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Sparkle (0)
Bristol's pregnancy isn't the appalling part of this situation; she isn't the first young girl to have made a poor choice and been "caught" and she certainly won't be the last. What I so find appalling is her mother's behavior.
When I first heard about Sarah Palin as John McCain's choice for vice presidential running mate, I immediately went to the internet to find out more about her. I was dismayed to find that her only experience in politics has been councilwoman and mayor to a very small city and only 1.5 years in the position of governor for Alaska, a state with less than one million in population. Prior to these, she was a soccer mom and beauty pageant winner. Hardly what I would call over qualified for the job. Even her constituents in Alaska are scratching their heads over the VP offer.
Then, we hear today, that her older daughter is pregnant. Unfortunately, while Palin is crying "private, family matter," it was the Republican party that hand-fed the information to the media, saying they were aware of Bristol's condition prior to the offer of Republican VP candidate. This bothers me.
I'm a mom; my son is a 34-year-old adult, a productive citizen living well on his own. As a single mom however, there were job offers I turned down, not because I didn't want to take them, but because I felt accepting the job would have been detrimental to my son's well being, mentally, physically, emotionally or spiritually. From this standpoint, I tried to put myself into Sarah Palin's position.
Here's a woman, grossly underqualified, and yet being offered the second highest position in the country. Her oldest daughter also happens to be pregnant and unmarried. Did Palin really believe this would remain a "private, family matter" with the publicity attached to such an office? Or did she accept the position feeling it would bolster her staunch position as pro-life advocate? Did she not know this decision would throw her daughter (her husband and her other children, the baby's father and his family) into the limelight? If this is the case then the possibility of her being Vice President is even more alarming.
Palin has been portrayed as a political go-getter. If she accepted the position out of her ambition, couldn't she have waited for another four years to further her career when it wouldn't have put her daughter in such a humiliating, very public position? I don't see this as the act of a loving, self-sacrificing mother, but as a narcissistic, attention-grabber. I feel sorry for Bristol and even sorrier for the country if this woman makes it into office.
