He (Or She) Who Sacrifices His Conscience To Ambition Burns A Picture To Obtain The Ashes

-Unknown

I have been upset by what I see as the Republican Party's cynical pick of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate but I have not have anything to say about Sarah Palin since I did not know a thing about her. Now, in the aftermath of the reports about her teenage daughter's pregnancy, I find I do have something to say.

First, I agree with all the people who say this is a family matter and should not be a news story at all. I also agree with Barack Obama who said candidate's children should be off limits to the media.

Second, my heart went out to this poor seventeen-year-old girl. The fact that she is an unwed, pregnant teenager is now know by the whole world. When you are a teenager it is hard enough having everyone in your school or town known that you are pregnant, what must it feel like to have the whole world know? This had to be very painful and embarrassing for her.

In reply to the story Sarah Palin released the following statement:

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents,"

These words in that statement jumped out at me, "We are proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby....."

From what I have read about Sarah Palin the question of whether or not her daughter would have the baby should have never have come up. She and her husband are strongly anti-abortion and that view would undoubtedly have been passed on to their daughter.

Why release a statement other than "this is none of your business" at all? And this is definitely none of our business. Unless you are using it to get your political message across. That idea made me a little uneasy.

Later it came out that Palin had told McCain's people about her daughter's pregnancy before they announced she was going to be his vice-presidential nominee.

Holy, crap! Until that moment I had not thought about the fact that Sarah Palin had accepted the role of Republican candidate for vice-president knowing that it was very likely that her daughter's pregnancy would become a news story. She picked ambition over her daughter.

And so did John McCain and the Republican Party.