Yesterday rumors were flying all over the internet that Sarah Palin’s fifth child Trig was not really hers, but was actually her teenage daughter Bristol’s. (The most detailed version is here.) This was prompted by the fact that there were seemingly no pictures of Palin being visibly pregnant from the right time frame, that she didn’t announce her pregnancy until the 7th month or so, then apparently after she went into labor she did a 10 hour flight home to Alaska rather than having the baby in Texas where she was at the time. Meanwhile, there were pictures from that time frame of Bristol looking possibly pregnant, and Bristol had been taken out of school for quite a few months. It all sounded pretty convincing.
Then late last night someone finally dug up some pictures of Sarah Palin where she looked like she might be pregnant, possibly squashing that rumor. (The post with that info is here.)
But then again, there is still more here.
Andrew Sullivan has also been following the story closely. (Perhaps even pushing it you could say.)
This morning though, the McCain Campaign and Sarah Palin confirmed that Bristol is indeed pregnant NOW. Bristol is 17, plans to marry the father, McCain knew about it before making the choice, etc.
All I can say is that all this has been a very strange episode playing out on the internet rumor mills over the last 24 hours or so.
This is the sort of thing that happens when people turn to irrational vitriol rather than coherent thought when discussing political matters. They’ll rush out any sort of “evidence” to support misbegotten conclusions. They’ll also call all sorts of acts “crimes” and try to demonize the other side.
I don’t know that this will be the nastiest election ever, but it sure exhibits signs of becoming that.
I’m still not entirely sure what to think about all the baby stuff, but there seem to be more and more other (perhaps more legitimate) things coming up each day that look problematic to Palin.
Something tells me the next couple of months won’t be all that much fun for her.
There may well be many legitimate things. I’m not sure illegitimate children lie at the core. I’ve seen lots of posts calling her hypocritical, for instance, but in actuality, it appears to me that she (and her daughter) stuck to the family line. In other words, many people don’t know what “hypocritical” means.
Regardless of whether stuff comes out down the line, the current state of affairs seems to be little more than rabid attempts to bash, caused by the current highly polarized state of political discourse. No one has widely dredged up Biden’s long history of lies/exaggeration, for instance. Everyone dismisses Palin as unqualified, when they accept Obama (and McCain and Biden) as qualified. So far as I’m aware, the Constitution is pretty clear on the qualifications.
The irony in all of this is that despite the fact that the last 8 years are blamed, in part, on an administration that was inept and unqualified to be in office, it was no less qualified than the current slate of candidates. For some reason, we’ve made the environment so inhospitable that no qualified candidates choose to run; or, worse, truly qualified candidates have opinions, and those opinions have been expressed in such a way in the past they they’re no longer electable.
Regardless, I’m teetering on the edge of shutting out another elections cycle out of sheer disgust.
Aw, but Greg, it is so much fun to watch!
Don’t think of it as an important decision that will impact the course of the lives of millions if not billions of people over the next four to eight years, that will just make you depressed.
Think of it as a fun and entertaining TV show!
If it was only going to affect us for the next 4 to 8 years, I might not be as worried.
The problem is, it will affect us a far longer time than simply the term of the Presidency. Possibly over the next 4, but almost certainly over the next 8, at least one Supreme Court justice will be replaced. Many circuit court judges will be placed.
Unfortunately, the vitriol that has consumed our politics will spill over into judicial confirmations, making the same tired mistakes that judicial philosophies are well correlated (versus only slightly correlated) with political philosophies. We will be stuck with whatever judicial appointments that are made in an increasingly hostile political environment. We’ll increasingly tread too deeply into asking potential judges and justices to pre-rule. We’ll see our representatives set the equivalent of perjury traps. We’ll see only nominees with limited bodies of opinions, because those with greater bodies of opinions — opinions needed to gauge such things as the ability to reason sensibly on the Supreme Court — will fall to wayside, because those with a body of work are easier to attack than those without a body of work. (Like it’s easier to have candidates who have never held executive power — made real decisions — than those who have toiled away in the legislature — made inconsequential group decisions.)
Not only will those appointed outlast those who appoint them, their decisions will reverberate for generations to come. As such, I don’t exactly see much fun-and-games in the election.
Well, you pick one specific example where a president’s influence goes beyond their actual term in office, but in fact, pretty much anything a president does has effects that last much beyond their term of office, simply by the nature of the position and that history is fundamentally changed by the actions they take. It is not just the Courts and the resulting decisions that will be radically different in 4 years depending on the results of the election. It will be pretty much everything.
But still. Relax and enjoy the show. No use getting all worked up about it. :-)