back McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden rallies in the “rust belt”. I was waiting to hear Palin’s second speech, but got the recycled speech from yesterday. McCain’s intro was the same too. Palin keeps referencing Alaska, which no doubt endears her more to her fan base here, but I keep asking myself….can people relate to Alaska gas issues? When she talks about Juneau, do they even know that’s the capitol of Alaska?
The most remarkable thing? The McCain camp obviously hoped to endear themselves to the disgruntled Hillary supporters by choosing a female running mate. But when Palin saluted Hillary Clinton saying that she ran her campaign with ‘determination and grace’….there were Boos. Lots of them. I’m guessing that any Hillary supporters who had tuned in to check out the McCain/Palin party didn’t feel very welcome. I doubt that they’ll mention Hillary again on the open road. They won’t want to risk that again. Maybe we’ll hear it at the convention where delegates will understand it’s strategically not good to jeer at the candidate whose votes you hope to win.
Then the Obama/Biden appearance. Looks like they’re being cautious about Palin. Obama referred to Biden as one of the great statesmen of our times. They didn’t even have to say Palin for everyone to make that comparison in their minds. Then Obama made reference to the fact that he’d visited every state except Alaska, and that, come to think of it, he ought to visit now. He’s been saying this for months, but nothing firm yet. I think it would be great. Obama got 75% of the votes in the Democratic caucus here, and the caucus site in Anchorage was packed. People were literally having to park 2 miles away from the caucus site and ran in 5 below zero to make it in on time. I know many people that couldn’t even make it into the building. I think a huge rally for Obama would go a long way to show how much support he has in Palin’s home state.
In my trip throgh the Valley today, I didn’t see any McCain signs. I wasn’t really surprised, as McCain came in a less-than-impressive fourth in the Alaska Republican caucus. But I’m sure when the name Palin gets added, they will pop up like mushrooms overnight. I did see a resurrected ‘Sarah Palin for Governor’ sign in front of a store. The shopkeep said he cried with joy when he heard the news, and that she was a good woman who supported Alaskans. Then he said that he had given up on all those ‘liberal socialists’ and decided they may as well all be ’queer’. I’m hoping that this is one of the more extreme reactions, and I was really glad I took the Obama sign out of my car window before leaving home.
The only other person I’ve talked to so far is an Independant (over 50% of Alaskan voters are Independant or registered non-partisan) who said she was stunned by the announcement and added, “But she’s not qualified!” She also said that she didn’t remember Palin standing up against the Bridge to Nowhere.
More tomorrow.
would love to hear your thoughts on babygate… is it wishful thinking/mud slinging or could there be truth there?
Can’t wait to hear what the locals have to say about this!
I’m confused about this blog. What is the author trying to say? If you come from small town America, you couldn’t handle politics or succeed at the national level?
Wake up, look at history. This country and it’s successes didn’t solely originate in LA or NYC.
Has Palin been out of the country? What is the point of this comment? Should she going on the European tour as BO did?
I too have concerns about the investigation in Alaska. If true, it’s clearly and abuse of power; but so is attempting to send DOJ attack dogs against AIP.
Let’s have the investigation conclude and then call Palin on it. By the same token, BO needs to address the message in the AIP campaign ad, not attack the messenger.
But I shouldn’t comment. By the blog author’s opinion everything I say is invalid because I was reared in a small town in Kansas. Never mind that I’ve traveled to 30 plus countries in this world and have overnighted in places that would make Wasilla look like Vegas (been there too).
Let’s allow Palin to speak of her specific policy positions before tearing her down. BO refuses to provide details as he knows his ideas stand on shaky foundations.
Jack:
You say: “Never mind that I’ve traveled to 30 plus countries in this world”.
Fantastic. It’s surprising McCain didn’t pick you. And I bet you’ve actually given some thought to the Iraq situation too!
I love it. I’m excited about what fresh thoughts they can bring to our country. My votes decided and it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m a 44 year old woman. It’s because he’s got the history and she’s got the brains. This is a fabulous combination.
“and she’s got the brains”
Twila, absolutely! I’d take a beauty queen / Journalism Major from Idaho U over a Harvard Law / constitutional scholar any day!
Bill Clinton came from Hope, Arkansas… a very poor and rural small town. He was also a state governor.
Key differences:
Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar who got a Law degree from Yale.
Arkansas Attorney General (2 years)
Governor of Arkansas (12 years)
Headed the national Democratic Leadership Council (2 years)
Chair of National Governors Association (2 years)
Republicans attacked Bill Clinton relentlessly in 1992 for his lack of national and international experience.
Experience is not the sole predictor of judgment and wisdom. With 50+ years of combined national/international experience, Cheney and Rumsfeld have made a complete mess of Iraq, Afganistan, and our international relationships in general. And there nothing wrong with coming from a small town (I grew up in a small Illinois farm town of 1,500 myself). But if you only left that small town 18 months ago, one might reasonably question your readiness to lead the largest nation in the world.
“and she’s got the brains”???
Do you really think that Palin is on par with Hillary Clinton, Kay Hutchinson, Elizabeth Dole, Condi Rice, etc…? Palin is not stupid by any means, and seems very engaging based upon the videos I’ve been able to find. But if she is providing the brains for this ticket, the Republicans are in deep, deep trouble.
Joke, I mean Joko. You are obviously very passionate about this. What’s so funny is your constant sarcasm. I’ll bet these posts just make your blood boil. How’s that workin for ya?
My question is, if she’s known for “cleaning up” the administration in Alaska, who will she oust if McCain wins? Will she have the balls to take on an ethics investigation in D.C. or has she sold out? I’m still learning about this person.
My fear is that Americans will be so stupid as to vote for a ticket just because there’s a woman on there. I know Hillary supporters who won’t give Obama a second look, they’re the voters who scare me!
I think the person responsible for this website is Wooten and or someone related to him. So much venom!
Site posted on Digg @ http://digg.com/politics/Sarah_Palin_Revealed.
Twila:
“I’ll bet these posts just make your blood boil”
Laughing my ass off is more like it. And “that’s workin” for me just fine, thanks!
Maybe I should have said: Twat, I mean Twila.
Nah…that would make me sound like an idiot.
Well, I never heard of the woman until I saw her on TV but I can tell you ONE thing: she’s a perfect example of what happens when you let a straight do your hair styling.
Maybe I should have said: Twat, I mean Twila.
Nah…that would make me sound like an idiot.
No, that would make you sound like John McCain, that is what he called his wife Cindy (Different word same meaning)
Granny, that’s damn funny!
Wow… Love the blog. While in Wasilla, can you find any people she smoked pot with?
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1837523_1837531_1837534,00.html
Judy Asman – if she becomes VP, the first person she’ll go after will be John McCain himself. Afterall, there’s his family connections to the mafia (his father-in-law served fed pen time for mob activities and was given the beer distributorship in exchange for not ratting out his fellow mobsters) and for his role (never fully vetted) in the Lincoln Savings and Loan corruption investigation.
Palin will do to McCain as she did to Reudirth.
Groundhogday–well said. Thank you!
I’m from a small town and I also went to the U of Idaho, and I (as a woman, a mother and a patriot) couldn’t be more astonished or infuriated by McCain’s choice. Palin is totally unprepared and categorically unqualified to lead this nation.
My state education was fine, but let’s get real, the U of I ain’t Harvard or Princeton. And even in this state education context, she certainly didn’t exert herself:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/university_of_idaho_professors.html
A journalism major who never even wrote an article for the school paper?? Oy.
This selection is an embarrassment to the GOP and an insult to the office of Vice President.
Bookmarked !!
¶ AIO
I am a mother who thinks. I am a mother of a child – now 21 – with Down syndrome. I am an Alaskan who raised her child in Alaska (along with another kid, a husband, an education, and a job with benefits.)
IT IS THE HARDEST THING I EVER DID. It took everything I had, and more. There were highlights – but they in no way balanced the demands, frustrations, and dark nights of the soul. The impact on my nondisabled son is still being felt. My marriage effectively turned into a parenting partnership with no future that escaped the impact of having a child with significant and inescapable needs.
I was, by our society’s standards, well-equipped to cope with this unexpected aspect of parenting. It devastated me nonetheless. When my son was born I had no idea what lay ahead. It was gut-wrenching determination and motherlove that carried me forward. I still can’t count it a success.
I learned, through much hard work, how to navigate the system that we all think exists for “all” children and adults with disabilites. Had I not been intent on accessing services, finding out how agencies and regulations work, and forcing them to work for us, the outcome would have been far worse for my child, family, and self.
Had I been less able, less determined, less economically able, less educated….I don’t know how I could have survived to “make the best” of the life I had been handed. I can’t count the times I thought, “What do other parents do? I want to quit trying to make this work.”
Do I wish I could have been spared this challenge? Make that a resounding YES. Do I think that my child should have been spared the difficulties, loneliness, heartache, and exclusion that disability, by nature, means? Make that a YES too. Would I have chosen to terminate the pregnancy had I had the foreknowledge and choice? Yes, even from the other end of the trail, now that my child is grown in years but will forever remain a child, dependent, vulnerable in an uncertain world.
What disturbs me most about Sarah Palin’s choice to continue her pregnancy, knowing that her child would have Down syndrome, is that she would make that choice for me, or my sister, or my daughter, or my friends, male and female alike. No one can decide for us. Certainly not “government” who cannot be counted on to help the hundreds of thousands of those with disabilities, already and to-be-born.
Oh, and have I mentioned this? I, who through struggle and persistence and crisis, mastered the service and funding system, have a reasonably happy kid. He still and will struggle through his lifetime with mental retardation and related behavior and communication issues. He lives in federally subsidized housing, attends public school as an intensive-needs student, gets his healthcare through medicaid, and has 24 hour care from direct service providers. When you make the system work, you can build a community-based life for your child.
Only a small percentage of those who need this level of care can get it. Without advocacy, forget it. Without continued funding of education, healthcare, vocational, and independent living services, this will all go “POOF.” The waitlist, even in a small state like Alaska, has over a thousand people on it, many for years. Most languish at home with aging parents or siblings. Some are receiving “care” in corrections while they try to find someone to “take” them. Some are homeless.
My son’s cost of care is over $200,000 a year. Thank you, taxpayers. And the Chinese lenders.
Palin has delegated the care of her infant with Down syndrome to others. I don’t know how this can be done, emotionally or financially. Kudos to her if she and her family pull this off. They are well-positioned financially, socially, and politically to do this. I think that this is not an option for 99.9% of families who include children and adults with disabilites.
To take the position that EVERY American family SHOULD and MUST be denied the option to terminate a pregnancy that will result in hardship, cost, heartache, and diminished possibilities that will last a lifetime is just plain wrong. I could never support a candidate on any ticket that would take the hardline prolife position she takes. She can no more use her experience to decide for all than I can.
But it is about CHOICE. About REALITY. And no one can decide that for someone else, and force them into the netherworld of disability.
Powerfully written, Mother.
Having interacted with Down’s adults in extended-care facilities (put into care out of necessity when the parents couldn’t handle them as they grew too large to control and tend to in the family’s home) , anyone who knowingly subjects themselves, their family and a child to that bleak life is no better than a parent who retrofits their child into a “Pillow Angel”.
Mother Who Thinks,
Excellant Post.
Well as one of Hillary’s PUMA supporters, this one pushed me over the edge. I could no more support someone of Palins lack of depth, experience and ideology than I could stick a fork in my eye (or shoot a moose). The selection of this vindictive queen has flung me into the Obama camp with a vengeance. As a native of Northeast PA, I am one of the people that the McCain camp was courting. I am still angry about the Hillary situation. Heck, I even considered and briefly did join Ralph Nader.
No how. No way. No McCain/Palin.
To the person who commented on Sarah’s hair – no, it’s what happens when one has hair extensions – which Sarah, at one time, don’t know about now, had.
Re: babygate – I don’t know what’s being reported. Here, however, is the truth. Trig is Sarah and Todd’s baby.
When Sarah first learned she was pregnant, it was shocking and overwhelming. While she and Todd had not planned to have anymore children, it is common knowledge among their family and friends that neither of them ever surgically insured that they wouldn’t have any “late in life” surprises/blessings.
This, to me, showed a disturbing lack of judgement. If you want to ask the citizens of a state to let you run the state for four years, to me she and Todd should have thought ahead and determined that the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy wouldn’t have been prudent for either the child, their family, their extended family (who are the ones who end up helping them raise their current four children) or the citizens of the state.
They either didn’t think this through, or didn’t care. Not sure. But, either way, to me and to others, it was a lack of foresight and judgement.
But it is the same vein – this lack of judgement – Sarah showed, on the campaign trail for governor, when asked who would raise her children should she win, she promptly stated that Todd would quit his job and stay at home with the kids (Todd works a “Slope” week on/week off schedule).
Sarah was elected and then – whoops. Todd didn’t like the stay at home gig – so Sarah, citing they needed money for the kid’s college (even though Track enlisted in the military) said Todd was returning to work. When asked about her statements on the campaign trail about how Todd would quit his job, Sarah said she’d actually never talked to him about what they would do if she was elected (in terms of his employment) and that she’d spoken out of turn when she spoke for him stating he’d quit his job.
Again, call me picky, but this is the kind of bizarre judgement Sarah routinely displays. Are you kidding me that she would run for governor and she and her husband would somehow not think to have a conversation about what to do with their four school aged kids? That’s insane. So, either her judgement is super goofy, or she wasn’t telling the truth. Either way, it’s not reassuring to now think this is someone who would be one 72 year old heartbeat away from having to call shots for the country/world.
So Todd trots himself back to work and Sarah is busy traipsing around the state and the nation. The kids are “farmed out” (this is the word used by thier associates in “the Valley”) to family and friends to raise while Todd and Sarah are off having their respective careers (Sarah is famously quoted as saying, “My mom does whatever I need her to”).
During this period is when Bristol, Sarah’s sixteen year old daughter, turns up pregnant. So, it’s kind of interesting to note that the Republican Vice Presidential Nominee and her sixteen year old junior in high school unwed daughter were carrying babies at the same time. Once Bristol’s condition became more obvious this summer, she was whisked out of sight and hasn’t been seen in public until yesterday in Ohio. This is why Trig’s blanket was strung across her entire abdomen and torso, but, when she walked down the stairs from the stage, in a profile shot, it was very clear to see she is well into her third trimester of her pregnancy.
It has come out in the past couple of days that she and her high school boyfriend had a quickie wedding and that she is home schooling her senior year.
The Anchorage Daily News has known about this for months – and haven’t touched the story. But I can’t imagine the national press or the Democratic Party will be as willing to turn a blind eye.
For me, once again it speaks to judgement. We all – every single one of us – even Sarah’s closest friends in the Valley (I know, I’ve been speaking to them) know she is in no way qualified for this position. At all.
But then, why would she accept the nomination, knowing that Bristol’s situation will come to light and knowing her hunger for national and international acclaim and attention will carry with it a mighty high price for her seventeen year old daughter who had absent parents last year and who turned up pregnant.
How embarrassing will it be for Bristol once the news (or the baby) comes out and not just the Valley, not just Alaska, not just the USA – but Bristol will be known the world over as the seventeen year old unwed – then quickly wed senior-in-high-school-homeschooled-teenage mom and daughter to the Republican Vice Presidential Nominee?
How hard will that degree of scrutiny and shame be?
How does one do that to one’s daughter?
How does one dash about the country for the next 66 days trying to pull off an image of the devoted mother of five when she, by and large, isn’t the one raising them and when one of them – her daughter, is in a truly vulnerable point in life; not to say anything about the needs of Trig. But maybe he doesn’t count, except as a talking point or a photo prop. But this is a person, a little boy who is going to require a tremendous amount of time and attention. From his mother.
This is okay?
This isn’t going to have a pretty ending.
Ok. If Palin’s daughter is pregnant, it’s really none of our business. People like you are the reason why the Democratic Party loses each election.
The stories abound about Trig being Bristols baby, Bristol is pregnant again, Sara never being pregnant. How much of this is truth and how much is slander?
Personally I don’t think having children is scandalous even if you aren’t married. If Sara is just trying to be a supportive Mom, kudos. But if all of this is being lied about and hidden, then it is a problem. I do have reservations about knowingly having a child with Down’s syndrome and I am sort of pro-life (with a few exceptions) just as I am anti death penalty (again with severe reservations).
The hypocrisy and lying is the issue here if there is a “here” here. It appears as if Gov. Palins personal and family life is one big messy flotsam regarding her vendetta against her brother in law, deserved or not, along with the weirdness about the pregnancy(ies?)
This blog should be renamed the “Alaskan Democratic Party Blog”. Anyone with any intelligence at all would realize that Sarah’s ratings do not reflect the venom shown here. I would think that by now even the demo’s would realize that it is lawyers, a lot of them from the big name law schools, that have screwed up this country for years. A regular person who is just like the rest of us will probably use more sense and have better results than our lawyer politicos. As for the “Troopergate” thing that is going on, a lot of Alaskans such as myself are asking, why is someone who has had domestic volience charges filed, illegally sot a moose, tasered an 11 year old (no matter the circumstances), threatened the Palin family and was driving drunk, still serving as a trooper? My feelings is that both he and his boss should have been fired.
Sue,
Is this true? I like the pick for McInsane but I do not understand it. She has no experience on the national scene and only limited in AK. This just makes no sense.
Thank you,
MHammon
Hello One Love. I live in this Valley. I know the Heath/Palin families. I am a proud Republican. And I’m a conservative. Frankly, if Democrats realized how socialistic and liberal Sarah is in her governing stances, probably they’d welcome her on the ticket.
My points were directed at her judgement. I do not trust Sarah’s judgement.
Just like her decision, once her water broke while, according to her, she was in the middle of delivering an address in Texas, and she decided she “just couldn’t deliver her baby in Texas,” so she hopped on two flights and flew for ten hours plus back to Alaska where Trig was born just a couple hours later.
She is 44. She knew she had a medically classified high risk pregnancy. She knew she was carrying a special needs baby. She knew she was in active labor one month prior to her due date. She knew her water had broken (which means she is in what is considered medically active labor) when she chose to put herself on two long flights.
This is sound judgement?
This is not sound judgement.
I will not vote for Sarah to be one heart beat away from having to make decisions that effect every citizen of our country on matters of national security. She has demonstrated to me that she is faulty in making decisions of security and safety when it comes to her own children.
Most of us are pretty tired of the “regular person” approach to running the country. Big name schools don’t mean much if you are at the bottom of your class (both Bush & McCain barely graduated Yale and the Naval Academy with help from their fathers). I prefer smart people running things and who have enough sense to hire the smartest person for the job, not the one you want to have a beer or shoot a moose with. We’ve had enough with the lowest common denominators.
In fairness to the trooper, most of the charges were put by Palin and her sister and were unsubstantiated. There are more than one side to the stories. According to court papers, Palins father and ex wife were there on the moose hunt and Palins dad butchered and distributed the game to the family, Sara included and the charge was filed 2 years after the incident during the custody battle. It is my understanding that the test-tasered boy, now 17, has chosen to live with his dad, the trooper and that charge was brought 2 years after the incident as well.
In the game of Chess sometimes an opponent will make the most moronic move possible to confound and confuse the other player. McCain has made just such a move.
“To take the position that EVERY American family SHOULD and MUST be denied the option to terminate a pregnancy that will result in hardship, cost, heartache, and diminished possibilities that will last a lifetime is just plain wrong.”
Mother who thinks: thank you for your post. It is terrifying to think that in a country with no universal health care and little in the way of welfare could condemn women to being unable to choose what to do with their own bodies. Next they will be telling us they’re getting rid of contraception too.
If you’re a 13 year old girl that gets pregnant because your daddy rapes you, this woman is going to say, “Sorry, but that’s a life in there”. What about the life of that 13 year old girl? How is one child going to care for another in a country that doesn’t offer her any support? To deny abortion in the case of incest and rape is inconceivable. This is one of the many, many reasons that religion and state need to be completely exclusive from one another, and why Palin terrifies me.
I’m glad to hear from a Hilary supporter that is moving into the Obama camp (Smitty). That’s where we all need to be if we’re ever going to drag ourselves out of the rut we’re in right now.
I do not understand this pick for VP nominee. It will drive away moderates, and McCain will lose. I was supporting his candidacy until yesterday. Oh well.
Is it Sara or Sarah Heath Palin? Just curious. Seen it both ways! You guys are getting mean out there. Twat? Joke? Phooey! You are better than that! Now smile, shake hands….and then proceed to rip each others throats out! Might as well emulate the campaign ads the Republicans are airing! I am expecting a whole spat of nasty Dem ads. Lordy, Lordy but McCain has earned them with this disastrous V.P. choice! Am looking forward to the comments and pics of Gov. Palin’s hometown. You are bookmarked by me and linked to everyone I know. Good stuff! Thanks.
Wasilla, AK, per Wikipedia: the Y2000 census, which is the source of these stats, was done in the third year of Palin’s mayoralty.
Population 5,469; [a very small town, is being mayor a part-time job?].
Median income for females $29,100, versus males $41,300;
Per capita income $21,100;
Quote from the Wikipedia entry on Wasilla: “10% of the population and 67% of the families were below the poverty line.”
Let me repeat that: SIXTY-SEVEN PERCENT of Wasilla’s families live under the poverty line. Palin is proud of being mayor of a town where 67% of families are below the poverty line??? Doesn’t ANY of the state’s resource wealth trickle down to the poor?
Mother who thinks..I am a proud taxpaper and I’m glad to know my money is helping people like you and your son.
You are spot on with your comment.
Sue Williams – thank you for clarifying the family story. It was obviously confusing to those of us in the lower 48, but we didn’t know just how confusing. Are you ready for the interviews?
I live in Ridgefield Connecticut, and I have been trying to figure out the children/grandchildren story all day.
Sue Williams,
The choices she claims to have made at the end of her pregnancy make me question her judgement too. If I don’t question her judgement, I would seriously have to question whether or not she is telling the truth.
I find it hard, in these days of malpractice suits that any doctor upon receiving a call would okay a flight from Texas to Alaska without at the very least demanding she get checked at a hospital before flying after hearing what she was claiming. Especially if that patient is the Gov. of Alaska!
I also find it incredible that she would not advise someone on the flight of her condition unless of course she could reasonably expect that Alaskan Air would need a medical certification allowing her to fly.
Her admitted self-serving, reckless behavior, not only endangered herself, but endangered her baby and possibly could have proven incredibly disruptive and dangerous to a plane full of people.
This, along with other things that I am learning about your Gov, there is nothing that could make me support her candidacy. I appreciate all of you who live up there who have posted. You are certainly providing a much more complicated and detailed picture than McCain’s base- the main stream media.
The selection of Sarah Palin has moved undecided voters strongly AGAINST McCain. Has no real impact on current core supporters of Obama or McCain (the folks who are yelling past one another on this blog, I’d imagine).
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/undecideds-dont.html
At her second appearance, Palin is booed by the crowd in Pennsylvania for trying to claim Hillary’s mantle.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/30/palin-booed-for-mentioning-hillary-clinton/#comment-1585475
Sorry, here is a link to where I read her interview:
http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2008/04/alaskan-governo.html
I apologize for not knowing how this blog works.
Re: babygate – I don’t know what’s being reported. Here, however, is the truth. Trig is Sarah and Todd’s baby.
Nice try. Truly a masterpiece of Republican spin.
The truth is different. Sarah Palin and her crowd want people to think that a 44-year-old woman pregnant with her fifth child fly to a business conference during her 8th month of pregnancy. While there, her water breaks, and she wouldn’t rush to the hospital. Instead, she would stay and make a half-hour speech.
Then she would to to the Dallas airport and board a series of commercial flights, including a layover in Seattle, lasting more than 9 hours. Once in Anchorage, this high-risk mother would bypass the superior Anchorage hospitals and head to some small-town community hospital in the back country and deliver a 6 lb., 2 oz. baby one month premature.
Sorry, but that one does NOT (pardon the pun) hold water. On its face, it is impossible. What actually happened is that Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol, was pregnant. By whom we don’t know, but boy would we ever like to. The father’s identity was the real embarrassment here, so Gov. Palin covered for her daughter by declaring herself pregnant.
Problem is, she wasn’t a good enough actress. Her body didn’t look pregnant in most of her photos, and story of the baby’s birth is preposterous. Along comes Sue Williams to concoct some alternative story that makes even less sense; once disproven by showing that Bristol Palin is not currently pregnant, the whole “controversy” would blow away.
But Aha! in the actual course of events, Bristol Palin gave birth in April to a baby that Sarah Palin claims is hers. Neither of them could currently be pregnant. Nice try at a diversion, Sue. I hope whoever paid you to make that posting paid you enough.
I give Legally Blond 3 about two weeks to resign for “family and health reasons” – no part-time village mayor is gonna cut it. This is a desparate McBush move to put a lipstick on a Quayle/Quail brain.
Great blog -very informative for those of us here in the Lower 48.
My first reaction was “Who?” My second reaction “is McCain NUTS?” My third reaction is “what a jack*ss!” My fourth reaction was “the race will not longer be in a dead heat.” I’ve never voted for the GOP, but do keep an open mind. McCain has managed to INSULT all female voters by his pick of Palin. He IS a complete moron, if the strategy is to drive the die-hard Hillary supporters are going to just switch their vote to a ticket with the female on it.
In researching Sarah Palin I found an undated photo in an article from the Anchorage Daily News. It sure does look like Bristol Palin is pregnant in this photo.
http://www.adn.com/front/story/339587.html
(click on the photo to enlarge)
Dear Logician – that was funny to read! I am only reporting what I hear constantly from Sarah and Todd’s “inner circle” (it sounds so funny saying that about anyone in this Valley. It’s way too high brow sounding – and truly, the more you hear about SP, we’re certainly not high brow around these parts. By. Any. Stretch.)
Fine if I’m wrong. I was just hanging out with people who are close friends with the Heath family the last two days and this is what I’ve heard.
Who cares if I’m wrong (I’m not). Obviously in the next 48 hours or so I imagine a reporter will try to weasel around the Secret Service and ask her personally. I assume she must have mentioned the whole scenario to McCain, right? She wouldn’t have blindsided him with this -? But, I don’t know. That was the discussion around these parts this morning – How much did McCain know about the baby stuff and how much did he know about Troopergate (like, the interesting little fact that she’s been caught multiple times the past six weeks not telling the truth).
This, I think, is what will finally get her. She can’t be prepping for the cursory answers she’s going to have to memorize on every national and intl issue – AND remember what she said when and to whom re: her Troopergate cover-up attempts. I know this coming week is when the special counsel up here was supposed to depose her.
My. My. It’s not gonna be pretty. Anyway, Logic whomever – think what you will. No worries.
baliey – Did you save the photo? It looks like it’s no longer there.
Oh never mind – there it is.
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/apr/22/palins-flight-labor-falls-under-scrutiny/
A couple of points:
1) Alaska Airlines has no policy or restrictions on flying while pregnant.
2) Her fluid could have leaked without a full “water break,” which is suggested by this article.
3) Could someone really get a doctor to fake a delivery, even in rural Alaska? Wouldn’t that be grounds for losing your license to practice medicine or something?
4) If Bristol is currently pregnant, how could they possibly fake a delivery in the next couple of months? Would they borrow a baby for her to carry around?
5) Down’s syndrome is much more likely for an older Mom.
So… I would personally need a LOT more evidence to believe that Trig is not Sarah Palin’s daughter.
Oops, I would personally need a LOT more evidence to believe that Trig is not Sarah Palin’s SON.
Larryb I don’t know when you checked wikipedia for your info but this is what it reads right now at 9:52 pm centeral time zone Aug. 30.2008.
“The median income for a household in the city was $48,200 and the median income for a family was $53,800. Males had a median income of $41,300 versus $29,100 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,100. 9.6% of the population and 5.7% of families were below the poverty line.[5] 13% of those under the age of 18 and 10% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.”
Seems like a lot of things are getting changed yesterday and today.
Could someone really get a doctor to fake a delivery, even in rural Alaska? Wouldn’t that be grounds for losing your license to practice medicine or something?
No one “faked a delivery.” Bristol Palin gave birth to Trig Palin in April. Bristol’s mother, Sarah, claimed that the child was her own. She went to great lengths to do this. She announced a pregnancy to Alaska’s media, such as it is, in March.
In April, when she was told her daughter was giving birth, she rushed back to West Dogs***, Alaska’s community hospital and claimed that she’d given birth to the baby that her daughter actually bore. The doctor and the hospital went along with it. Why? Because it’s a small town and some people there wanted to protect the family.
The real question is the identity of the father. Look, there are enough teen births out of wedlock for that not to be a huge issue. But if the father was closer to home — and I will leave it at that — then we have, as they said in The Wizard of Oz — a horse of a different color. I would suggest that this is what Mrs./Gov. Palin was actually trying to conceal.
Down’s syndrome is much more likely for an older Mom.
What is the likelihood of Down Syndrome for a child conceived by a brother and a sister?
By the way, who names their children Track and Trig? Nicknames, yes, but given names? This reminds me of a story I once read about people in some Central American country naming their children after automobile parts, as in “Sparkplug Hernandez” and “Oil Filter Sanchez.” The government eventually stepped in and banned it.
Maybe Trig’s name is really Trigonometry Palin? But what about Track? Trackstar? Tracker? Trackilicious?
ONE thing: she’s a perfect example of what happens when you let a straight do your hair styling.
Ha ha ha ha ha!!
Great blog.
Please send me any information regarding the “unknowns” of Sarah Palin.
I’ll make sure it reaches the highest levels of the DNC Media Strategy team.
Don
snapitonit@aol.com
Hey Logician – actually Sarah’s doc is Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, a family physician, who, a few years back, was awarded some sort of national Family Doctor of the Year award. CBJ (as she is known in these parts) wouldn’t lie. I think if you go back and read the more-or-less cover-up article put out by the Anchorage Daily News (adn) during this situation, where Sarah talks about conferring with CBJ, and CBJ is interviewed, CBJ was pretty careful not to say she felt like the travel was wise – but Sarah tried to pass it off as if she had CBJ’s approval.
Trust me, Sir, this is a Valley of few secrets. Everyone knows everyone and everything. There’s no way at all the hospital staff would be able/be willing to pull off that kind of a cover-up.
If Barack and Joe want to win this thing, it’s certainly their’s for the taking. They’ll have to be careful not to act condesending or bullying of Sarah, b/c she can pull out the sympathy card like nothing you’ve ever seen. Men swoon; women roll their eyes.
McCain didn’t choose her for the female votes, sillies. He chose her for the male vote. She does that little batting of her eyes and the aw-golly-gee-shucks-I’m the poor little damsel in distress routine and the guys just knock themselves out eating it up.
Oh, and while we’re on it. Watch Sarah drop her “-ing’s” This has driven so many of us in AK to distraction and beyond, it’s so Appalachian sounding (sorry West Virginians). Everything is huntin’, fishin’, votin’, fightin’ — you get the idea.
SNL is going to have a field day. I wish McCain could have thought that one point through a wee bit more…..
Hey Logician – actually Sarah’s doc is Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, a family physician, who, a few years back, was awarded some sort of national Family Doctor of the Year award. CBJ (as she is known in these parts) wouldn’t lie.
Why of course not. No one in Alaska tells any lies. Especially not for money.
McCain didn’t choose her for the female votes, sillies. He chose her for the male vote. She does that little batting of her eyes and the aw-golly-gee-shucks-I’m the poor little damsel in distress routine and the guys just knock themselves out eating it up.
That’s interesting, because plenty of people have been remarking how she comes across as a “naughty librarian” on a late-night soft-core cable TV epic! Talk about your NASCAR-on-Viagra vote.
Guess if she ever wants to meet with Putin…he will ask, “Can we do it after hockey practice?” Then the Pundits say that Biden has to be soft on her…will the President of Iran take the same tone? NO!!!
She is the Bridge to Nowhere…trying to Bridge the Clinton voters. The message between both candidates are not the same at all. Seems as if she is not too bright…have to give her credit for 5 kids though. As a father of 2, my hat is off to her.
Hey Sue,
I’ve enjoyed your commentary on the Healths-Palins. Tell us now about Sarah’s campaign to become mayor Wasilla. Just how nasty did it get?
have to give her credit for 5 kids though
Better put an asterisk on that number.
Hey Logic – I didn’t say nobody tells lies. Goodness, read the accounts of Sarah at andrew halcro.com and at the adn.com for the past six weeks. Make up your own mind about whether Sarah and her closest associates in her Administration were telling lies (hint: her close aide, Frank Bailey is now on leave with pay b/c he was caught in the most pathetic, on tape, lying shenanigan). But, do I think CBJ, Sarah’s doc, would lie? I do not think so.
Houston – her mayoral races were like a stroll through the park on a hot summer day. Her dad has basically taught everyone out here when they were in middle school science. She won her last mayoral race with less than 1,000 votes. It takes more than that to win a seat on the Valley’s school board.
What hasn’t been reported, at least not much, is that she was unemployed for almost three years before becoming gov. So, people talk about how she was gov for two years – make that 20 months. And before that? Unemployed for almost three years. She ran for mayor on a line of Positively Palin. Everyone knew her and her family. It wasn’t a nasty race.
The race for gov wasn’t exactly “nasty” either. She played the sympathy card constantly. It’s weird how people who aren’t paying attention will fall for it.
She ran for gov against the LEAST LIKED GOV IN THE UNION. His positive numbers were single digits. The local dog catcher could have run and won. Come on, people. This IS Alaska. She won b/c she got in the race so early and I think it kept more qualified people out. Also, the former gov took forever to decide if he’d run for reelection. If he hadn’t, the other guy on the Rep. side would have walked away with the win easily. But, the old gov and the other guy – John Binkley, who was the favorite in the business/thinking community – didn’t count on Sarah being served up no scrutiny in the press. The local press just ran pictures of her and whatdoyaknow? She won. And now she’ll apparently be VP and possilbly president.
The only thing – business wise – she did while being unemployed for almost three years, was to file for a business license she called Cou Rouge or Rouge Cou (I don’t know French). But it means “redneck” in French. Sarah wanted to start a local political consulting firm.
Scary indeed.
Mr. Moderator
Live in the lower 48, MD. How about educating me (us) on how Alaska derives its revenue for state supported services. For instance, Obama, has taken a lot of flack for proposing excess profits tax on big oil. My understanding is that Palin recently pushed for a similar increase in oil taxes?? Just how does this $$ work that allows 0% state tax plus some sort of rebate for all state residents.
Second, Palin has been making a big deal about the need to drill in ANWAR to “lock up and secure domestic natural resource supplies to feed those hungry lower 48 markets.” My question: wouldn’t any extracted oil have to go into the open market? And presuming we are still using 25% of world-wide oil, we could only keep that portion for our market. Bottom line, it just seems Palin is making it sound like all the oil we would find in ANWAR would be kept for only US consumption. Is she mis-leading folks down here?
So have you seen any secret service types or media folks up there yet?
[...] am Filed under: rachel’s post | Tags: babygate, Bristol, haiku, Palin, Trig Lots of gossip re Palin and “babygate.” Who’s baby Trig’s mother? No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for [...]
More Palin haiku
at The Haiku Diaries.
This is too much fun.
http://thehaikudiaries.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/august-31-2008/
But, do I think CBJ, Sarah’s doc, would lie? I do not think so.
Why not? What do you really know about her other than her getting an award? And how many people other than the doc would have had to be involved in delivering a kid and switching it? Seems to me that there’s no lack of money sloshing around Alaska for purposes like that.
The Dems are gonna let Palin kill the GOP hopes. I gotta love how a Palin supporter rewrote her Wikipedia info. Gotta love the Internet. Oh yeah – you didn’t mention how her staff took down how she SUPPORTED Obama’s energy plan.
Still, you are my new bestest friend.
Mad Skillz out
It’s obvious as CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Politico and many other experts knew. John McCain new he had no chance whats so ever of winning (despite all the lies about “it’s a dead lock or tie), otherwise he would of never picked this woman.
AbC reported that Mccain lied, and not only had he met this woman before this week, but he made his decision Thursday Night (obvious shaken, after Obama accepted his nomination/speech).
The media has been lying to us all along. This thing was never close. CNN said that, Karl Rove etc, ran all their election/turn out model, and there was no way, that they saw McCain winning (which is the reason why, you never saw the Obama team panicked, despite the fact the his supporters would complain when they felt things weren’t going right).
John McCain blinked! He blinked to Karl Rove. He blinked to the religious right, and he blinked to Obama’s speech and momentum
The question is did McCain just bury his chances for good, or just gave it some temporary oxygen?
Haiku
Baby Trig and Mom
The smolts migrate toward the sea
Sarah claims the prize
The local press just ran pictures of her and whatdoyaknow? She won.
Haiku
Librarian winks
Autumn men, sap rising hard
North, to Alaska
Okay,
I don’t even know where to begin.
As a mother, when I first heard that she was the veep pick, I could not help but to know that ALL of her minor children were going to suffer. As a working mother to a healthy child (thank you, God) I know the difficulty of balancing work and raising my child. Let alone, being a wife and the other challenges of life. Any working mother knows that the equitable balance of rearing a child and anything else is a myth. The commitment and time distribution is inequtable. It is up to the individual mother to decide how they prioritize their child on the totem pole, so to speak. You just simply cannot give your children 100% and anything else 100%.
Clearly, Palin has shown the world that her children are not her priority. This is even more disconcerting given the fact that she has a child with special needs. This is in addition to the needs of the other children. I more than question her judgement. Obviously, she makes poor decisions.
In giving her the benefit of the doubt, becoming Governor was one of her wildest dreams. However, once she did become governor, it should have been obvious that her career demands were different. Since she is pro life, why not put off having a new baby until her term was up? If that is her child. That is called being a responsible adult.
Then there is the story (or stories) which are nothing short of mind boggling.
Even if a doctor was negligent enough to tell her that she could travel during her last trimester of a high risk pregnancy carrying a child that would have special needs, doesn’t she have a responsibility to the health of her hild and self? Why would she risk her child’s life like this? Then when she “went into labor” knowing the circumstances, why would she not put the unborn child’s needs first and get to a hospital? Isn’t it true that with each pregnancy the labor is actually shorter and at times less predictable? Why would she not think that once in labor the child could come at any moment? Wasn’t she extremely fortunate to be able to not only travel for several hours without pain medication in labor but then to actually control the birth of the child until she was exactly where she wanted (needed) to be?
Why would we vote for a person who is clearly negligent when it comes to her own family? If she is covering for her daughter, why would we vote for someone who intends to go into office lying and with her family in cahoots? What message an moral foundation is she setting for her children? If she cannot raise her own children how can she be even remotely involved in making policies for the country’s families?
I would like to hear from any former VP what they would say their commitment level to the job was. Would we be okay if they were able to prioritize their family over the country’s needs? At least Hillary’s child was an adult when Hillary ran.
And McCain…he has always been reactionary. In true form, his knee jerk reaction to Obama’s phenomenal speach was to announce his running with a woman he’d only met with once! Simply because he thought he could swap one woman for another in front of the voters. Any other President of any operation would take it under consideration that the candidate for VP is the mother of a NEW BORN. No matter what the story is about the baby, there is no pleasant way of spinning this. His people did not do their research and this is the result. What else will he venture into without being properly informed? This is a perfect example of why he would support lies of WMDs.
Lastly, if I were Rebublican, I would be mortified by the state of the party. The party has spewed it’s lies for so long, they don’t even realize how transparent they are. Obviously, the party feels that he is the most qualified of the party for President of the United States and he in turn feels that Palin was the best package (ALL factors considered) out of his choices for a running mate. This is sick.
So I’m just wondering how Todd can work at BP, fish the Bristol Bay season and take care of the kids. I’m also wondering how he feels about her feelings about allowing the Pebble Mine which could ruin herring and sockeye forever.
There is a reason that the Borax, Quartz Hill mine in Boca de Quadra (near Ketchikan) was shut down in the early 80’s. It was to protect salmon habitat. Guess she needs to read the history of her own state.
Hey Haiki Loving Logic – My gosh. Give up the “doc could have lied shtick.” Okay. I suppose it’s not out of the realm of the possible. How do I know CBJ? She happens to be my doctor. That’s how I know her.
One thing I’m seeing very clearly: The rest of the country has NO IDEA how small town life in this Valley is. I never go anywhere without running into multiple people I know. Everyone knows everyone and everyone talks. It’s kind of sweet and quaint if you like the small town gig – but people from larger metro areas can’t really understand how small towns work if they’ve never lived in one. (Visiting doesn’t count. You have to live here long enough to know half the folks).
Part of this is kind of starting to be funny for me – though, from a Valley Perspective (for anyone who wants to hear this) yesterday felt like someone had died. People were walking around saying how they wanted to throw up. Truly. I’ve never heard (or read, try andrew halcro.com or adn.com so many people describe feeling like they were going to get physically sick and vomit). That’s how CRAZY this sounded to all of us. (fyi – on those blogs, esp the adn site you’ll find a posse of Palinbots – as they’re referred to up here – who think she can do no wrong. These are what we call “bumper sticker” citizens. If an idea is too long for a bumper sticker, it’s too complicated for them to try and wrap their minds around. These people, by and large, compose Sarah’s base. The 80% approval numbers you all – and presumably McCain – heard of where wrong).
But today, I’m torn between being angry and being sad and being shocked and — well, finding this whole thing so gosh darned funny. When EVERYONE except the bumper sticker citz KNOW beyond any shadow of any doubt that there is no way Sarah is qualified for this post – well, it makes me just shake my head as a Republican.
The chatter now is whether she’ll survive the first two weeks – what with her upcoming deposition this week on Troopergate matters and the brewing baby questions. Will Sarah be another Eagleton? And, if so, will she be as gracious as Chuck Kopp was less than a month ago when she tapped him to be Commissioner of Public Safety without vetting him worth squat (it came out almost immediately he had a scandal in his past). She held onto him for two weeks before the pressure became overbearing and she let him go (with a nice $15,000 severance check that she didn’t disclose until it was reported on a local blog). Will she be as gracious as Chuck Kopp if and when McCain wakes up to his insanity and realizes he has to find someone who actually knows something about the job?
allen bean Says:
August 30, 2008 at 11:08 am
Posted by: Scott | August 30, 2008 1:11 AM
Not only all that, but Ms Palin has had virtually no contact with
Jewish people in America. In fact, most Alaskans still use the term
“to jew someone down” as part of their every day vocabulary when
speaking about bargaining at the store….so I guess Ms Palin has a
huge storehouse of inherited antiSemitic fixations based not on hatred
but on ignornace. Ask her what she thinks of Jewish people someone? I
am sure he only knows about 3.
The AFP wire service today, based out of Juneau, that’s Agence France press, AFP, they said today in news story that Palin commutes daily to her office in Juneau from her home in Wasilla? By jet? every day? IS AFP reporter smoking something?
Haiku
Whose baby is it?
Fish run thick in slanting sun
Republicans lie
I’m skeptical about the baby story, but here’s what confuses me: If she is pro-life in ALL cases, why did she have genetic testing done early in the pregnancy? If it’s really hers, as is likely, did that mean that abortion was an option? If it’s not hers, was the genetic test done to find out who the dad is – and the extra chromosome came up in the screening?
Haiku
How can lies succeed?
Snow thick on cedar branches
Ted owns Alaska
I am a woman, 46-years old retired from military at the age of 33…I have a 24-years old daughter…I don’t know this person but it don’t take rocky science to realize that unless their some unknown secret info out there … this person said out of her own mouth that she did not think it was possible she could be consider for such a high position…I don’t know what is true and what is not true…but what seen to be true is she have very little experience…and I would not want to think about sleeping at night…and this country … and my daughter future in her hands…it makes me sad and scary…but it said a great deal about the judgement of McCain…as military person I once consider voting for him…how I thank “God” I never had that chance… as far as parent resposibility…I was a single parent as a soldier…I worry everyday that my commitment and demand of being a soldier cause me to neglect my child at times…I looked forwarded to the day when I could get out…I felt bad about not being their for my child…but I also loved my career and I was a delicated soldier…but my child was my first priority… I think as a mother it is hard for me to understand how you can really be there for five children or maybe only three since the other two seen to be much older…and do your public job….
This is a personal decision but whatever the reason for her decision…she know just as well as any honest person know …she is not qualify to be a heart beat away from the presidents job…or to be seriously concider for VP…
it all just make me very very sad for my child…her children ….all the children future…and the future of our country…
We are going to either vote for change…for our children future and this country…
Or we are going to witness something we maybe hope we don’t live threw…
What really sading me also is … how so many persons can say they trust this woman to have a finger on the “red button” do they want to win a election so bad that they will lie to themself and not care about the their childs future…I don’t know how they do it f..because they care more about winning a election…
I have always had fate in “God” if we get out there and do our part…”God” will do his part and keep us all safe…my child and this country…
This VP pick is very scary…
If this is a matter of day care for young Trigonometry, don’t you think Cindy McCain has already waved a magic dollar-filled wand and solved that problem? The question is still, “whose baby?” Sue says that she and Sarah share the same doctor and the doctor would never lie.
I think Sarah’s story is preposterous, although I am intrigued by the alternative, i.e., the Sarah’s story is real and that the 17-year-old is in her third trimester by her high school boyfriend.
Haiku
What to do but spawn?
Alaska: six months no sun
Sex and Yukon Jack
So Sue–you’re saying that the “Sarah has claims Bristol’s baby as her own” story is as preposterous as it sounds. But Bristol actually is pregnant and everybody up there knows it and she’s being kept out of sight for that reason? Fascinating.
That should read “Sarah claims Bristol’s baby as her own” story. Stupid lack of editing.
IS this studd true???
Sandy, This picture was shot on March 9,. 2007 http://www.adn. com/news/ alaska/v- gallery/story/ 339587.html? /news/alaska/ v-enlarge/ story/339587- a339583-t3. html
According to this other website, she missed school sick?, for 5 months! http://www.reddit. com/comments/ 6f3nq/coverup_ alaska_gov_ palin_r_announce d_she_was/ c03o1ma
On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 12:27 AM, Sandy Dunsmoor wrote:
As a mom of 3, pregnant twice (twins) that looks pretty darned preggo to me! I know you can doctor pictures but you`d have to be really good to get that unique authentic look to the belly! I don`t know,,,,looks like this rumor has merit to me! Thanks Jd!
I can only see one way for McCain to back out of this now…
Palin would suddenly ‘decide’ that she is needed by her family, her son in particular, and her state and simply cannot be veep. Then McCain would get to pick a new veep and all of the things that Dems said about Palin would be flipped back over and used against Obama.
Risky, but if I were advising McCain, I’d likely be pushing for that very scenario.
But thank goodness I’m voting for Obama. XD
ps: How long until the McCain/Palin ticket gets called the Beauty and the Beast ticket?
Dear Sue & Logician,
I love conspiracy theories (mostly for the sake of debunking them)! There is a picture of Bristol and the rest of the Palin family (sans Track of course) in a People spread that was obviously shot this Friday. In it, Bristol does not appear pregnant. In fact, she appears more slim than other pictures of her floating around. I believe these pictures are organized in correct sequence from newest to oldest:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222685_2,00.html (from this Friday — note Bristol appears “skinny” and Willow has no braces)
http://gov.state.ak.us/photos/PalinFamily_Outside_v01.jpg (from sometime in 2007 when it was warm enough in Juneau to wear short sleeves — note Bristol appears a bit “puffy” and Willow has braces)
http://govserv.state.ak.us/photos/pict0210.jpg (this picture is titled “Alaska’s New First Family” and is probably from early 2007 — note Bristol appears “skinny”)
http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/story/8334949p-8231037c.html (from fall 2006 — note Bristol appears a bit “puffy” and Willow has no braces)
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/339587.html (even though the article is from March 2008, the picture is recycled from fall 2006 — note same coat on Mrs. Palin and same sunset in background as picture above)
So, what am I trying to say here? Only that Bristol appears to have gone through 2 phases of gaining (mid 2006 and mid 2007) and losing (early 2007 and now) weight. Neither of these periods correspond with a delivery due date of April or May 2008. Sometime during this time period, she was also apparently out of school with mononucleosis for several months. In addition, the son Track was apparently off at a school in Michigan and then joined the Army. Finally, judging by the deep tan sported by Willow in the People photo, I’d assume she spent this summer somewhere other than Alaska. If that’s the case, it’s quite possible that Bristol accompanied her.
I haven’t lived in a small town but I still understand what goes on in most of them. There is just enough circumstantial stuff here that the nosy neighbor syndrome could have made “people who are close friends with the Heath family” put two and two together and come up with five. At a minimum, if Bristol was indeed pregnant, it would have been either sometime in late 2006 or summer 2007 as indicated by the slight “puffiness” in the pictures taken during those periods. There appears to be no evidence to substantiate that she was pregnant as recently as this spring much less this summer. As such, this for now is all just some small-town rumor.
Sue, I am confused. Are you saying that Bristol is still pregnant right now?
Allen,
My understanding is that Palin spends quite a bit of time working outside of Juneau. She’s not fond of the distance from home and has tried to stay in her home territory as much as possible. This has caused some nervousness in Juneau (the capitol) because there is an ongoing battle in Alaska to move the capitol to somewhere actually on the road system (Juneau is only accessible by boat or plane), like the Valley where Sarah is from. So far efforts to keep the capitol in Juneau have been successful, but just the mention of a capitol move sends Juneau residents into a tizzy.
Tom, you didn’t have any pictures of Sarah Palin or her daughter, Bristol, between January 2008 and April 2008. The material you supplied is completely worthless.
p.s.: Tom, maybe you need to review your materials from biology class. The human gestation period is nine months. Young Trigonometry was born April 18, 2008, one month early, which would place his conception in September 2007. Pictures from early 2007 and 2006 are irrelevant.
You write of Bristol Palin that “there appears to be no evidence to substantiate that she was pregnant as recently as this spring much less this summer,” but you offered no pictures of her between this summer and the summer of 2007. You might have cast doubt on whether she is still pregnant — something I question anyway — but you have provided utterly no evidence of her condition this past spring.
So tell us, Tom, who signs your checks?
correction: ” … which would place his conception in August 2007.” I’m up late. Time to hit the hay.
Kathy, I believe she is. Surely when the Republican convention is finally held, Bristol will be there and we’ll be able to tell if she’s truly in her 3rd trimester right now. I’d love to see some of those Ohio pictures Sue talks about.
On the other hand, check out Meghan McCain’s blog–she took a bunch of pictures and there’s one showing Bristol from the side. It’s the one with the caption “Getting ready for the People Magazine photo shoot.”
Yes, that is what she is saying but the following picture from People taken this Friday disproves it:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222685_2,00.html
There is also a blog on Daily Kos, “Sarah Palin Is NOT The Mother [Photos+Video]“:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223
This blog purports to show 2 pictures of Bristol pregnant with Trig. But as I revealed in my previous comment above, one of these pictures was taken in 2007 when it was “warm” (I use the term loosely) in Juneau:
http://gov.state.ak.us/photos/PalinFamily_Outside_v01.jpg
That pretty much means between April and October. So, Bristol would have been early in her first trimester considering Trig’s May 2008 delivery due date. In other words, it is very unlikely that picture shows Bristol pregnant with Trig.
The other picture on the Daily Kos blog was from late 2006, which obviously cannot show Bristol being pregnant with Trig much less being pregnant today:
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/339587.html
That someone would mistake the above picture as being from March 2008 (when the article in which it appears was printed) simply shows sloppy research skills as I also revealed. Note that the picture from a story in October 2006 is from the same “sitting”:
http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/story/8334949p-8231037c.html
Clearly, if the above indeed shows a pregnant Bristol, she is not carrying Trig.
Moreover, a picture taken in the time frame between the two purported “pregnant gun” pictures shows Bristol was definitely not pregnant:
http://govserv.state.ak.us/photos/pict0210.jpg
So, if the two pictures (taken several months apart) in which Bristol appears “puffy” supposedly prove that she was pregnant, that would actually mean that she was pregnant not once, but twice. Not only that, but if she IS in fact Trig’s mom, that would make her pregnant three times. Hold on, I’m not done: if she is still pregnant today, that means she has been pregnant a grand total of four times since 2006! In other words, she has not been not pregnant since 2006! Me, I’ll go with just “not pregnant” until someone comes along to make this conspiracy theory worth chasing further.
My “on the other hand” was directed at Tom. So very slow…
justinslot, I was just about to come back with a link to video of Bristol at the rally, but your photos are much clearer. She certainly looks bigger now than she did in that photo of her in a blue shirt (from back in February, I think) that everyone’s linked to. Curiouser and curiouser.
Jack Herman – there is nothing wrong with small town americans running for office. Abe Lincoln was one. George Washington and Tom Jefferson, too. I’m sure she’s a bright young talent in Alaska and eventually in the national Republican party.
But for now, she’s no Hillary Clinton. She’s not even Marge Simpson. She is being used, and is just another example of McCain’s reckless disregard for the public welfare, a reflection of his cynical tokenism and a victim of everything wrong with the GOP over the past 8 years.
If you think Obama is light on detail, try http://my.barackobama.com and post any remaining questions you might have. You’re right to ask for specifics – but if you raise the question, you have an obligation to listen to the answers (which are there in full).
And if it’s not enough to get you to vote the right way, maybe you should show your disdain by not voting at all? Just a thought.
Mil
Agree that the Beast (love that) should find a way now to gracefully dump the Beauty, but I don’t see it happening. Mavericks can’t question themselves after making “bold” (reckless) decisions. He’ll need to stick with this to the bitter end. Or arrange a snowmobile accident / Dick Cheney hunting trip.
Logician: Tom, you didn’t have any pictures of Sarah Palin or her daughter, Bristol, between January 2008 and April 2008. The material you supplied is completely worthless.
The “material” I supplied is way more than what you supplied (to support your point)! The pictures show Bristol looking supposedly pregnant at times when she could not have been pregnant with Trig. These are the pictures that people are claiming as “proving” something. They prove nothing, and in that sense I agree with you that they are worthless. That was my point.
Logician: p.s.: Tom, maybe you need to review your materials from biology class. The human gestation period is nine months. Young Trigonometry was born April 18, 2008, one month early, which would place his conception in September 2007. Pictures from early 2007 and 2006 are irrelevant. You write of Bristol Palin that “there appears to be no evidence to substantiate that she was pregnant as recently as this spring much less this summer,” but you offered no pictures of her between this summer and the summer of 2007. You might have cast doubt on whether she is still pregnant — something I question anyway — but you have provided utterly no evidence of her condition this past spring. So tell us, Tom, who signs your checks?
I’m there with you, the pictures are irrelevant. Now tell that to the conspiracy nuts who are using them to “prove” that Trig is Bristol’s baby. While you’re at it, why don’t you come up with some “proof” of your own. I don’t need to provide “evidence of her condition this past spring” since I’m not the one claiming she was pregnant! I sign my own checks, who signs yours?
justinslot: On the other hand, check out Meghan McCain’s blog–she took a bunch of pictures and there’s one showing Bristol from the side. It’s the one with the caption “Getting ready for the People Magazine photo shoot.”
I photoshopped that picture and some others and they do show a figure that isn’t as “skinny” as the picture published by People would suggest. The problem with the picture you reference is that Bristol actually has her hip under the baby and is reclining backwards, which creates a wider-than-normal body outline. Meanwhile, another picture shows Bristol sitting with her legs crossed and leaning forward (not an easy feat in the third trimester). On the other hand, yet another picture shows her sitting with her hands clasped across her lap in a stereotypical “preggie pose”. Then again, why wouldn’t they have put her behind somebody in that People picture if she was pregnant and showing (or at least face her belly inward)? Finally, we know she has supposedly looked pregnant in pictures before (from fall 2006 and summer 2007), so why is this any different (looked pregnant but wasn’t)?
Sydney: justinslot, I was just about to come back with a link to video of Bristol at the rally, but your photos are much clearer. She certainly looks bigger now than she did in that photo of her in a blue shirt (from back in February, I think) that everyone’s linked to. Curiouser and curiouser.
That “photo of her in a blue shirt (from back in February, I think)”, if it’s the one with twilight in the background, is actually from October 2006! And so, yes, she might look bigger now since she is two years older! Willow looks “bigger” as well–does that mean she’s pregnant, too? The only thing that all of these pictures make clear is that Bristol isn’t some pencil-thin clone of her mother. She could be going through a temporary “teenage plump” phase, but if she wasn’t already self-conscious about her body, she sure might be now.
Personally, I don’t give a rat’s ass about all this pregnancy stuff regarding the teenage daughter. I do care about the lack of judgement Sarah Palin made when in labor with her DS baby … it seems selfish and definately not wise.
The polls show that McCain made a really bad blunder picking Palin, and it will only get worse as time goes on. I wonder if he will attempt a “do over”.
Most people just want to figure our what the truth is about her so they can make an honest decision.
So far, there are clearly lies coming from the Palins on Troopergate. First they didn’t know anything about pressure to fire their inlaw, Wooten… Then she changed it to “Maybe?” some of her aides had called – but she only changed the story after she found out about tapes of phonecalls… Then the truth comes out that not only were the aides pressuring, but so were BOTH Sarah and Todd Palin in phonecalls, emails and face-to-face meeting(s) with Monnegan.
Also, we know that both Wooten and the Palins are complete idiots just based on the facts that have come out in that story.
Now this whole thing about who the Mom(s) and Dad(s) really are seems to have some serious legs getting ready to run… And the whole thing about the Alaska .gov pics on the website moving around and deleting a lot of photos only seems to add credibility to the whole story.
But she could also be hiding other photos with those Alaskan CBC types. Who knows? But it really doesn’t look good.
I am just waiting for Wooten to have to do a paternity test for Sarah’s or Bristol’s kid(s) OR Both Todd and Track having to do the same to round out the picture perfect family they “seem” to have created.
The only way this story could get more twisted is if VECO’s Allen, Ted Stevens or Don Young turned out to be the father/grandfather/great-grandfather to every single one of them.
Hell? With John McCain’s track record of turning in older ex beauty pageant winners for younger ones… Maybe Cindy should be demanding paternity tests? Are we really sure that he didn’t personally “Vet” the entire Palin family previous to their quickie before this decision?
Regardless of any of this, McCain has, undeniably, shown that he is recklessly capable of making the ridiculous attempt, by Bush, to put Harriet Myers on the SCOTUS almost seem like a competent choice in comparison…
i am from india. have no immediate stakes in this (i wish!!)
anyway, as an outside observer, i think Sue is trying to blunt and discredit the ‘investigation’ or suspicion that it was Bristol’s baby by floating new theories. That will put it way too many variables in the equation and the reader will be confused. Sue would hope that the reader would be so confused that he or she will stop caring.. discredit by multiplying the attacks..
That’s right, raghu. The theory has been that young Trigonometry is not Sarah’s child as she claims, but Britsol’s. Sue introduced a new theory that Sarah did indeed bear the future Alaskan mathematician, but that Bristol is pregnant by her high school boyfriend. I’m skeptical. I tend to believe this is the story of Deliverance, not Peyton Place. But up in the land of the Midnight Sun, anything can happen.
Haiku
It’s a mystery
Seasons grumble like grizzly
White trash is white trash
Haiku
What will bring her down?
Spring baby, summer baby?
Maybe Troopergate?
By the way, if Trig is Bristol’s kid, and a paternity test is ordered, make sure to include the high school math teacher.
You all are a hoot. Kind of. You have no idea how surreal this whole pick is for Alaskans. NO ONE up here that I know – beside “bumper sticker citz” think Sarah is ready for – heck, the Senate, let alone VP or the White House. It’s truly crazy.
Here are the facts – and really, if you want to spend time trying to understand Sarah, my best advice to you is to go to Andrew Halcro.com and read the past six weeks worth of his blog entries and the comments section – or, the Anchorage Daily News (adn.com). The ADN is very Palin friendly (the staff is all hoping she’ll bring them on board her Administration – cynical? Yes. But, kind of true, too. She rewarded the editor with a nice post in DC once she was elected gov).
Re: the pregnancy stuff. I wouldn’t bother trying to track down anymore photos. Some I’ve seen have the wrong dates assoicated with them anyway. Sarah gave birth to Trig. Many of us in Alaska speculated she kept her mouth shut b/c she didn’t want people in DC to know when she went there in Feb (it allowed her to get to talk VP speculation). By the end of the preg (like late March, early April) she did look pregnant – her face got full and she only wore black changing out her scarves for color.
Trig is Sarah and Todd’s baby. She was very open (once she told everyone she was pregnant) that learning she was pregnant was a difficult thing, let alone learning he had Down’s. Sarah is amazingly ambitious. She doesn’t like to let anything stop her – clearly, she, and all of us, and anyone with a functioning mind, saw this pregnancy as taking her out of VP speculation. But, what do you know, John McCain I guess, doesn’t have a functioning mind.
Bristol Palin is pregnant. She is well into her third trimester. She has been out of sight in Alaska for the past couple months. I learned the morning we all heard Sarah was chosen that Bristol and her high school boyfriend had had a quickie wedding. So, at least Sarah’s grandchild won’t be born to an unwed teenage mother, just a teenage, senior in high school mother.
When Todd and Sarah first learned Bristol was pregnant, they were “devastated” – which parents wouldn’t be? Sarah said she knew the scrutiny of the press would be hard for Bristol to take.
And then Sarah decides it’s okay to run for VP? If she thought the press in down home Alaska – a press corp who has given her family a free pass and who, even tho they’ve known about Bristol’s pregnancy for months, hasn’t touched it with a ten foot pole – if Sarah thought Alaska’s press would be hard for Bristol to bear, just exactly what did she think the nation’s press pool would be like? Or the fact that by accepting McCain’s offer to join the ticket, Sarah knew full well Bristol will become the most well known pregnant high school senior ON THE PLANET.
Apparently that’s what blind ambition does for you, folks. It blinds you to the hearts and needs and lives and emotions and futures of everyone around you – incl. your own daughter who, God only knows how she’ll bear up under the shock and shame when this story finally comes out.
No thank you. I would like a VP candidate who puts the lives of the people she’s supposed to be caring for first, above her own. Since, for social reasons (abortion and gay issues) I can’t in my conscience vote for Obama, I’ll show up in the booth this Nov and vote for congressional races then slip out before casting a vote for people who have no business being given the responsibility and honor of running our nation.
This whole thing is sick. Sick.
I’ve been enjoying the thread, particularly the most intelligent comments by The Logician, American in London and Raghu.
I appreciate your pointing out Sue as a ‘plant’ on this site; her story just got better and better after that. Then suddenly she disappears, and ‘Tom’ pops up with his meaningless photos and even more preposterous theories. I wonder if it’s even a different person? Do they do tag team matches? Lies and obfuscation brought to you by Rove and Rovette junior. And now back to our sponsor.
I think SP either showed ridiculously poor judgment by having a special needs baby in some backwater hospital over 9 hours (and more) after her water started ‘leaking’, or that this is possibly her daughter’s child and she rushed to her side as soon as she found out that BP was in labor. Why else would anyone in the first family have a baby (with Down’s Syndrome) away from the best hospital possible?
After checking out the McCainette blog, http://mccainblogette.com/, it was interesting to watch BP holding the baby almost all of the time, except for one or two photo ops with ‘Mom’. Notice how in the family photo, BP is the one holding her ‘brother’? Anyone else find this odd?
I like Haiku!
Holding her baby
A smiling mother I see
Will we ever know?
Haiku
Her brother or son?
Only the August wind knows
And the Enquirer
Clever Else, this from Wikipedia: “A haiku traditionally contains a kigo (season word) which symbolises or intimates the season in which the poem is set.”
Hey Clever Else – so funny you think I’m a plant and that my story got “better and better.” So, I guess you think the truth got better and better.
Am I somehow not being clear? Sarah Palin would be a DISASTER as VP. In my opinion she’s been a disaster as governor.
Are you a plant?
Haiku
Cucumber or squash?
August garden grows fertile
Like Alaska girls
Is it true Ruedrich resigned before she snooped in his files, did so uncomfortably at the request of the attorney general and resigned from her ethics post because she couldn’t handle the repurcussions?
http://dwb.adn.com/front/story/5572779p-5504444c.html
a press corp who has given her family a free pass and who, even tho they’ve known about Bristol’s pregnancy for months, hasn’t touched it with a ten foot pole
Men are known to exaggerate, but ten feet?
Incidentally, I’ve read that the hospital in Peyton Place, Alaska has a website, and until they took it down sometime last night it showed no births having taken place there on the date that young Trigonometry was born. The plot grows thicker. How’s this: Delivered by midwife — hey, if the Christians can “home school,” they can “home birth” too — then rushed to the hospital to meet its “mother.”
lol American in London, thank you.
Those are probably things some Republicans are currently dreaming about. I don’t think Palin will get knocked off though. But I just know all of his advisors are struggling someway to salvage this if McCain truly made a gaffe. My humble opinion is that McCain is nutter… But I’ve thought that for a while now.
Just looking online gives a taste as to the roasting Palin is going to get. She still has some Rabid Republicans defending her, and some Rabid Dems saying things that are out of line… but the rest of us ’sane’ people are going “He did what? Okay, Obama/Biden 08/12 it is.” I am going to be watching the polls. I don’t think McCain can recover from this lol.
Clever Else, Precisely what “preposterous theories” am I spouting? That the pictures being touted all over the Internets as showing Bristol being supposedly pregnant are actually from summer 2007 and earlier? That is not theory, IT IS FACT. Please PROVE otherwise or shut up with your innuendo. Frankly, if Sue is a “plant” then “she” is a pretty good one. I’ve seen better though. Clearly she does not like Palin and has an axe to grind. That doesn’t make her statements automatically false, but they should be taken with a grain of salt. They are rumors. They might be true, but they are still rumors. I like to deal in FACTS. As for my personal motives, I’m a conspiracy theory fanatic and enjoy investigating “mysteries”. Oh yeah, I also believe Palin was a joke of a pick for VP and I will be voting for Obama (not for that reason, though).
Here is a picture of Sarah Palin seven months pregnant with her first child, and here is a picture of Sarah Palin seven months “pregnant” with her fifth child.
Your serve, Sue Williams.
And you, too, Tom.
Logician, You know that a hospital birth announcement on a public website requires parental consent, right? So you can’t jump to a conspiracy conclusion on the sole basis that Trig’s birth was not listed there, especially since he is a Downs baby. Could it be the Palins wanted a day or two of privacy without reporters roving around looking for the scoop? As for “took it down sometime last night”, you are incorrect:
http://www.matsuregional.com/nursery/nursery_name.php?start=60&step=30&count=503
Look at the Meghan McCain blog and lighten two pictures from Friday’s People Mag photo shoot and you will see the pregnant teen daughter without any question. The McCain family is clearly in the know at this point. Is there any public record of Bristol Palin’s wedding?
Oh my gosh, you guys. Please. What do I care if Trig is Bristol’s baby? Maybe he was and now she’s pregnant again. I don’t know. That seems unlikely to me. Look, all I can tell you is Bristol is pregnant. Have you never lived in a small town? When one hears this “rumor” (and okay, I admit, I never heard it straight from Sarah’s mouth) but have heard it from close to 20 people who are all long time friends of the family. Maybe they are all lying – and have been lying since April of this year when Willow’s boyfriend (Willow is the 8th grader) wouldn’t shut up about how Bristol was pregnant. The story came out (not by the news, of course, because all four reporters in this state wanted Sarah to choose them next for some cool govt post) but by everyone whose anyone around here (and it’s not a hard job to be an “everyone” when there’s so few of us).
What I’m seeing is that America doesn’t know how small towns work. You either lead the lily pure white life, or you move to a city, or, when your child turns up pregnant at 16, you hide her somewhere. That’s what happened here. Now, apparently, Sarah is keeping Bristol on the bus with Trig while she makes her appearances.
This must be the problem with conspirators, when the truth stares them straight in the eyes, they don’t know how to recongize it. Please.
My apologies, Sue. Thank you for making a simple and clear statement.
I think the only plant involved in this situation is Sarah Palin, justice crusader for the neo-cons.
Hey Laura – now there’s a good question, because the “Bristol got a quickie wedding” remark I heard from a friend was Friday morning while all this was hitting the fan in AK. If she really is married, there would have to be a public document somewhere. I suppose checking up here or checking Idaho (where it was presumed she was sent) would be the natural choices to look. I really questioned the person who told me, but they were adament that they’d been told the truth about the wedding. It kind of made sense to me (I mean would McCain really choose a woman who has an unwed pregnant home schooled daughter for VP?). But then, would McCain really choose a mother who has a wed pregnant homeschooled teenager for VP?
Um.
Yes.
Oh God, please save the Republic from this Insanity.
Logician, You know that a hospital birth announcement on a public website requires parental consent, right?
A birth is a matter of public record, Tom. Why wouldn’t the hospital have a record of this birth on its website?
Could it be the Palins wanted a day or two of privacy without reporters roving around looking for the scoop?
I realize that Alaska is a backwater, but the woman is your state’s governor. And the birth was reported in your state’s media, such as it is, on the same day it allegedly occurred. These things would tend to negate your “privacy” angle, Tom. A more plausible explanation is that young Trigonometry Palin wasn’t born there.
Oh my gosh, you guys. Please. What do I care if Trig is Bristol’s baby?
You have seemed to care a great deal up until now. Why the change of heart? It’s rather sudden.
This must be the problem with conspirators, when the truth stares them straight in the eyes, they don’t know how to recongize it.
I think you’ve been making an admirable attempt to distract us, but if not, then we’ll all know soon enough. I’m going to be checking my supermarket every week for the latest updates from the Enquirer. They always nail these stories.
Logician, thanks for the info on the Haiku. I’m far from ‘traditional’, tho. Also, wiki seems to forget to mention Matsuo Basho 1644-1694, Zen philosopher poet.
Thanks for the links to the photos, though I can’t seem to view them from the tinyurl.
And, Sue, your silence on the two pictures I posted is rather deafening, is it not?
Hey Clever Else. No worries. I know it must be beyond bizarre to think any of this is truly happening. Well, welcome to my world. I’ve had to live in it (crazy, insane, nonsensical Alaskan politics) for most of my life. But Friday’s announcement took the Insane to depths even I didn’t know existed.
If you can tear yourself away from the Sarah Stuff, sometime, just to clear your head, read up on our Congressman, Don Young.
He, all by his little wacky self, would provide enough material for Jon Stewart and the Colberg guy for a year. A year, I tell you.
Do you know that a growing number of former legislators (like one of our most recent Speakers of the House) populate federal pens up and down the West Coast? You can’t make this stuff up. Really. I wish you could, I promise. I wish, desperately, this wasn’t real time. But, it is what it is. Sarah is what she is and once the nation finds out, and once conservatives find out, and the Christian community finds out and heck, even good old John McCain finds out who and what Sarah Palin really is, then it’s all over.
But will they find out before the election?
That’s the only question.
I will try this again, then.
Sarah Palin, seven months pregnant with her first child:
http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp233/pooteeweet28/1stchild.jpg
Sarah Palin, seven months “pregnant” with her fifth child:
http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp233/pooteeweet28/31408.jpg
I hereby suggest we leave behind the term ‘Palin-bots’ and instead adopt the far more amusing term ‘Palin-drones’.
Do i get a second on this one?
Okay, Logician, I’m up for the challenge. Here is a picture of Sarah Palin as Miss Alaska:
http://www.usmagazine.com/files/palin-miss-alaska-b.jpg
I presume you’ve also seen other pictures of her “younger” days (such as when she was a sports broadcaster).
The point is that Ms. Size Zero was not quite so athletic and trim looking as a youth. In fact, this is none of our business, but I wouldn’t be surprised if her amazing 40-something figure isn’t the result of driving herself to extreme limits of exercise in order to bolster her body self-image.
Besides all that, there are a number of photos out there dated March and April 2008 showing her with a very large mid-section under her scarf-and-jacket combo (which, by the way, is what you would wear to hide a pregnancy).
Speaking of hiding a pregnancy, there is THE major flaw in your logic: if Sarah Palin wanted to have people think she was actually pregnant instead of her daughter, why wouldn’t she have wanted to APPEAR pregnant? Occam’s Razor and all . . .
Tom-Yes, that is what she is saying but the following picture from People taken this Friday disproves it:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222685_2,
She looks like she’s wearing a maternity sheath! How does this shot prove she’s not pregnant?
You are right in that none of the photos show ‘proves’ anything.
Maybe all this is just complete nonsense and a waste of time to try to throw us off the trail of the alleged Republican ‘reformer’.
That’s what I’m going with for now.
Sue Williams, I’m curious, where in Alaska do you live, and for how long?
My gosh, Logic. I thought you had calmed down. With all your Haiku talk, you’re a wee bit uptight – and I’m going to have to take a break here to go to church. Look: I’m assuming you and I couldn’t be more far apart politically.
Here’s who I am: Christian, wife, mom, business woman, proud (except for the past 42 hours) Alaskan, proud (except for the past 42 hours) American.
I know Sarah Palin. While I’m sure she has redemptive qualities; there are just so many reasons there is NO POSSIBLE WAY I would ever support her candidacy. Sarah is all about spin, spin, spin.
I’m not. You either are who you are, or get out. Sarah promotes the notion that she is the devoted and doting mom. But just do the math – while she has been running around the state, and now the nation, trying to advance herself, four children, who she and her husband made, are at home and could use a little mom time. There’s just not enough hours in poor Sarah’s day.
That, right there, I will look forward to my brothers and sisters in the Christian community trying to defend.
I remember very well when she ran for Lt. Gov in 2002. I didn’t know her nearly as well and was planning to vote for her. Then another woman and I got into a conversation. When she heard I was going to vote for Sarah she asked if I was a Christian. I said I was, and a very devoted one at that. Then she said, “How can you as a Christian and a mother support voting for someone to a position that will take them out of the daily life of their children for significant amounts of the time?”
I know this point is so anti-feminist. But it made me think. At the time Piper was like a year old or so. I chose to vote for another candidate. Then, by the time she ran for gov I’d seen enough of her and her self-serving ways that I knew there was no way I’d vote for her (actually, that was a secondary reason. I didn’t agree with her views on getting AK’s gas to market – but that’s another story).
Got to go. I’ll say a prayer for you, Logic. And for the nation. If ever we needed our eyes opened, it’s now.
(and don’t think I don’t know the things I’ve raised here won’t raise your or other’s ire: my beliefs – about mothering, about honesty, about church attendance, about prayer).
Tom, you keep posting irrelevant photos in hopes that it will distract people. A head shot of her as Miss Alaska? What does that have to do with the price of orange juice, anyway? You know, this sort of stuff might work in West Dogs***, Alaska, but now the whole country is watching.
After all, the Nation Enquirer special edition can’t be far off.
Clev, your link didn’t work.
Sarah promotes the notion that she is the devoted and doting mom. But just do the math – while she has been running around the state, and now the nation, trying to advance herself, four children, who she and her husband made, are at home and could use a little mom time. There’s just not enough hours in poor Sarah’s day.
Perhaps she should follow the example set by Michelle Obama, then?
Clever Else: She looks no more pregnant in that picture than Willow. She is showing partial profile, isn’t behind anybody, and is facing out, not in (opposite of what someone hiding a belly would do). I do have to say, however, that several pictures on the Meghan McCain website do look a bit suspicious. On the other hand, the one picture of her leaning forward with her legs crossed is a pretty good contrary argument against third trimester. Certainly if she is not pregnant, we could safely assume the black smock dress is meant to hide something. Black works amazingly well for such things (look at pictures of Sarah Palin from early 2008).
Sorry, it was a copied link from Tom’s post above. Bristol certainly appears to me as if she could be pregnant in this photo. I was only saying this photo doesn’t disprove that she’s prego.
Then again, young girls often wear those type of sheath things that are ugly and shapeless anyway. Thoughts?
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222685_2,00.html
As for Sarah Palin and Sue William’s (so she claims) doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, who would never have a reason to lie for the governor, well, it would seem that the selfsame governor appointed her to an Alaska health policy commission. With what we know of how Alaska works, one might fairly ask what money-making opportunities might present themselves.
As for the doctor of the year award, or whatever it was, it might be worthwhile for someone to sniff around and see who might have recommended Dr. Baldwin-Johnson for that award.
Let me just state this…
If Bristol is pregnant, they aren’t necessarily trying to do anything except to not make it obvious. So they shove her in the bus. Or saddle her with the baby. Is she married to her boyfriend? If she is, this is all immaterial, since the extremist religious breeders on the far-right seem to start pretty early these days.
How exactly did we get off the topic of Trig, anyway? Who cares if the daughter is pregnant now or not?
Logician,
Did you notice Dr. Baldwin-Johnson was a consultant and trainer on child abuse issues?
Remember, Clev, there are two theories here. Biologically speaking, they can’t both be true. Theory #1 is that young Trigonometry is not Sarah’s son, but her grandson by Bristol Palin. With the Down Syndrome possibly related to incest. Theory #2 is that Trig is Sarah’s son, and that Bristol is currently pregnant by her high school boyfriend.
I lean strongly toward Theory #1, although I’m agnostic on the incest angle. I think Theory #2 is a distraction planted by Sue Williams. I think the best evidence lines up in favor of Theory #1. I don’t think the picture you cited, which would bear on Theory #2, does a single thing to support it.
I continue to note that neither Sue Williams nor Tom have responded in any serious way to my having posted the one picture of Sarah Palin seven months pregnant with her first child, and showing quite routundly so be with child, versus the other picture of Sarah Palin “pregnant” with her “fifth child” (Trigonometry) and showing nothing.
And then there is the lack of a birth announcement by the hospital, which Tom insultingly and outrageously attributes to “privacy” concerns, when in fact the governor’s “pregnancy” was widely announced and the “birth” was covered in all of the state’s media on the day it “occurred.”
Why would Gov. Palin not have called an OB-GYN during a high-risk pregnancy and delivery, rather than a family practice physician? Is there an OB-GYN mentioned? I may have missed something…
Logician,
I do lean more toward’s Theory#1 as you state it. If the daughter were to be Trig’s real mother, perhaps she is only carrying around a little extra baby weight/belly. That would make sense.
Sorry, have to run. I’m late for meeting a friend. I may check back in later. Lmk if the ‘National Inquirer’ runs a story.
Why would Gov. Palin not have called an OB-GYN during a high-risk pregnancy and delivery, rather than a family practice physician? Is there an OB-GYN mentioned? I may have missed something…
When the truth comes out — and it will — I think we’ll learn that Bristol Palin gave birth to young Trigonometry at home and that Sarah and her husband picked up Trig, went to the hospital, and checked in. This would account for the lack of a birth announcement by the hospital. Blood tests all around would solve this one.
Oh, and by the way, note that the “birth” allegedly occurred in the wee hours of the morning. How many are on staff at the West Dogs***, Alaska community hospital in the middle of the night? They check her into a room, stick her in a bed, oh and maybe they didn’t pick up Trig on the way but the future mathematician was brought over at, oh, I don’t know, 5 in the morning.
There’s no need for Bigfoot or space aliens here. Just mom, dad, baby, and a doctor who’s been appointed to a lucrative health commission. Stranger things have happened, especially in the Frozen Northland.
“Logician”: You wanted an explanation for why she might look very pregnant during an earlier pregnancy but not with the current one. I showed you the picture of a girl who could have easily put on 50 pounds or more while pregnant. Do you really think a Size 0 middle age woman who has obviously worked very hard to attain that shape would gain a similar amount of weight while pregnant? Do you even know any women?
“I like running the hills, that’s why I like it, I mean, it thrashes your guts and your lungs and your thighs…”
http://alaskapodshow.com/index.php/2008/02/20/my-visit-to-juneau-alaska/
By the way, watch the end of that video in the governor’s office when they do a close-up of her face and show her from the side. To me, she looks very much like she could be pregnant. At a minimum, she is much larger than normal and not in a “stuffed pillow” sort of way. She looks “stuffed 360″. Of course at the very end of the segment there is also footage of her scarfing down something while the cameras are still rolling . . . wonder why that might be?
Tom, you have to try harder. Oh, and I’m my mother’s fifth child. When I told her the Palin story, she laughed and laughed and laughed.
Tom, I just saw the video. I see no sign that she was pregnant. In the words of the videographer: “As for me and for the rest of us who visited Sarah back in February – I’m fairly certain we can say that we had no idea she was pregnant, nor do we think there is some huge scandalous cover up taking place.”
The videographer can’t know about a cover-up. But if you compare Palin in that video to this picture of her in the seventh month of her first pregnancy, I’d say she wasn’t pregnant when the video was shot.
Dear American in London,
Looks like this story is hitting the big time — in England! The London Times calls the rumors about Palin’s fifth child “utterly unfounded,” without examining any of the evidence. I guess we’ll have to wait for the National Enquirer, then. They’ll get the story that the regular media is afraid of.
[...] http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/off-to-the-land-of-palin/#comment-2038 Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Sarah Palin is no Barack Hussein Obama IISarah Palin and her children [...]
logician Tom, maybe you need to review your materials from biology class. The human gestation period is nine months. Young Trigonometry was born April 18, 2008, one month early,
you don’t know trig was one month early. he could have been exactly on time. back up that gestation period one month, add 2 more, viola and the photo could have been taken in early fall when vristol was 3 months pregnant and the sun was shining in alaska.
the most damning evidence is a pregnant woman in the beginning stages of labor doesn’t board an airplane. period. regardless of the photos
Well, plainly Obama didn’t have Down’s Syndrome, and wasn’t a newborn baby when he was raised by his grandparents, so I think it’s a little different.
I think Palin’s poor judgement shows – going from Texas to Alaska for her delivery- and not a attempt to cover-up a daughter’s pregnancy.
In fact, for me, the latter is understandable, even if foolish. The former is totally incomprehensible, however, and utterly disqualifies her for anything.
Why would anyone think that it is an admirable trait for a mother risk the life and rearing of her children? Palin wears these as if they are badges of honor.
Obama’s mother on the other hand only sent him to live with his grandparents after she realized that he may not have been receiving the best education in Indonesia. He was ten years old.
Hi everyone,
Reading all the comments and I am grateful to obtain very real insight into
small towns and small town culture. I forgot in small towns, with probable
rigid, religious parents, with need to control reproduction of their children (Remember birth control is bad and more importantly – It Works.) that female and pregnant children need to hustle to a pregnancy boarding school and be redeemed later, when the parent’s ideology and church doctrine fails.
I feel for the teen girl – she being used and controlled and being the worst
kept secret. No way to live as a human being.
Remember – your only sick as your Family’s Secrets?
Yes, the facts aren’t known here, however, there is enough non-photos
events described to warrant the National Enquirer looking into this
news story (see Edwards). Sorry, the Lower 48-Media is in McCain’s pocket. They won’t investigate until it hits the public newswire – somewhere else.
Pulin always felt like a “Harriet Meirs” choice to me, even before
hearing about this “living gaffe machine dashing from TX to AK”.
Also, I didn’t realize Pulin was aimed at a voter like me, Male, Adult and Lower 48. I thought she was bait for the PUMAs, which aren’t a serious movement anyways.
So….Men like me are suppose to see her smile 1st (being kind) and vote for
her?……
Sorry McCain, I am voting for your 1st Female Presidential Choice.
- PARIS!!!!
- Smart Choice – Paris is Hot. Paris as never been prego:)!
Okay, My real choices, are now for President are Bob Barr or Ron Paul- Real candidates. I haven’t made the final decision between the two.
McCain in my mind is now just a Stunt, desiring to be President,
with his “choice” for VP.
Arun,
I hate to break it to you but once a woman goes into labor with her fifth child, I am sure that any obstetrician would tell you that it is PHYSICALLY impossible to control the delivery of the child for SEVERAL hours. Besides, isn’t it just sick to think that a woman would stand before a crowd of people and deliver a speach once her water is broken. Classless.
Whether the girl was pregnant or is pregnant. Has this country lowered it’s standards to the acceptance of the Brittanys and Jamie Lynns as the norm with regard to our family values?
Isn’t it ironic that the state capitol sounds like “Juno”?
Wow…Alaska is way more exciting than I thought it was! Here in PA, we say that this story sounds like it came right out of West Virginia. So, I guess Alaska is simply “West Virgnia West!” Hey, at least politics will be exciting for the next few weeks!!! As a Democrat, I can’t wait!
you don’t know trig was one month early. he could have been exactly on time. back up that gestation period one month, add 2 more, viola and the photo could have been taken in early fall when vristol was 3 months pregnant and the sun was shining in alaska.
Well, I’m not always trusting of the media, but there were enough stories about the birth being a month premature that I tend to believe them.
the most damning evidence is a pregnant woman in the beginning stages of labor doesn’t board an airplane. period.
I think the story of her return from Texas is a steaming, stinking crock of (in deference to Mrs. Palin’s culinary preferences) moose feces. Everything about it is suspicious, to put it quite mildly. Could it have happened the way she said? Sure. And I might be Warren Buffett. But I’m probably not, and I don’t think she attended a half-day of speeches, gave one herself, and then flew from Texas to Alaska while leaking anmiotic fluid and having occasional contractions.
Yes, the facts aren’t known here, however, there is enough non-photos
events described to warrant the National Enquirer looking into this
news story (see Edwards). Sorry, the Lower 48-Media is in McCain’s pocket.
I completely agree. And how weird is this, to depend on the tabloids to save the country?
Haiku
Ooh baby, baby
Autumn Enquirer will tell
Truth shall set you free
Haiku
Hillbilly husband!
No Texas fishpickers for
Alaskan summer
This Palin thing is a joke, she’s being pimped by a man that has been using women as stepping stones his whole life, John McShame enemy war collaborator. That for the links to the pics http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222685_2,00.html
Just one question is the bald guy in the suit the one that is afflicted with downs syndrome?
Well, I’m not always trusting of the media, but there were enough stories about the birth being a month premature that I tend to believe them.
why? it stands to reason this decision wasn’t made overnight. it took some planning. if sarah wasn’t pregnant how was she supposed to go full term and get bigger and bigger in the public eye? it makes perfect sense she would announce @ 7 months, deliver @ 8, and only be pregnant in the public eye for a month. besides, why would the media dig into the question of an early birth and not just repeat what they were told. i had a baby a month early, he was underweight. 6 lbs can be a normal weight for a baby. anyway i find it interesting you would chose to accept this one little factoid. i don’t.
Hey you valley locals fill us in on Todd Palin? Very driven and smart women like Sarah usually have a spouse that matches up or else a real low key not too bright partner. So which is Todd?
Wow…no version of this story makes Sarah Palin look like someone with a working brain. If it is true, that baby Trig is Bristol’s, she is under intense public scrutiny now. Did she really think this story would stay hidden forever? If the baby is hers, even worse, what was she doing screwing around in TX making speeches when her water had broken? Abortion by neglect?
Every version of this rumor discussed here makes her seem a bad mother, and a stupid woman with a terrifying lack of judgment.
i find it interesting you would chose to accept this one little factoid. i don’t.
annie, maybe I’m missing something but I don’t think it makes nearly as much difference as you do.
FDR, there is an assumption buried in there. Yes, Mrs. Palin is driven. Now, as for the hillbilly husband, I’d say the fishpicker comment he made pretty much says it all. If he were from Arkansas, his name would be Jethro Bodine.
Logician, looks like you know one woman after all! Okay, it may have been dumb for me to state the lack of birth announcement could have been due to the Palins wanting privacy for a couple of days, but the fact still stands that online birth announcements with full names and photos require a signed consent. You insinuate the online nursery was taken down when it wasn’t. You also insinuate that a doctor who can fake a delivery at a hospital where she isn’t even a resident ( http://www.matsuregional.com/staff/show_alpha.php ) would be unable to get a fake birth announcement posted! Seriously, have you ever been to a hospital? Or had your children delivered at one?
Why would “CBJ” not have used a hospital where she was a big shot and presumably better able to bribe and blackmail?
http://www.providence.org/prdopportunities/meet_physicians.aspx
http://www.providence.org/prdopportunities/prov_ak.aspx?State=Alaska
Especially since it was also the hospital best equipped to handle “high risk pregnancies”. Wait . . . maybe it’s because Palin’s was NOT a high risk pregnancy. See Providence’s own description of what constitutes “high risk”:
http://www.providence.org/alaska/tchap/maternity/2highriskpregnancies.htm
if your baby is late;
if you have pre-eclampsia or pregnancy induced hypertension;
if your baby seems small for your expected due date;
if you have had previous problems in pregnancy;
if you have other medical problems, such as diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, severe anemia;
if your baby is moving less than normal.
I don’t recall any of this being discussed as an issue with Palin.
Someone can easily check to see if Sue Williams is real. If you google you get a phone number in Wasilla AK. All I can say is that all of the verifiable info that she is stating can be found in the various newspaper articles that already exist on the web. There is nothing new coming from her other than rumors and allegations which can’t proven.
This is just so gorgeous. I wish I had the copyright to Lawrence Kudlow’s comments on the Laura Ingraham Show Friday afternoon when he was gushing over Palin giving birth to a baby with Down Syndrome…I think he said something to the effect that “this is the strongest political biography in modern times.”
I knew we all had hit paydirt last night when out of nowhere CNN announced at 10:30 p.m. that Palin would be breast-feeding as she campaigns with McSame.
Hey Wing-Nuts, repeat after me: LANDSLIDE!
Oh my gosh, Logic – you’ve almost convinced me about your Bristol theory. But, in the middle of it all is a 17 year old young woman who is going to need a lot of mom time. Not to mention 4 month old Trig who could use some Mommy time, too.
Haiku
Mommy scandalous
Run pipeline, royalty checks
Be it Eskiho
I don’t think any of her kids have gotten much in the way of Mommy time ever.
maybe I’m missing something but I don’t think it makes nearly as much difference as you do.
like i said earlier, i am not relying on photos to make my determination. it only makes a different when refuting arguments like tom’s..
the pictures being touted all over the Internets as showing Bristol being supposedly pregnant are actually from summer 2007 and earlier
if she was due in april she was actually pregnant earlier last summer. no big deal.
While still skeptical about the whole “baby gate” thing, I can’t come up with a good explanation as to why the birth of Trig Palin is NOT recorded for April 18, 2008 on the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center website.
http://www.matsuregional.com/nursery/nursery_name.php?start=60&step=30&count=503
Yes, parents can chose to keep a birth off the website, but when you immediately issue a press release the morning of the birth (as Sarah Palin did) what would be the point of keeping that information off the website?
At the very least, after doing a bit of research I find it INCOMPREHENSIVELY STUPID that an older mother (44 years old) leaking amniotic fluid with an at-risk baby in her womb would: (1) sit in a meeting (2) give a talk (3) drive to the airport (4) fly for most of a day and (5) drive all the way out to a small regional medical center to deliver her child. Yes there are gushing leaks and slow leaks, but ANY leak means get yourself to a good hospital under those conditions. I have no way to prove this didn’t happen, but if it did Sarah exhibited poor judgment in the extreme. Is a talk on energy policy to a group of governors more important than your baby’s life??!!!!
btw logician i love the 7th month photo you linked to earlier. from her first pregnancy.
Well, I had PROM (a month early), and didn’t need to check into the hospital until ten hours later, at which point my labor slowed to nothing within 8 hours. I had to go home and relax to get labor going again and delivered 34 hours after the rupture. Traveling or anxiety can slow things down for some women, and the reason that hospitals place limits on post-PROM labor is that it isn’t always speedy.
I was mentally cogent until transition, as well, and had an easy labor with very little distraction from contractions. It does happen. So I can possibly, not probably, see someone much more determined than I am pulling off the speechmaking.
What I can’t see is getting through all the travel without anyone on the plane noticing. And I’m sorry, a more than 6lb baby, not looking pregnant? I don’t care how slender or tight you are or how little you gain. Go look at a six-pound chicken. No. Simply, No.
By the way – as a working woman, I functioned through all manner of pregnancy side effects, including urine leakage. Yuck. But doable and absolutely necessary in my circumstances. Being “classy” and keeping your job and reputation are often two different things.
Her own actions show her views re: reputation(s).
Dina,
were you too a mid fortyish woman carrying a special needs fetus during a high risk pregnancy?
Bah. Any woman, of any age, with any baby-high or not, knows to get to her doctor if she begins to leak.
The Logician:
Thank you for your logic.
Sue and Tom are shills, probably bought and paid for by Sarah Palin.
¶ AIO
Bah. Any woman, of any age, with any baby-high risk, or not, knows to get to her doctor if she begins to leak fluid.
Sorry Dina, left out: was this also your 5th pregnancy?
Here is Sue William’s phone number:
http://www.google.com/search?q=sue+williams+alaska&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en-us&pb=r&sa=X&oi=rwp&ct=title
Someone can call her if you are so concerned about all of this baby stuff. If it really is a Sue Williams from Wasilla, then you can probably have a long, intense conversation because she appears to love to talk. However, if the poster is just someone impersonating the (seemingly) real Sue Williams and spreading filth out Palin then you will find that out rather quickly as well. If it is an impersonator, that person should be sure to cease their activities because they could be facing potential legal actions. I guess the only other option is that the poster is such a conspiratorial plant that he/she created a fake name on Google and has relocated to Alaska simply to answer a local phone call and confuse a bunch of anonymous bloggers . . . Unlikely
“Dina,
were you too a mid fortyish woman carrying a special needs fetus during a high risk pregnancy?”
Comment by BJ
Yeah, Dina, that’s apples and oranges.
¶ AIO
“Sorry Dina, left out: was this also your 5th pregnancy?”
That is another key point. Usually later pregnancies go much faster. For first pregnancies prolonged labor, false starts, etc… are common.
My mom was HUGE for her 5th child. After 4 children, all of the surrounding tissue is so stretched out that my little sister was sprawling out of her womb. She wasn’t any fatter, it was just that everything wasn’t held in as tight. I find it very hard to believe that Sarah Palin would not have been obviously huge during her 5th pregnancy, regardless of whether she exercised, etc…
Diana, I don’t know what a PROM is, except for the one in high school. In any case, my understanding is that the docs don’t like women carrying Down Syndrome babies to go too far or do too much, because those fetuses have special vulnerabilities. Then there’s also the issue of Sarah Palin’s age, and it being (allegedly) the fifth kid.
Look, the thing about “one in a million” is that there really is that one case. But this just doesn’t add up for that mother to get on a plane, fly 3,000 miles to Texas in her eighth month, have her fluid leak while she’s there, and feel contractions, and then stay at a business meeting, give a speech, and then fly home for 3,000 miles and 10 or so hours, then be driven not to the big hospital in Anchorage but another hour to West Dogs*** to give birth.
I don’t believe it happened. Blood tests would convince me, but without objective confirmation I think your governor’s story is a crock.
Fun, fun, fun. I’m definitely setting my sites on Alaska as my next vacation.
I’ve been to Alaska a couple times. Hooterville with mountains.
Every woman I’ve talked to, including my wife and daughter, are insulted by this pick by McCain, view it as pandering of the worst sort, and say that it is evidence that McCain thinks women are so stupid that they will vote for a woman just because she is a woman regardless of her stance on issues. Yesterday, I heard two men at a football game, one a president of a bank, say exactly that and laud it as a “great pick” and say that “she’s a babe.” I told them they should be careful what they wanted, because they got it and will have to live with it.
My son said he had to have three interviews before being hired for a summer job in college as a busser for Outback Steakhouse but McCain met with this woman one time for 30 minutes and the next time offered her the position of the second most powerful position in our government. As he said, “What’s wrong with that picture?”
Sue Williams said that Sarah Palin’s doctor is Sarah’s doc is Cathy Baldwin-Johnson. It’s been widely reported that Palin gave birth at Mat Su Regional.
I just checked Mat Su Regional’s roster of doctors. Nobody by the name of Baldwin-Johnson practices there according to the online search tool.
Nobody by the name of Baldwin either. Or Johnson.
Also, on April 18, the date that Palin was supposed to have given birth to Trig there, two other births are listed but Trig’s is not.
Further, I’ve seen pix of Palin when she definitely was pregnant, online at the New York Daily News site. She’s big as a house: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/republican_race/galleries/sarah_palin_family_photos/sarah_palin_family_photos.html (click on picture 7).
Now, look at pix of her supposedly late in her 7th month for the current pregnancy: http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223
This was a fake pregnancy. As a woman who’s been pregnant and given birth, and known countless others who’ve been pregnant and given birth, I can’t imagine how anyone could believe differently. What a hoot!
I think this blog should single-handedly put an end to the rumors. Bristol is clearly now well into a pregnancy and so could not have had a child four months ago.
Here is the photo that proves it: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=117egpk&s=4 . This was taken on Friday, according to McCain’s daughter’s blog.
To those who say this was a “high risk pregnancy”, please look up the term. Here is how Providence Health (where Cathy Baldwin-Johnson is affiliated) defines it:
http://www.providence.org/alaska/tchap/maternity/2highriskpregnancies.htm
if your baby is late;
if you have pre-eclampsia or pregnancy induced hypertension;
if your baby seems small for your expected due date;
if you have had previous problems in pregnancy;
if you have other medical problems, such as diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, severe anemia;
if your baby is moving less than normal.
A Down syndrome baby is not necessarily high risk if ultrasound and other tests do not detect major physiological abnormalities.
As for amniotic fluid leaks, they come in different shapes and sizes. Immediate medical attention is required when the fluid is not clear but otherwise the first thing to do is call the doctor. Obviously, active labor means a pretty quick trip to the hospital (Palin was apparently having minor contractions). It is, however, a total fallacy that a woman needs to go immediately once her water breaks (and we don’t even know if Palin’s water broke, only that she allegedly “noticed” amniotic fluid).
At the same time, I can’t see any circumstance where a 10 hour flight would be a wise choice immediately after amniotic fluid leaked and there were minor contractions. My guess is Palin feared that if the baby got delivered in Texas and there were complications, he might have to stay in a Texan ICU for 3 months. Then she might have to make the “tough” choice of staying by his side or carrying on as Goobner several thousand miles away. This episode clearly brings her judgment and priorities into question.
The rest is pure tinfoil hat stuff at this point. Why, oh why, would Palin have said that she “noticed” amniotic fluid and had “minor contractions” to cover up a quick return to Alaska? Did she not know there would be criticism for making such an unusual, potentially reckless decision? Does a liar embellish a story in a way that casts additional suspicion?
And you’re telling me I have to try harder? Bizarro!!!
This should resolve the issues as to whether Bristol Palin was at all pregnant late 2007 into early 2008:
Bristol Palin, summer 2007:
Bristol Palin, Late 2007:
Bristol Palin, early 2008:
She is either pregnant or found an odd obsession to Big Mac’s.
Oops, my above post got goofed up. Review each image to see the amazing transformation from summer 2007 to early 2008. This chick was pregnant.
diogern,
men should be insulted as well. Is a beauty queen all it takes for a fence sitting man to make up his mind?
“Does a liar embellish a story in a way that casts additional suspicion?” -Tom
YES!!
Logician: “Diana, I don’t know what a PROM is, except for the one in high school.”
Why open your mouth and prove you’re an idiot?
Haiku
Republican games
Gustav causes contraflow
Republican save
284 Dan:
“This should resolve the issues as to whether Bristol Palin was at all pregnant late 2007 into early 2008:
Bristol Palin, summer 2007:
Bristol Palin, Late 2007:
Bristol Palin, early 2008:
She is either pregnant or found an odd obsession to Big Mac’s.”
Your date stamps are all off! The photo you say is “Late 2007″ is not late 2007 but if it was, it would clearly show Bristol was not pregnant. In fact, that picture is from earlier in 2007.
The photo you say is “early 2008″ cannot possibly be that. Note Bristol is in short sleeves in Juneau and that can only be braved between April and October, but more likely just June – August. That picture was taken in the summer of 2007. (I think you goofed up and meant to say “Late 2007″ for this one but that would still be wrong.)
Your last picture was not taken in early 2008 but rather October 2006. It came from a sitting that included this
http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/story/8334949p-8231037c.html
Back to the drawing board with your conspiracy theory!
I’ve seen pix of Palin when she definitely was pregnant, online at the New York Daily News site
Anita Bee, I can’t find picture #7 at your link. Could you give a direct link to the photo? I am very interested.
Why open your mouth and prove you’re an idiot?
Now Tom, we can remain civil here.
Why, oh why, would Palin have said that she “noticed” amniotic fluid and had “minor contractions” to cover up a quick return to Alaska?
Because she got word that her daughter, Bristol, had given birth. She knew that, if she was going to pull this switcheroo off, she had to skedaddle back to Alaska. This was her cover story.
Did she not know there would be criticism for making such an unusual, potentially reckless decision? Does a liar embellish a story in a way that casts additional suspicion?
Well yes, liars often do that. Look at Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
Parker CA: “YES!!”
Well, you do have a point, after all she did lie about being against the bridge to nowhere . . . but seriously, that lie at least came with some potential payoff (being viewed by a few dopes as a fiscal conservative). This one had none. If she had lied, it would have been to make herself look better, not worse.
This one had none. If she had lied, it would have been to make herself look better, not worse.
It was a lie told in support of her big lie, i.e., being pregnant. Which made her look very good indeed. And even the smaller lie, while it remained undiscovered, made her look tough, which in today’s America is good publicity.
Sorry Logician, I agree that we can remain civil, but you are making high falutin’ arguments about what “high risk pregnancies” are and about Down syndrome fetuses where you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. At least some of the mothers here who happen to be misinformed have some experience and genuine motives and concerns. You should really try doing some research first. The burden of proof is on you, and all I see is grabbing at straws.
Tom, you seem to have some potential information to dispute the claims people are proposing, but I have a question.
From the most recent picture posted on daughter mccain’s blog, one could infer that Bristol has given birth to her first child within the last 3-4 months. You have been referencing pictures from time frames you claim are not late 2007 or early 2008, but can you provide any pictures that are from late 2007 or early 2008?
It seems strange that all of the photos being passed around, not including the most recent, are strangely void of any taken within the timeframe that Bristol may have been pregnant with this child.
I think the case could be closed if someone can locate a picture that is definitively from within the late 2007 or early 2008 months. Either she is pregnant, or she is not. The fact that she was out of school for months during this timeframe does not bode well for the support of the claim that the child is her brother rather than her son.
One other question. Why wouldn’t the father ever be pictured holding HIS son? There are photos with Sarah and each of the children holding the baby, but I have not seen a single one showing the father holding his OWN son. Very odd.
I am keeping an open mind about this one until there is some more solid evidence, but as many others have noted above, there are far too many loose ends in this story to give Sarah Palin’s claim to motherhood solid legitimacy.
Unless you’ve been dead for the last 8 years there is no reason to vote for a Republican.
Ever.
Who the hell flies across the country 8 months pregnant to give a political speech? Who continues to fly back after their water breaks without telling the airlines while carrying a special needs child and are in a high risk group due to your age?
Seriously bad horrific judgment. She put politics ahead of her own baby’s safety and health as well as her own. Disgusting.
you are making high falutin’ arguments about what “high risk pregnancies” are and about Down syndrome fetuses where you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
Ah. Highfalutin’. Well then bucko, when the ol’ gal’ is over 40 and the kid’s is one a-them there what you call Down Syndromes, the doctors you know they don’t like the ol’ gal to get too far out of sight an’ they don’t like to have the ol’ gal even move around too much because them there Down Syndrome babies well they break easier than other ones.
Now generally speakin the airlines don’t like the fly the pregnant woman past six and a half months although I get that there Alaska Airlines by reason of being in the outback does it different, but at eight months even a young gal ain’t supposed to be on the plane, y’all hear?
This one’s a-wrapped clear around the tree like an unruly vine around the ’shine still so I done think it’s a purty tall tale, y’all hear?
Haikuing may be
the answer here — no space to
parse pregnancy pix.
http://www.thehaikudiaries.wordpress.com
I have been reading this blog off and on today and I must admit – it is interesting to see the attempts to muddy the waters. divert, distract, put bad dates on pictures… throw ‘em off the trail. just have to muddy the waters enough to get through the next 2 months…
Those who are trying to muddy the waters should be ashamed at what you are trying to accomplish – this is potential blackmail material for the vice president of the united states. you really think it’s worth putting your country in danger that way? is it really worth it to you?
woman with her “5th” pregnancy, who does not look pregnant (but clearly looked pregnant in atleast one previous pregnancy), gives birth 29.5 hours after her water breaks. 5th pregnancy, people, 29.5 hours later. please.
mccain is a total idiot. this shows just how much he really cares about this country.
Whew, thank you Sue Williams. I’m from Juneau, and learned about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy Friday morning (through a friend of a friend), and have been following this story all weekend. Everything you say makes sense, you’ve put this to rest for me. And I’ll second all of your comments on Palin’s lack of judgment and misplaced priorities. Thanks.
Dirt-digging aside, this person is an ardent pro-lifer who advocates abstinence-only education. Anyone with half a brain knows abstinence-only education is a steaming load of useless b.s. Instead of acknowledging, yes, in the real world, that doesn’t fly, she’d prefer to perpetuate a ridiculous charade like this.
What else is there to do in an isolated mostly-rural places – drink and have unprotected sex of course.
you really think it’s worth putting your country in danger that way? is it really worth it to you?
They’re Christian Republicans. Need we say more?
that photo of Palin pregnant shows 80/90’s hair and different glasses. there is no way to tell who is the girl behind her. there are other photos showing her in March of this year and she does not look pregnant. No airlines would allow a woman on the plane without a doctor’s permission that far along. There are reports that nobody knew at the airlines and that Palin didn’t mention it. Seriously bad judgement all across the board. This photo is from another time and not from this year. Anyone can see that she is pregnant in that photo but it is clearly not from this year.
Who is the Heath family? They’re the ones who provided the old photo which I’ve now located on Yahoo News. It’s clearly not of Palin pregnant with her fifth child. If nothing else, the Sarah Palin in the photo had a much fatter face and a different hairstyle.
Greetings from California and kudos to Sue Williams, for some very well written information about yur Gov.
OK, so I must say, that I never heard about Sarah Palin and honestly, when it was announced that she would be the VP on the Rep ticket I said “Sarah who?????, I gues Paris Hilton was too busy”
Well interesting reading stuff on this blog and others and I am sure all these information and more is going to hit the National Media within a week or two and suddenly, Alaska will be known as part of the US
Heath is Palin’s maiden name. The picture of her obviously pregnant is part of a collection of family pics. It clearly says that it is undated. I have read speculation that it is of when she was pregnant with Bristol. I don’t think anyone is trying to pass that one off as her pregnant with Trig. Its value is that it clearly shows that when she has been pregnant in the past, she was very obviously pregnant, to the point where it couldn’t be hidden by black suits and colorful scarves.
If Bristol got married, where is the marriage certificate?
They’re Christian Republicans. Need we say more?
well you have a point logic, but I would really, really like to think that even the right-wing fundies would be concerned about their country being blackmailed.
Regarding the picture of SP 7 months along with her first child…
I could be mistaken that I read it in this blog, but somewhere I read that the pregnant lady in the photo is Dianne Keller, the current mayor of Wasilla, and that the lady to Dianne’s left is Sarah. Here is a picture of the mayor… You be the judge:
http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?page=51
Here is the picture of the pregant lady with the other lady to her left.
http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp233/pooteeweet28/1stchild.jpg
Maybe Sue can shed some light on this.
Haiku
Andrew Sullivan
Gay but not sunstruck: right wing
Truly objective
Groundhogday,
One good reason Trig’s birth is not recorded on the Mat-Su Medical website is because the parents must sign a waiver to have that information released to the public. Why didn’t they? There are more valid reasons I can think of that are not conspiratorial (never got around to it) than that are (couldn’t get around the system to fake the birth announcement after they were able to perfectly fake EVERYTHING else). In other words, you start from a bad assumption that the Palins had to do something to KEEP the information OFF the website. Instead, they had to do something to PUT the information ON the website.
You make bad assumptions about amniotic fluid leaks as well. In fact, some women do not deliver for WEEKS after they start leaking, especially if the baby is really premature. The relevant facts are how much fluid has leaked, how much is left, what color is it and what are the circumstances of the pregnancy. As far as age of mother, that is almost irrelevant. If anything, a woman with several similar prior and normal pregnancies might be considered lower risk (perhaps someone like Palin?). The Down syndrome itself does present a risk but testing would have already established the presence of severe, life-threatening cardiovascular or other problems requiring immediate postnatal intensive care. Otherwise, Down syndrome babies don’t appear to have a much higher rate of delivery complications compared to the average population.
Perhaps the weakest argument that is being made here is that once the Palins landed in Anchorage, why they didn’t just go to the nearest hospital? Well, what if she wasn’t leaking fluid at the time and she wasn’t in active labor? Should she sit around at some hospital an hour from home waiting to be induced? Unless her amniotic fluid was a pussy yellow-black, no OB/GYN would have told her to go to the “nearest” hospital at that point.
The problem seems to be that so many people view medicine as an absolute, yet in real life it is practiced based on probabilities. And the field of obstetrics is no exception. Look, for example, at the decision to have an amniocentesis — the test for conditions like Down syndrome — which itself carries the risk of miscarriage. Or, the calculation that goes into NOT having every woman in early labor rush immediately to the hospital.
Again, I’m not trying to defend any Palin decisions, just trying to poke hole in conspiracy theories. And boy, this is a pretty juicy one!
Haiku
Andrew Sullivan
Gay but not sunstruck: right wing
Truly objective
according to this site the photo is of a pregnant Governor Palin, the photo being donate by the Heath family. This is from the AP
Tom, by all means keep digging, and let us know when you’ve reached China. Now that Andrew Sullivan has picked it up, you can be sure that the national press now swarming into Hootville with mountains will find out the truth. If I were Sarah Palin I’d insist on riding on the same aircraft with John McCain when they go down to New Orleans.
I’m from New York City (the building I grew up in in Manhattan had almost as many people as Wasilla!) and have found the comments here fascinating. I hope you all won’t mind two cents from the 51st State (as a lot of us New Yorkers wish we’d be).
Politically, I don’t think it matters whether Trig is Bristol’s or Sarah’s. Sarah is either a lying grandmother who used her teenaged daughter’s pregnancy falsely to bolster her own pro-life credentials, or she’s a wildly irresponsible mother who jeoparized the life of her one-month-premature, special-needs baby for the vain reason that she didn’t want him born in Texas (wonder how that will go over with the base in the Lone Star State). Either way, her judgment is so unreliable as to disqualify her and McCain from national office.
A few points responding to the above. My wife is expecting our first child at the beginning of October. She is 41, and thus is automatically considered a “high-risk” pregnancy, though so far so good. Her Ob. forbade her from flying from August on. The idea that if her water broke today (33 days before her due date) that she’d get on a plane for 7 to 12 hours is ludicrous.
Down’s Syndrome is NOT caused by incest. Although incest can lead to genetic problems (e.g. hemophilia), it is because of the increased likelihood of two recessive genes from related parents. Down’s Syndrome is based on having an extra chromosome 21, which is a mutation, not a recessive condition.
J, the recent photo of Bristol looking heavy does not necessarily mean she is pregnant now. A lot of women continue to carry their baby weight for months (or years) after giving birth.
On balance, the evidence that Trig is Sarah’s grandson is more persuasive to me, but either way, when the mainstream media gets a hold of this story, it’s going to be very, very bad for the McCain ticket.
P.S. I loved Alaska when I visited 10 years ago. I took the railroad all the way between Seward and Fairbanks, and bopped around the glaciers and valleys outside Anchorage. The natural beauty was just jawdropping. I hope some day to come back with my wife and soon-to-be son!
If I were Sarah Palin I’d insist on riding on the same aircraft with John McCain when they go down to New Orleans. <blockquote
According to Charlie Black Palin is supposed to sit at McCain’s feet to learn the ropes – uggg so wrong on a million offensive levels…
thought this might be of interest: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-70930
I checked out the pictures of the Palins on the McCain blog and found these two of BP that were interesting;
http://mccainblogette.com/postings/083008_0928/55.jpg
http://mccainblogette.com/postings/083008_0928/61.jpg
RedwoodMan – interesting information. Apparently, Dianne M. Keller is Sarah’s cousin and recently survived a recall campaign.
God, this is just so weird. And Tom? It is the cumulative weirdness that builds the story. Poke holes all you want (the one about it not being on the hospital website is crap and you know it), but looking at the totality, something is amiss here.
Logician, you are doing good work here.
Anyone want to take a guess why Bristol and the baby aren’t on stage with the rest of the family? Or mentioned anywhere in today’s posting from Megan McCain blog? When she was featured so prominently yesterday, holding Trig, before all this exploded?
kyle:
whoever made that video is one who is attempting to muddy the waters. throw the false statement out there so when it is disproven then automatically people think the entire story is disproven.
that “interview” was originally posted on a travel blog at the beginning of feb 2008. there’s no way that interview was done in april, as the person who made the video on “ireport” states. it was made prior to the 2nd week of feb 2008.
Having lived with an OBGYN for a long time, leaking amniotic fluid causes great concern about the risk of infection and would not be made light of with any one, especially with a high risk pregnancy.
And, NO, flying in the 3rd trimester, is not recommended for any one, especially someone who is having their fifth child. Labor, generally, goes faster after multiple pregnancies, not slower. Additionally, 6 lbs is a small baby, and as such would deliver easily.
Also, tendons and ligaments, once stretched, streatch a lot easier, sooner, than those never stretched…There’s no way she was 7 months along. If she the pictures I’ve seen of Palin from this spring are of her pregnant, I am hard pressed to believe it.
Ah, the plot thickens… enter “C-Ray”, or Chris Ray.
Chris Ray is a 16 year old from a town called Palmer, AK. Population: 6,920.
http://pics.livejournal.com/billylickalolly/pic/0002s360
…Who up until 2 days ago, had this as a MySpace page:
“I LOVE BRISTOL PALIN MORE THEN ANYTHING IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!”
Until it was taken offline. Of course, there’s Google, and when his page was indexed by Google on July 20, it captured:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Chris+ray%22+%22Bristol+Palin%22&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=
Interesting side note: When Sarah Palin supposedly gave birth, she flew from Texas to Seattle to Anchorage, and then drove 2+ hours (bypassing regional hospitals in anchorage that had special wards for preemies and downs babies) to Mat Su Regional Hospital to give birth.
Guess where Mat Su Regional Hospital is?
Why, none other than the town where Chris Ray lives, and goes to high school… Palmer, AK! probably the hospital where Bristol gave birth!!! to their child.
Tsk tsk tsk.. Somebody call Maury. I think we have a baby daddy who needs a paternity test!
kyle:
here is the blog in question, with the original video:
http://alaskapodshow.com/index.php/tag/sarah-palin/
To J, thank for the pic for the McCain Daughters Website. http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=117egpk&s=4 It shows Bristol as a girl who could very well have been pregnant and delivered, in April. Excess pregnancy weight frequently hangs around for many months after delivery….even when breast feeding. It is important to note here that the tiny pic you linked or copied to your site, doesn’t seem to be on Meghan McCain’s blog spot that was linked in a previous post any more!!!!! http://www.mccainblogette.com/ I wonder why????
Also, if the Dr Bailey-Johnson does not want to lie for Palin, the doc may just find ways to make herself scarce and unavailable for futher comment. Lets all watch what happens.
Oh and Sue, I do believe you are who you say you are and that you have heard these things from people who should know. But, I think it is still entirely possible that Sarah Palin would have lied and tried to cover this up, even to close friends, if the stakes were this high+VP.
thanks emrysa. i wasnt trying to throw coal on the fire, just saw something that hadn’t yet been linked to. i like discussion, that’s all.
do you see the difference NOW????
pic of sarah’s FIRST pregnancy at 7 months
http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp233/pooteeweet28/1stchild.jpg
pic of sarah’s alleged FIFTH pregnancy at 7 months
http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp233/pooteeweet28/31408.jpg
“It is important to note here that the tiny pic you linked or copied to your site, doesn’t seem to be on Meghan McCain’s blog spot that was linked in a previous post any more!!!!! http://www.mccainblogette.com/ I wonder why????” – Merg
Look on the archived page from yesterday. The photo is still there.
Fascinating stuff!
May I suggest to those doing the research that a public wiki/timeline of this issue be created? This would allow for individual photos/events of interest to be arranged and edited chronologically, and for each item to be fully substantiated (or not!).
An objective, community-maintained forum with a collection of facts (rather than hearsay) would be very credible… and necessary, given that this story could “break” to a larger audience any minute now!
One thing doesn’t make sense, though. If Trig’s mother is 16 year old Bristol, why would an amniocentesis have been done (letting the parents know that the fetus had Down’s syndrome)? Young mothers don’t typically get this risky test.
it would make sense if they detected abnormalities in the routine tests or ultrasound and then did the amnio.
The thing is that all of these questions could very easily be answered by the Palin’s providing some documentation. Put it all out there in verifiable form and all of this goes away. There really are just too many peculiarities for this just to be dismissed.
This seems to be a better photo of Chris Ray
http://profiles.berecruited.com/cgi-bin/showprofile.pl?action=ShowProfile§ion=H&id=217183&start=0&step=10&orderby=created&order=DESC&photo=14219849
You have to scroll down a bit.
kyle: no problem. I wasn’t accusing you, but I do wonder what the motivation is of the person who made the video on ireport…
Merg,
You may be right: It may be post-pregnancy excess weight.
The pic is still on Meghan McCain’s blog, just not on the main page. Look under Sat. Aug. 30th.
“She had to make decisions,” Rudy Giuliani told Face The Nation anchor Bob Schieffer. “All Senator Obama has had to do is talk. That’s all he does.”
He’s never run a city, he’s never run a state, he’s never run a business, he’s never administered a payroll, he’s never led people in crisis. I think that she (Palin) already has more executive experience than Biden and Obama combined.”
Looks like there a quite a few typical DU’ers here posting all their vile, evil, vicious and revolting rumour mill tactics, they like to call themselves progressive, well, progressively getting more regressive is true and more to the point. What an illmannered uneducated bunch they are.
Disgusting.
Yeah just a thought here. All you people who are NITPICKING A TEENAGE GIRL’S BODY FAT? You people are sick. I really hope that none of you are Democrats, because that is just so unspeakably crass and irrelevant I can’t even begin to think that people in the party that so champions womens’ rights would even think that way. Tearing this girl apart for her physical appearance is unbelievably inappropriate. And all for what? To make a completely irrelevant, impossible to prove, manipulative petty political point? The baby thing? IT’S A RED HERRING. It does not, and if actual intelligent, reasonable people were the voters in this country, WOULD NOT, matter. It really doesn’t. Why not? Because not only will you never know the truth, but there are so many other, more valid reasons why Palin was a poor choice and further proof of McCain’s unsuitability to lead this nation. Such as? Well. Petty baby-related arguments aside (see, women are actually capable of doing things other than delivering babies), Sue Williams, the Alaska Republican, raised some excellent points. Do YOU want someone who is so ill-prepared to become the default president in the perhaps not so unlikely event that Senator McCain passes away while in office? The people who know her best – those who supposedly would be the first in line to support her – don’t seem to think so. To me, that says it all. I don’t want this woman’s finger on our proverbial national trigger. Leave that girl (and her insipid mother’s uterus) out of this.
The most interesting internet comment thread that i may have ever read. Kudos to all. If Sue is a plant, then she is an amazing plant…more of a towering tree than a plant, really. (and so good that she’s worth reading for her horticultural excellence)
I look forward to finding out the soap-operatic truth. Small town America (i live it) is looking like it will hit the big stage, and i’m not so sure that our collective, idyllic image of it will survive the encounter.
P.S. the haikus were great.
P.P.S. Sue, are there others in your community who would be willing to tell us their thoughts? (not to corroborate you, just to hear them…it is rare that we get offered a personal glimpse of our would be leaders)
“To make a completely irrelevant, impossible to prove, manipulative petty political point? ”
It’s completely irrelevant that the possible future Vice President of the United States either lied about her pregnancy or showed remarkable bad judgment?
And it’s not impossible to prove. If a bunch of ordinary people with a little too much time on their hands can poke this many holes in the story, why didn’t the McCain campaign already know this and choose someone else faaaaaaaaaar better suited to be, as someone said, a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency?
Kristen,
Best work since Logician. Most of the pics, other than Kyle’s video, are posted earlier on this thread. I think finding the possible ‘baby daddy’ is a stroke of genius.
BP appears as if she easily could have given birth a few months ago, and is, strangely, the one holding the baby most of the time, even in group family pics.
And who mentioned about the ring on her finger? It looks like an engagement ring.
Way to miss the point! There is no justification for the kind of nitpicking these people are doing on this girl’s body. None! Those pictures and the accompanying analysis prove nothing. Any OB/GYN will tell you that different women show pregnancy weight in different ways, and it is COMPLETELY NORMAL for a teenage girl to fluctuate in weight while not pregnant. And if she was pregnant? I still fail to see how that is a valid political point. These are not the types of arguments that should be making or breaking elections. I enjoy schadenfreude as much as the next guy, but this is over the line of relevance AND taste. I have supported Obama from the very moment he announced his candidacy – I registered as a Democrat for the first time in my voting history – and I’d like to know that he won this election without the “help” of petty, sexist arguments like this.
Curious Lurker- excellent, and comical points. It’s obvious that SP is highly un-qualified in any and all cases to be VP of the USA.
I don’t believe she ever was properly vetted, especially due to the trooper scandal- they never bothered to interview anyone involved.
I think we might be able to chalk up her choice to McCain’s obvious weakness for beauty queenns.
Jane- This is not a personal thing about the daughter. I feel very sorry for her. I’m not poking any fun at her body or body-type. We all got into this thread to ponder a conspiracy theory. It is difficult to do that while leaving out BP, unfortunately.
None of this will make or break Obama’s election results. I for one am just sick and tired of the sheer hypocrisy of the neo-con agenda, the lies and obfuscation. If this were about the Obama family, the same thing would be going on.
Please try not to take it personally. No one is making fun of the teenager, only trying to prove her mother to be a potential liar.
Ok – i looked it up – 80% of Downs Syndrome cases are in women under 35 – this is just due to the sheer numbers of babies born to this age group. The causes of Downs are unknown – the result of the whatever causes it is the extra chromosome in each cell. Women over 40 have the most percentage – but there are very few babies born to this group – so the percentage of all is small – but in this group large – unknown why. One type – Balanced Translocation – can be inherited. So Sarah knew from previous pregnancy that she had this condition and could have passed it to her daughter. She was a carrier. So they tested the daughter and knew the baby had Downs. I missed this part i admit, but i assume it was public knowledge before the baby was born that the baby had Down’s – did she announce it ?
(There is no evidence that incest causes the condition)
Way to cherrypick, Jane! No one here is nitpicking over whether or not Bristol is fat. Some have observed that she appears to either be pregnant or having recently given birth, particularly in the photos from Meghan McCain’s blog. This supports the two stories advanced here, that either Sarah or Bristol had Trig. Sue Williams is claiming that Bristol is pregnant right now and claiming she knows this because she lives in Wasilla. I have to say that Sue sounds very credible to me, but there are still a number of holes in the story. And yes, this is not the kind of story that should make or break an election…but this story shouldn’t even be out there because the McCain campaign should have done their job and thoroughly vetted Palin before choosing her for the ticket. Had they done that, we wouldn’t be here. But they didn’t and we are, and it’s indicative of the rash, off-the-cuff decisions McCain makes and exactly why he should be no where near the red button.
Also, any guess why her doctor didn’t deliver at the hospital at which she works, and Palin’s hometown? Which has a department for high risk pregnancy? But rather opted for Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, which is now offline?
I don’t know my Alaska geography whatsoever, but considering that she claims she consulted with her doctor, who sort of gave the go-ahead for the flight, it is beyond bizarre that she didn’t go to, uh, her doctor’s hospital, in her hometown.
More weirdness.
None of this would be any of our business except that SP decided to run for VP. That makes it our biz. We have a right to know whether or not she is a liar, a hypocrate or can barely manage her familial affairs. It is all indicative of her moral fiber or lack thereof.
Thanks Else. I understand that perfectly well. But as with everything on the internet – you make your point, I make mine. As I said, I like political schadenfreude, but I think it’s sad when people stoop to analyzing a 17 year old’s body fat in the name of politics – it doesn’t matter what the end is. To me, this is just about as empty and offensive a line of discussion as the Obama/Osama “Barack Hussein” BS. I just think, and you may disagree all you want, that Americans should hold themselves to higher intellectual standards than this crap. There are far more damning things about Palin than this, as has been pointed out in this thread.
I’m becoming quickly less interested in the baby story, and more interested in her own special interest issues. Like buying votes…
Among the governor’s most recent accomplishments was the State Legislature passing Senate Bill 4002. Using revenues generated from state resources to provide a one-time special payment of $1,200 to each eligible Alaskan, it returns part of a substantial budget surplus (a portion of which came from the original funding for the “bridge to nowhere” that AK got to keep), provides energy relief and a rollback of gas taxes. How might this affect the decision of voters as they go to the polls in November?
Anyone out there from AK receive this money?
Hi Sue Williams – I believe you are who you say you are, and I thank you for your direct comment. Just want to send you my own good wishes and prayers. I am a feminist, left-liberal, gay-loving, hetero & married 46-year-old California mom of two kids including one with special needs. I believe in God and prayer although you and I might not line up exactly on doctrine. (understatement) I want you to know that although we are completely at odds on politics, abortion rights and gay rights, I have no problem whatsoever with your views on motherhood and family, prayer, and faith. For instance, I too would never choose to run for office (dear lord) while mothering four children, and then have a fifth, special needs or no, and run for vice president, whether qualified or not. My kids need me – both of them – and I share your concern about what kind of family choices this governor has made. I am more “libertarian” on the subject – in theory I believe it’s none of my business – but in practice I think the kids need an attentive, caring parent who does mom-like behavior. If that’s the gay uncle who does it , fine. I *really* don’t understand running for VP while raising an infant. When does she get any sleep?
One thing about this whole kerfuffle is that you and I get to “meet” in cyberspace. I want to reach out to you as a sister American mom and give you my blessings and warm wishes. Sincerely, your liberal feminist compatriot. God Bless America.
Seems to me SP has sided with big oil&gas, in addition to several other industries at the expense of the people and the environment of the State of Alaska. She’s a member of the Alaska Miners Association and the Alaska Resource Development Council (hint- their agendas are not environmentally friendly).
She was thrilled with getting the Supreme Court to review ‘tailing’ (disposal of mine waste on sensitive land). Was this not a conflict of interest considering her affiliations?
She’s a reformer? That’s a joke. The only guys she ‘investigated’ were from the old boy network, and she got them out of the way in a hurry in order to forward her own (or maybe someone else’s altogether) agenda.
I admit that I am interested in the baby story because when I first heard about her, my reaction was “What the hell is someone with a newborn doing running for Vice President?” And before anyone jumps in with the women can work and be a mom at the same time, yes, but this is Vice President of the United States. Then the rumors about said newborn surfaced and it’s been like going down a rabbit hole…it gets more and more peculiar.
I’m thinking that the owner of this blog is gonna lose her mind when she gets back from vacation and has to read through this entire thread! LOL!
Sue Williams… I want you to know that you’ve thoroughly “enlightened” me to Sara Palin! Have you been contacted by the MSM about Sara Palin? I swear [loosely]; you should be doing interviews and educating the rest of America on Sara Palin.
Everyone has their story; but your information has been like reading a novel that you just can’t put down until you’ve reached the last page!
good grief.
and we wonder how people like gwb are able to get so many votes. couldn’t be that we have so many suckers in this country.
I have been reading this blog with an odd sense of sliminess creeping over my fingers making it hard to respond.
It does ring of the propaganda that they wrote about Obama and people are reading this and saying to themselves WTF.
But maybe, just maybe it will make them slow down, back up and let the spell cast by the witch ( oh wrong fairy tale, that’s not Beauty and the Beast) wear off.
After Obama wins we all need to meet and have a mudflat convention here in NYC, I’ll host and we’ll take pictures and post them on the blog.
Tahnk you all for making my day as I have been under the weather and this was the only thing that kept me from falling into paralysis.
Clark Kents, Lois Lanes.. Love you all!
If you go to McCainblogette and look at the photos from 8/30 they have a “family” photo of the Palins and McCain’s the couples no kids but the baby – they are using the baby as a prop and that is beyond disgusting. Especially when the Mother supposedly flew across the country at 8 months pregnant after her water broke.
I don’t know of any woman unless they are out of their mind who can accept Palin as someone who has good judgment.
btw am i the only nervous that Sue hasn’t posted a response in hours. Why do i feel like double locking the doors?
fake topless photos her of Palin
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/article20065.ece
What a family. The oldest son slacked all through school and couldn’t get into college with his 2.00 gpa so he goes into army to save face. Teen daughter gets knocked up and mom assumes the pregnancy while teen says out of school with a ridiculously long case of mono. Mom sees it fit to leak amnio while giving speeches and aboard extended airline flights. I can only wonder if the Palins would pass an interview with Child & Family Services from a lower 48 state.
As a former Hillary supporter I am ashamed of what the Democratic Party has become. As an old timer (I’m almost 70 years old) I can truthfully say the REAL Democratic Party has gone forever, replaced by the most foul, mean-spirited, ugly group of liberals that I have ever encountered.
From Don Fowler joking that the timing of Hurricane Gustav shows that God is on the side of the Democrats, not stopping for a moment to think of the dangers posed to those living in it’s path, to the protesters at the RNC convention with their buckets of urine and feces (per the police chief on C-Span this morning), to the sick Michael Moore and the even sicker Keith Olbermann, not to mention the filth posted on the ‘Democratic Underground’ I just don’t recognize my party any more. JFK and Dr. King would turn in their graves. I am so saddened and ashamed at it all.
btw am i the only nervous that Sue hasn’t posted a response in hours.
do you really think that the “real” sue williams from tinytown alaska is going to come on here and spill tinytown’s dirt?
if you were in “sue’s” situation, wouldn’t you blog with a fake name? I can’t believe all the suckers.
Independent, you just made me laugh!
I have to say, as a strong Obama supporter, and as someone who is adamantly opposed to both McCain as President and his choice of Palin as VP, this thread is enough to make me feel sorry for her. All the conspiracy theories and holes in this story aside, this is ridiculous. So, thank you Logician, not only have you not convinced me of the incestuous, hidden pregnancy, but you have actually gotten to me to admire Sarah Palin as a woman who has to put up with this kind of undignified bullshit.
And incest? Give me a fucking break.
Thanks to Sue and Jane. Sue, I hope you’ll change your telephone number so you aren’t bombarded.
Karion..interesting notation, Matsure Regional was online earlier and I looked at babies born on April 18 and none were Palin. Now I just went back to that page, as I book marked it a few hours ago and they are all gone and doesnt work.
emrysa- we aren’t all suckers. I’m not sure who ’sue’ is, but someone googled her name and phone # earlier in the thread. She’s also posted in other threads on this blog…not quite sure what her agenda was/is.
McCain had to supply his medical records. Won’t Palin have to, too?
YUP….this Page is down and out, at least for now, but did work earlier.
Welcome to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.April 18, 2008. Baby Boy Isaiah Travis. Father, Justin Travis. Mother, Erin Chantal. DOB, 04/18/2008. Time, 1:27 AM. Weight, 7 lbs 14 oz. Length, 20.00 in …
http://www.matsuregional.com/nursery/show_day.php?month=04&year=2008&day=18 -
BUT someone was smart to clip and posted the page when it was up earlier.
http://www.clipclip.org/clips/detail/239347/welcome-to-mat-su-regional-medical-center
I admit that Sue and Tom are likely red herrings, but that doesn’t mean anything with the incompetency of that lot. Ever heard of friendly fire?
LMAO the first laugh I had in two days since I choked when I heard the VP pick cause I was drinking some tea. Lawd! lawd! lawd!
They might be trying to exorcise her in church. I’ve seen those movies, it always happens in a small town….. Children of the Corn, Body Snatchers….
Sue could just be a sweet, super chatty lady from AK who really dislikes Palin…or not.
On to the real stories, enough about the conspiracy baby theory for me. If it’s a story, we’ll see it somewhere. SP’s already been proven a liar about the bridge to nowhere “she was for it before she was against it”.
Thanks for the interesting day.
But this Page does work.
http://www.clipclip.org/clips/detail/239347/welcome-to-mat-su-regional-medical-center
Night clever,
Danish the site is still up it is just getting more hits today then it usually gets in a year. Their server will be down by the morning.
fem dem, these people have no shame, nor decency.
So their is actually someone posting here from Wasilla? Wonder why they didn’t bother mentioning that McCain has just begun vetting Palin. His campaign vetting team now has eight rooms reserved at a Wasilla hotel, and will begin background checks and investigations this week, per one Andrew Halcro.
For the edification of those who don’t know Alaska geography, according to Google Maps, Palmer and Wasilla are 22 miles apart, and the Mat-Su regional medical center is pretty much right between the two towns.
The Mat-Su hospital is 36 miles from Anchorage and the drive would probably take about 45 minutes, not the 2+ hours claimed by others in this thread.
Tom,
You’re doomed, Bud. Give it up. I’ll put my money on Sue Williams.
Here’s a pic taken backstage at the VP announcement. You can clearly see McCain in the background having makeup applied, and Sarah and Bristol in the foreground. Bristol is holding Sarah’s baby.
She is clearly pregnant.
Ooops! Sorry. Here’s the pic:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=117egpk&s=4
Correction: McCain has an 8-member vetting staff that have reserved ALL the rooms at the Wasilla hotel to begin their work checking out Sarah P. Who knows, maybe Sue’s with them, now!
I wasn’t so sure about this story at first, but something about it seems to be true. After looking at the photos on McCainBlogette, there seem to be some inconsistencies about this family. Bristol looks clearly pregnant in a few shots and very unhappy in most of the shots. Then in a later photo a top McCain advisor is carrying the baby blanket prop they used to cover Bristol’s stomach during the announcement. Then the girl basically disappears from the place.
Did she leave the campaign trail? Are they now worried about how she looks? Something strange is going on. I thought this VP pick was insane from the beginning, but this is all too crazy! What happened to the People photos? I looked all over their site and they aren’t there. Hmmmmm.
Talk about obsessive compulsive!
“Also, any guess why her doctor didn’t deliver at the hospital at which she works, and Palin’s hometown? Which has a department for high risk pregnancy? But rather opted for Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, which is now offline?”
As far as I can tell, the Providence department for high risk pregnancy is in Anchorage. However, Providence Mat-Su does have a maternity center. The Providence clinic was actually founded by Sarah Palin’s doctor.
http://www.providence.org/alaska/tchap/maternity/parenting.htm
Question for Sue Williams: is the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center better equipped for neonatal care? (Though if that were an issue, why not deliver in Anchorage?)
Down’s Syndrome is NOT caused by incest. Although incest can lead to genetic problems (e.g. hemophilia), it is because of the increased likelihood of two recessive genes from related parents. Down’s Syndrome is based on having an extra chromosome 21, which is a mutation, not a recessive condition.
I can readily accept what you’re saying. I am also aware that there are several hundred thousand people with Down Syndrome, and that the common belief that they are products of incest is hurtful to them.
Here are my questions:
1. Is all Down Syndrome caused by this mutation?
2. What causes the mutation?
3. Are there any conditions that closely approximate Down that are or could be incest-related?
4. Has anyone ever done a reliable study comparing the rate of Down Syndrome offspring of incestuous unions with those in non-incestuous unions?
Most of the “evidence” given in this doesn’t prove a thing. I’m with Tom – I love conspiracies, but they’ve got to be substantiated or they are just gossip.
Most pro-life Christians I know would not hide their unwed daughter’s pregnancy. Several of my friends or relatives have dealt with this type situation – either a quickie marriage or daughter just raises baby in the parental home. I don’t think it is as big a deal as folks claim to have a daughter with a baby out of wedlock (even in very conservative Christian circles). Why would Sarah have to cover for her? It would be even a bigger pro-life statement to stand behind a pregnant teen.
I know several teen girls who have a “pregnant-looking” belly that goes in and out depending on their weight gain. And none of them have given birth… not every woman gains her weight in her thighs and rear. By the way, little Piper Palin seems to have the biggest belly in that family.
I’ve had nine children – deliveries do not necessarily go faster with each baby. My labors are all over the map for length. After the first two or three you get to know when labor is serious and when it is just warming up. I didn’t run to the hospital the minute my water broke with baby 9 – they asked diagnostic questions to see if I needed to go in. They trusted my judgement. I ran errands and took kids to piano lessons when I realized that things weren’t moving along and the water was just leaking a bit. I was aware of what was going on and no one thought I was being irresponsible. Baby 8 I didn’t deliver until 40 hours after my water broke and that was with pitocin induction. I just had intermittent labor and it just never really got going even though I walked and even did all the natural induction stuff. For me, only one baby came quickly and she was almost three weeks overdue.
Some doctors consider pregnancy over 35 or 40 automatically high risk and some don’t – my doctor didn’t think I was high risk at 41. Down Syndrome isn’t automatically considered high risk by all doctors either. Big difference between the big city doctors and small town doctors. And family doctors can be just as good as ob/gyn for care and delivery – actually, I prefer them myself. Nurse-midwives are even better. One of the things I didn’t like about some doctors is that they required every possible test known, Most people get tested for Down Syndrome now whether they would abort or not.
As to appearance, folks didn’t know I was pregnant with some of mine until I was close to the end. I got tired of maternity clothes and just bought stuff that was dark and stretchy and I just looked chunky. Plus working out and getting in better shape helped hold those stomach muscles in a bit better.
And my Working Mother magazine would be horrified to hear some of the anti-working mom statements about Mrs. Palin. My goodness, haven’t you heard? Women can have it all – with some help from parents, husbands, daycares, babysitters, nannies, housekeepers, cooks, etc. I read all the time about female corporate leaders who see less of their children than the gov. of Alaska. In our enlightened era are you saying that it is OK for men to be in public office and neglect their families, but not OK for women to do the same thing????
“Here’s a pic taken backstage at the VP announcement. You can clearly see McCain in the background having makeup applied, and Sarah and Bristol in the foreground. Bristol is holding Sarah’s baby.
She is clearly pregnant.”
Woman often look slightly pregnant for months after delivering. (My wife certainly did.) Some women hold that weight for years. And some girls DO gain weight in high school. I have yet to see ANY picture posted on this blog definitively showing Bristol to be pregnant. Sue Williams may very well be correct, and I believe she is correctly repeating what she has heard. But did she hear the truth?
Here is a question: Would the McCain campaign really take an detectably pregnant, unwed, Bristol Palin out on the road show without first releasing this information carefully to the press? Would they take her out at all? Why not just say she isn’t feeling well and let her stay home? Why subject this girl to that kind of scrutiny?
And I agree with Andrew Sullivan. These rumors are EXTREMELY easy to disprove. It won’t take much for the McCain campaign to definitively put all this to rest (and likely score some SERIOUS points doing so). If this all turns out to be nonsense, you know that the Republicans are going to accuse democrats of a deliberate smear campaign against a hockey mom with a Down’s syndrome child.
Was this already posted?
Sarah Palin’s delivery doctor’s contact info as of 10/31/08, 9:30PST on the web:
http://www.providence.org/resources/alaska/docs/detail.asp?ID=1305
Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, MD
Family Medicine
Location:
Providence Matanuska Healthcare
1700 E Bogard Road, #100
Wasilla, AK 99654
Providence Department: Family Medicine
Office Phone: 907-352-6200
Can someone track down the doctor and get a statement?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/31/234157/516/1017/581734
An 8 month photo of Gov. Palin on another thread here. She certainly looks pregnant. DaliyKos is dropping the story.
Small towns! where do I start? I call b.s. about not being able to hide anything in a small town. Everything is hidden in small towns. Nobody talks publically about scandalous things because the stakes are too high. You don’t cross the connected families, you just pretend you don’t know or didn’t see anything.
Hi guys. Don’t you all feel silly now.
-Karl Rove
Surely you are not naive enough to believe that the ‘glass ceiling’ is going to be shattered anytime soon? I’ve been waiting half a century for that to happen.
“1. Is all Down Syndrome caused by this mutation?
2. What causes the mutation?
3. Are there any conditions that closely approximate Down that are or could be incest-related?
4. Has anyone ever done a reliable study comparing the rate of Down Syndrome offspring of incestuous unions with those in non-incestuous unions?”
There is the Robertsonian translocation, which is a mutation usually passed down from fathers to daughters, then daughters to offspring that can cause trisomy 21 (Downs). You can google for more info.
I don’t know what the answer is to all of this.
I don’t think Palin is a serious choice as a candidate.
I don’t think she sounds like a serious mother either.
The story about her Texas trip doesn’t make her seem very intelligent IMO.
But I will say that it is not impossible for young Trig to be the grand son and for the daughter also to be entering her 3 rd trimester now. Sue could be right about Bristol being pregnant right now. As many have pointed out, Bristol’s weight fluctuates. Nothing wrong with that especially in today’s world. Could the parents (and maybe poor homeschooled Bristols herself) simply not have realized that she was pregnant in the winter/spring before then?
Is it clear when exactly she disappeared from the scene from the 8 month mono? Could the surprise have been discovered just before they announced the impending birth? Maybe that’s why there is no local gossip.
Maybe they tried closing the barn door too late. Maybe Bristol ran back to the boy as soon as she could and “made” the same “mistake” she did before. This time she gets to keep it.
I’ve known many people who were separated by 11 months from a sibling. It does happen. When I had my second child I popped out so much so fast I was convinced I was carrying twins. And my third was conceived when I was breast feeding my 4.5 month old. Be interesting to see if this new baby rumor plays out if the new baby is late.
I could see some rebellion playing out here and one woman’s hubris that she can get away with it all.
“Surely you are not naive enough to believe that the ‘glass ceiling’ is going to be shattered anytime soon? I’ve been waiting half a century for that to happen.”
And you certainly aren’t naive to believe that a man would be involved in the process, do you?
An 8 month photo of Gov. Palin on another thread here. She certainly looks pregnant. DaliyKos is dropping the story.
Clever Else, DailyKos doesn’t “pick up” or “drop” stories. The diaries are all reader generated–and the readers are all anonymous.
Gabrielle, Just wondering what you thought of the swift boating of John Kerry in 2004. I find it puzzling that all your disappointment and anger about the degradation of modern politics in the US is directed at the Democratic Party.
Hi Kim. Not being with your 5 month old baby, assuming it is your baby, you are calling an enlightened era ??? I for one don’t care if it is a mother or a dad… you should be with your children and live and plan your life to be able to do that as much as you can. Yes, you read all the time about female corporate leaders who see less of their children than the governor of Alaska. I am sorry that is true. Kind of shows the state of our union… One more thing for Barack to tackle…
This blog has been so interesting! I’ve been reading it all day and also checking Meghan McCain’s blog. Bettina, to answer your questions, Meghan’s pictures from today showed that Bristol is still on the campaign trail, just being kept in the background–in this case, in the waaay background, meaning back on the plane:
http://www.mccainblogette.com/postings/083108_1430/40.jpg
and:
http://www.mccainblogette.com/postings/083108_1430/41.jpg
(She’s the one holding Trig.) She didn’t get to go to the rally? Or be on the bus?
The People photo is still there:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222685_2,00.html
Sue: thank you so much for all of your posting; I disagree with your politics, but you are a well-spoken, or I guess well typed woman. I also thank you for your input, Alaska seems oh so very different than where I live. Something, is clearly amiss. I live in Minneapolis, and was walking around today talking to delegates, and none of them had heard any of this–however, I spoke to a lobbyist who was at a press party and he said that no one could stop talking about this. Was the baby hers? was the baby her daughter’s? Some over at huffpo are calling foul that we should not stoop to tabloid fodder, etc, but I unequivocally disagree, we are at an impasse, for the first time in my lifetime (I’m young) we have the power to do something– here is a ticket, that acted compulsively? impulsively? and made a ridiculous, almost surreal v.p. choice. Our feet have been held to the fire for the actions of Edwards and Clinton. I want to know the truth about Palin, and I want everything. I am sorry that her daughter will suffer for this, and Palin herself should apologize to her daughter publicly for making this the way that it is, but goddamn it is refreshing to feel like my ticket might actually win, for the first time in my life! and that Rove, et al do not have the conniving upper hand.
and, yes we have the right to know about someone who WOULD believe that she has the right to my uterus; I want to know, Sarah Palin, what’s the truth, is Bristol pregnant?
Moose,
Did you also notice that Cindy McCain’s wrist brace/cast is missing. She’s standing in the background sans her hot pink fashion accessory!
Also, even a blind person can see that Bristol is VERY pregnant! How long until MSM start reporting this? Can’t wait… This is WAY better than watching The Young and the Restless! Thanks John McCan’t!
And now Daily Kos, while not “dropping” the story, has put up a new photo of a visibly pregnant Sarah, saying “we can drop this crap now”:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/31/234157/516/1017/581734
A reminder to all: There are two competing and mutually exclusive theories here. Theory 1 is that Sarah Palin was never pregnant, but rather claimed pregnancy to conceal her daughter Bristol’s pregnancy, and subsequent birth in April of young Trigonometry. Theory 2 is that both Sarah and Bristol have been pregnant, and that Sarah delivered Trig last April and Bristol is now in her third trimester.
I am far more persuaded by Theory 1, and believe that Theory 2 is a smokescreen designed by she who introduced it, Sue Williams, to throw everyone off the track.
Now, onto Q & A.
Ah, the plot thickens… enter “C-Ray”, or Chris Ray.
“I LOVE BRISTOL PALIN MORE THEN ANYTHING IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!”
The plot not only thickens, but perhaps lengthens as well?
May I suggest to those doing the research that a public wiki/timeline of this issue be created? This would allow for individual photos/events of interest to be arranged and edited chronologically, and for each item to be fully substantiated (or not!).
How does one “create a Wiki?” If it’s not some Microsoftian plot to steal all my time, maybe I’ll do it.
Looks like there a quite a few typical DU’ers here posting all their vile, evil, vicious and revolting rumour mill tactics, they like to call themselves progressive, well, progressively getting more regressive is true and more to the point. What an illmannered uneducated bunch they are. Disgusting.
I must say that I love it when Republicans say that anyone to the left of Atilla the Hun who fights back against their lies is a meanie. Okay, I’m a meanie. Now get over it.
The baby thing? IT’S A RED HERRING. It does not, and if actual intelligent, reasonable people were the voters in this country, WOULD NOT, matter. It really doesn’t. Why not? Because not only will you never know the truth, but there are so many other, more valid reasons why Palin was a poor choice and further proof of McCain’s unsuitability to lead this nation.
Unlike you, the rest of us can actually walk and chew gum at the same time. You cannot, and that is a pity. For you.
P.S. the haikus were great.
Special Haiku
Haikus, my great joy
Like August’s morning stiffness
They focus the mind
Most of the pics, other than Kyle’s video, are posted earlier on this thread. I think finding the possible ‘baby daddy’ is a stroke of genius.
I agree. All hail Kristen!
I enjoy schadenfreude as much as the next guy, but this is over the line of relevance AND taste. I have supported Obama from the very moment he announced his candidacy – I registered as a Democrat for the first time in my voting history – and I’d like to know that he won this election without the “help” of petty, sexist arguments like this.
To quote Saturday Night Live of yore, “Jane, you ignorant slut!”
this is not the kind of story that should make or break an election
That, like the date of the Rapture, is not for us to decide. It’s not even for Fox News to decide. It is, as they say, above our pay grade. In the meantime, we pull at loose threads.
I think it’s sad when people stoop to analyzing a 17 year old’s body fat in the name of politics – it doesn’t matter what the end is. To me, this is just about as empty and offensive a line of discussion as the Obama/Osama “Barack Hussein” BS. I just think, and you may disagree all you want, that Americans should hold themselves to higher intellectual standards than this crap.
No one is “analyzing a 17 year olds body fat in the name of politics.” This is about finding the truth. Jane, a Republican posing as something else, understandably resents the truth.
What a family. The oldest son slacked all through school and couldn’t get into college with his 2.00 gpa so he goes into army to save face. Teen daughter gets knocked up and mom assumes the pregnancy while teen says out of school with a ridiculously long case of mono. Mom sees it fit to leak amnio while giving speeches and aboard extended airline flights. I can only wonder if the Palins would pass an interview with Child & Family Services from a lower 48 state.
BINGO!! If I were Monty Hall, I’d give you the contents of Door #1, Door #2, and Door #3 for that one. The Palin family, such as it is, comes to us straight from a cave in West Virginia.
As a former Hillary supporter I am ashamed of what the Democratic Party has become. As an old timer (I’m almost 70 years old) I can truthfully say the REAL Democratic Party has gone forever, replaced by the most foul, mean-spirited, ugly group of liberals that I have ever encountered.
Will all those here who believe Gabrielle to have ever cast a single Democratic vote in her life raise their hands? Seeing none, I move that we declare Gabrielle Fox Babe of the Weekend. Hearing no objections, the motion carries. Boy, I love the smell of democracy in the morning!
Ajax
I abhorred the treatment of John Kerry and I abhorr what has happened to my party.
Yes, the degredation is out there for ALL to see, more so now than in ‘my day’. I guess the tone has changed, I’ve never encountered such venom and hatred for the opposition as I read on ‘DU’ every day. We used to have much more respect for each other but respect and plain common decency seem to have disappeared from the political scene, replaced by…well I won’t go there .
And yes, my disappointment and frustration is directed at the Democratic Party simply because that is MY party.
Where are the genuine Democrats, are they all dead, am I the only one left?
Having had the pleasure to travel the magnificent wonderland of Alaska in ‘80, I always held on to the hope that if things got too weird down here in the 48, I could escape to the wilderness. Oh, crap.
This Palin vp pick genuinely had me shaking my head and laughing at Mc cains frantic selection until I realized what an incredible insult this entire campaign of his has become. This selection is an affront to women who have spent years making sure they were highly educated, accomplished and competent to watch as some bimbo that has caught the bosses eye gets the promotion that the more qualified woman deserves. (Check out mc cain ogling her ass during the speech she gave accepting the selection – way too creepy). To hear Palin reference the “glass ceiling” as though she expects to make a dent is beyond belief.
This selection is an insult to the American people who deserve leadership that has demonstrated careful deliberation skills and an ability to grasp the intricate challenges that face this country and humanity not only nationally but internationally. Will she present Putin and Chavez with a plate of cookies and some good old fashioned eye-batting or just giggle?
Most importantly it is an insult to the election process itself which is an opportunity for each party to nominate people with experience and an understanding of the seriousness of governing our country even though their approaches may differ they bring qualities of knowledgeable leadership to the table.
I find it interesting and it is posted somewhere on the internet (I think I bookmarked the page, I will have to see) that some actress of similar name from Canada was whisked away and installed in a hotel in Pennsylvania for three days having been told that she had been selected for vp by mc cain. I guess that vetting process just wasn’t too terribly in depth.
I have known nothing about your politics but it sounds like an episode straight out of Desperate Housewives. Sorry, you guys. I live in a small town. I know that when it comes to leadership of the community the pickings are thin to say the least.
As to the baby deal – if the daughter is the mom and Palin has covered that up and made up these outrageous lies – how tragic for the daughter to be shamed and betrayed by a mother who would not have the courage to stand up for and support her daughter in this most difficult time.
If Palin is the mother – I can see that she would risk the health and welfare of her unborn child to further her political career and that doesn’t say much for her as a human being.
If by some fluke of the universe or corrupt voting machines once again, these two are given the keys to this government I plan to leave the country with my children to never return. Can;t go to Alaska, darn it all, so may as well just put my toes on a sandy beach somewhere and sell Slushies to the other escape artists.
Please Vote – and write your newspapers.
This proves “Sue Williams” is a plant:
http://conservativepulse.com/home/2008/07/governor-sarah-palin-would-be-a-bold-choice-for-vice-president/
On July 25th she was already trashing Palin, but implies she was first for her and turned against only after reading internet postings: not that she knew her personally.
You guys have been duped, and subsequently, duped other blogs:
“Sue Williams Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I just finished spending a couple hours on the adn (Anchorage Daily News) website and a site called andrewhalcro.com and I have to say, stunning. I had become very interested and enthused about Palin for V.P. but after reading the news reports (and also I read the blogs under Alaska Politics on the adn site and the comments in the Andrew Halcro site). Very disturbing and not at all the image of Palin that I had come to believe. If what these two sites say is even partially true, I can’t image McCain choosing her. It’s such a shame. The Alaska State House and Senate will appoint a special investigator to look into potential ethical wrongdoing of her firing of the state’s commissioner of public safety. This appointment is expected Monday. McCain can’t choose someone who is under the cloud of an ethics investigation. Shocking.”
Ajax- my mistake. Did you even look at the photo? It seems that they are taking a poll over there whether to drop it, maybe the photo, since they came up with it on a freeper lurk.
The Republicans used to have respect for Democrats? When was that…was it before Hillary Clinton was a lesbian bitçh who had an affair with Vince Foster and had to murder him?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJmyscSh4s
[...] 4: Read the comments at this Mudflats Post, “In The Land of Palin.” Plenty of people leave links to photos that appear to shoot down the [...]
Logician
You sound as though you are far too young to remember what it once meant to be a Democrat.
I’m guessing you were even born at the time of Dr. King and JFK.
I want to share this one with you all, actually really funny
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132×6855834
Like anyone sane with a dog in this hunt, I’m watching all this with morbid curiosity and a bit of horror. I’m a former Republican activist who left the party when it became clear to me from the inside that the national party had gone irretrievably off the deep end. It looks like that’s becoming ever more clear from the outside as well (qualification: there are still some pockets of sanity among Republicans at the local level, but even that is getting scarce).
I’m certainly as puzzled as any about the details of “babygate”, among the boatload of -gates that seem to have come packaged with the Palin selection. There’s something weird about the story, yes. But it seems that some people have come to conclusions in advance of information. I don’t know if Sue Williams is telling the truth or not, but what she has posted is a datapoint. Until I know more it seems pretty foolish for me to do anything other than listen to what she has to say, and file the information away for later confirmation or refutation. There are, after all, at least three possible permutations to this weird story, and I sure don’t have the information yet to figure it out.
I used to say “God Bless the GOP”, but I think right now “Father, forgive them, because they haven’t the slightest clue about what they’ve done,. what they’re doing, or what they’re going to do next” is more apt.
All Down Syndrome is caused by a problem with the 21st chromosome. Age of the mother, and secondarily, the father, is the greatest predictor of Down risk. What I know about it comes from my wife and I (both over 40) about to become parents of, luckily, a healthy baby (I’m not a scientist). Nothing I have seen suggests that incest is a cause of Down; indeed, whenever I see a geneticist asked in the press, he or she rejects the notion that incest increases Down likelihood.
Here’s wikipedia on the subject. Knock yourself out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down%27s_Syndrome#Incidence
BTW, it’s completely plausible to me that either Sarah or Bristol would have learned pre-birth of Trig’s Down Syndrome. Ultrasound (including the non-risky nuchal translucency testing) would likely pick up indicia of Down, which could be confirmed by amniocentesis. One would have ultrasounds normally, even if one is young and/or vehemently anti-abortion. We ended up not having amnio (or CVS) after the NT testing said our risk of Down (and a couple of other nasty trisomy chromosomal issues) was less than the risk from amnio.
I feel sorry for you guys up there in Alaska, which by the way is a beautiful state, but rest of the lower 48 are having a huge laugh about SP….as VP
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385×178631
Suppose the baby thing is true and Bristol asked her mother to pretend the child is hers or maybe Bristol was so distraught that Palin just did it to help Bristol = wouldn’t that make Palin the ultimate hero mother? Stepping in to help her daughter……
This photo was on a right-wing blog with the question – who looks like they just had a baby? in rebuttal to Trig not being Sarah’s child. They didn’t bother to ask who looks like they’re going to have a baby?
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080830/img/pot-veepstakes-palin-5bff38-7b78334d8d36.html
I checked out the Flickr pics of Sarah Palin, and they one of the following:
- A pregnant woman
- Photoshopped images
- A woman wearing a fat suit
Which is it? Well, even I would have to be skeptical of the fat suit idea, so I’m going to toss that one out. Photoshopped images? That’s a real possibility, so I’d love it if someone could find the Channel 11 film clip and/or video or pics from the conference she attended.
I would say, in the meantime, that these images do let some of the air out of the tires of Theory #1. Not entirely, though. I’ve never believed that a single image or even two of them is automatically determinative. I’d like to see some corroboration.
Well, even I would have to be skeptical of the fat suit idea, so I’m going to toss that one out.
well if you were pretending to be 8 months pregnant, how would you do that?
Photoshopped images?
I lightened it in photoshop and it does not appear to be altered. she certainly does appear to be pregnant. however, given that this is the only photo I have seen so far where she looks pregnant, I am still skeptical.
Here’s a story with another pic, from mid-March. I’m starting to think this was great fun while it lasted.
Unless, of course, she was wearing an empathy belly! Sorry, but I can’t wrap either my mind or arms around that one. Maybe it’s my limited imagination.
I’m starting to think this was great fun while it lasted.
you may be right – but, according to diarist at kos, this picture is from march 9, one week earlier than the one you just posted:
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/9515/3073504041standaloneprovb5.jpg
seems like a big change for one week – still curious to me.
Tom, The list you said was what constituted “high-risk” said only that the symptoms might include those. I had two premies and I can tell you, that is considered high risk. Duh. The first baby was taken right to ICU and I didn’t see him for 16 hours. The second developed jaundice the first day (almost all premies do). So yes, it would be high-risk if she went into labor a month early.
And if her water broke and the labor hadn’t commenced in a couple hours? More high-risk, because both mother and child are at risk of serious infection then.
And a Down Syndrome birth is high risk in and of itself. Many of these babies are born with heart problems. It’s not unusual to have surgery in the first couple weeks. And a 44-year-old mom faces her own dangers (like blood clots and extreme bleeding).
I agree, the Palins apparently didn’t think of this as high-risk– obviously. They were remarkably cavalier about it all. That might be because this was the 5th child, I don’t know. But really, I can’t imagine the litigation-wary doctors and hospital would think, “Older mom. Down Syndrome child. Premature contractions,” and then say, “No problem! Come in any time!”
It just sort of beggars the imagination. Half of us out here have had babies, and I bet you none of us had remotely the experience Sarah Palin describes, of casual doctors and nurses, a husband who doesn’t object to her flying 8 hours, and a mom in labor who doesn’t feel any sense of urgency. Crisis management is good, crisis ignoring is not.
But I don’t think it’s Bridget’s child. I just think Sarah Palin is one weird person.
Interesting, btw, that so many of the links posted no longer work.
This is exactly why she was chosen as McCain’s Running mate: “They” knew this would all come out, and they wanted it to. Why? Because it will bring the Conservative Base to McCain, and convince them that he can be trusted. In fact, considering McCain’s health, she would be likely to become the first female President if their ticket gets elected, which is absolutely going to bring the Religious Right to the polls.
It doesn’t matter one way or the other who Trig’s mother is, nor if both mother and daughter are/have been pregnant. What is important in this story is that it gets tons of coverage and Sarah Palin is presented to the Right Wing as someone who is uber conservative. In fact, if Bristol turns out to be pregnant, and Sarah gave birth to a premature Down Syndrome child, it will double the positive affect on the Conservative Christian/Evangelical crowd–it demonstrates two instances where the family could have considered abortion but chose to follow their chosen values despite the obvious fallout that could be expected from the Left. It’s really quite disturbingly brilliant, if it was thought through that way.
I expect that when she’s questioned about this, she’ll talk about how God told her that it was important for her to get back to Alaska before giving birth, and how she knew that God would see her through, or else she would have given birth in Texas.
In any case, I suspect there will be massive coverage about this by the Corporate Media (mostly focused on this thread, Kos, HuffPo, and incorporeal Democrats’ attempts to destroy her character, and based on past experiences, I’m sure it will work. According to posts here, Sarah is great at playing the innocent victim, and this whole issue sets her up to use that quality. Ultimately, I fear it will destroy the Democratic ticket’s chance of winning. I wish I had more faith in the American Public, but as I’ve already said that I wouldn’t live in an America governed by McCain, I think it’s time to start looking for new employment…