I am not one to ever talk about politics. I hate it. In my experience, all it leads to is arguments. We all have our own opinions and some people think they can always change your mind so in my opinion, unless your having a healthy discussion or you know who your talking to can keep a level head, I won’t discuss it.
USUALLY.
It didn’t matter where I went today. Whether it be on blogs, the Internet or on TV, all I heard about was Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol being pregnant. Does any one NOT care as much as I do? I was planning on voting for McCain in the first place. The only time I “wavered” was when I thought Hillary might sneak it out. Obama was never an option for me. I would have thought more about it and probably would have ended up voting McCain but I was being “open minded.”
My husband asked me a few weeks ago, “why don’t you write a post on all these negative ads on TV.” I really didn’t know what to write about since they are always on. They are horrible I know but it will be over soon.
But this has brought out the REAL UGLY in people. This is a young woman who has nothing to do with anything. So her mother “LET” her get pregnant. Really? So all the other teenagers who have found themselves in this situation, it was really their mothers fault? If she can’t “CONTROL” her daughter, how in the world can she be VP? Can you tell me of anyone in the history of the world that can “control” a child of any age? When your child is out of your sight, anything is liable to happen. How can any sane person say this is her mother’s “fault?” Think very carefully about this. Is there one person among us who can say they were never in a backseat making out or never done this? Maybe some of us were just lucky it didn’t happen to us but I don’t for one second believe it was a mother’s fault. Any mother. She wasn’t even there. Or did everyone here wait until their wedding night to “consummate” things?
I feel so for this young girl who is just starting her life. How can this be “fair game?” This is just wrong. If one of my boys had come to me at 17 and told me he was going to be a dad, I wouldn’t have been jumping cartwheels but I would have hugged him and said “what are “we” going to do?” What is she supposed to do? I feel this has nothing to do with politics and has everything to do with human kindness. I have lost a lot of respect for some of my fellow bloggers after today and have taken them off my blogroll. One person wrote that “she didn’t judge this girl IN ANY WAY” but then left a link to see pictures of her drinking. Nice huh? Caring and compasionate too! I guess none of us took a drink before legal age either!
To all the McCain is old crowd and he “could die”, well Obama could get hit by a bus. We all know that anything in this life “could” happen. Let’s leave this poor girl alone and unless you have a totally clean slate and live in that nice big ol glass house, ye dare not throw one stone.
Let’s be gracious to our fellow human beings and not let something that has nothing to do with politics, hurt this girl.
Us Girls..Our Views 
Yep, I’ve gotten myself all worked up about this too. To be fair, the republicans would be doing the same thing if this happened to a democrat’s daughter. It’s so ignorant. Honestly, the media should be fined for the amount of time they have spent repeating and discussing the four-line announcement made about this minor who is not running for public office.
Hopefully, she is old enough to understand that all this talk is not about her really, it’s about democrats looking for an excuse to disrespect the opposing ticket. Still, it has to hurt.
The things that bugged me the most were the blogs / articles that said:
1) Now Ms. Palin must admit her position on abstinence education is wrong. Obviously her daughter didn’t know about birth control or she wouldn’t be pregnant.
2) Ms. Palin is forcing her daughter to have this baby and/or get married against her will. She’s evil and cruel.
3) Ms. Palin is the world’s biggest hypocrite for acting like she has family values.
4) Ms. Palin shouldn’t have “outed” her daughter.
5) Ms. Palin shouldn’t be a politician because it takes away from her family, and she obviously isn’t keeping her house in order.
6) Ms. Palin hates women because she’s pro-life. Ms. Palin would be the biggest disaster ever to happen to women in this country.
OK, I am not going to write a book here, but I’ve had enough. Ms. Palin is not the only conservative woman in this country. She’s not the only person who doesn’t believe abortion is the ticket to happiness for women. She’s also not the only woman with strong values whose daughter became pregnant at 17 out of wedlock. Let’s be honest – every mother holds her breath until she hears those wedding bells.
It just amazes me how narrow-minded many women in the blogosphere are. As in, not realizing that there is this whole, large population of women who are thrilled to see a VP candidate who is a woman AND a staunch conservative. So some of the sites I visit are plastered with trash about Ms. Palin and her “family values” situation. Of course nobody sticks to the issue at hand, and they go on rehashing the same crap over and over. I really need to take a vacation from some of those sites.
We don’t know exactly why Bristol made the decisions she did. How do we know what birds-and-bees discussions her parents have had with her? How do we know she wasn’t on birth control that failed? The only thing Bristol’s pregnancy proves about Ms. Palin is that she doesn’t lock her daughters up in a tower 24 hours a day.
I remain hopeful that McCain-Palin will win regardless of all this nonsense. Meanwhile, I wish Bristol peace and comfort during this difficult time.
****
As for the “McCain could die” argument – I’d rather go with the possibility that McCain could die than the certainty that Obama could be president. If people only knew how radical his record is, most of them would never vote for him. Almost anyone with any kind of political experience would be a better candidate than Obama. Believe me, I’ve been watching this guy for years.
By the way, did anyone here ever watch “Commander in Chief” when it was on? Does anyone notice any parallels to real life here?
You know I am seriously “ticked off” about all of this too.
I am coming from the vantage point of having already raised THREE TEENAGE GIRLS! They are now 28, 24 & 19 (our youngest daughter is 6).
We parents can only actively teach, nurture and guide our children so that when the time comes for them to make difficult decisions whe can only hope and pray that they are successful in choosing wisely.
Adults saying that mother Palin is responsible for her daughter getting pregnant is like daughter Paulin’s friends saying that it is her fault her mother is running for VP.
Ultimately the only thing we control is ourself. The rest in God’s hands.
We only get to choose if we are going to be a blessing or a cures. I, for one, choose to be a blessing.
This upsets me also as a mom, a women, and someone who plans to vote for McCain. It really pisses me off and I won’t even bother going to certain blogs because of it. She’s a person like everyone else. So she’s 17 and having a baby…so what! Really does this have anything to do with the way Palin will help run this country?? I’m sick of it and Democrats will look for anything to bitch about. I like what SKL said, if you saw his how radical Obama’s record was you would see there is just no reason to vote him as our President. He’s done nothing as far as I’m concerned. Even his personality is odd to me. Something doesn’t sit right with me and I pray to God he does not become our President. I DO NOT trust him and I think all these stupid people need to leave Bristol alone and let her be!!
Glad to know we’re on the same page. I’ve been advocating for Gov. Palin on political blogs for months, and was super surprised she got picked (only because I never thought McCain would go for her). And then, the onslaught of vitriol and pure hatred from the other side took my breath away.
I’m not going to start on how I really feel here because I’d be here all day. I will say that Bristol’s pregnancy and upcoming wedding (she was engaged before she got pregnant) does not make me like her mother any less, and quite frankly has nothing to do with Gov. Palin’s ability to lead at all. In fact, the more this family gets attacked, the more normal they seem, and the more I like them. I wish the young couple all the best, and I’m glad they appear to have their wits about them and supportive families around them.
I’m not sure where to begin. I wrote my own Sarah Palin post last night and tried to be general enough that others would begin to discuss their opinion openly.
I have no problem with her daughter getting pregnant. It’s none of my business and would have happened (and had happened) before her mother made the move toward VP.
I guess what has surprised me since the announcement of her run with McCain is the general assumption that women would vote for her because she’s a woman, or because she’s a mom.
I actually had a disagreement with my Mom this weekend about this. She seemed shocked when I said Palin didn’t do a lot for me personally. My mother assumed I would vote for her since I was a young mom. And without getting into THIS debate here because I hate it, (and I’ve NEVER had this discussion with my mother in my ENTIRE LIFE) my mom also said she assumed that I’d vote for Palin because I was a mom and Palin was pro-life. I tried to explain to my Mom that it was because I was a mom that I didn’t want any laws created that could influence fertility of myself or my own daughter. I also reminded her that the election was between McCain and Obama and the VP candidates were attached to hopefully sweeten the ticket for either candidate. I just have never really been a McCain fan and I can’t just in good faith vote for him JUST because he adds Palin to the ticket.
I would have voted for Hillary….but I guess among this particular group of commenters I’ll be the odd one out and admit I currently plan to vote for Obama.
And now, I’ll meekly hide in the corner and stop talking about politics until November. I HATE, HATE, HATE election years.
I completely agree with your post, Joy. *Big round of applause* You hit the nail on the head. Repeatedly.
As for the things you said insinuating that most people are “that bad” (a comment left for you) I had to laugh. You said nothing about anyone being bad.
I drank underage. Wrong, but doesn’t make me bad.
I still drink some. Does not make me bad, or an alcoholic.
I had premarital sex. OMG, not a decision I am proud of, but still doesn’t make me bad.
You know what it makes me? Human.
Amen Joy! I am a McCain suppoter but I have to give Obama a big round of applause when he said the families, especially children, are off limits. Personally I blame the media for all this crap. Yes we have freedom of the press but whatever happened to common deceny?
Just a Mom… of course Obama is saying families are off limits. Isn’t it interesting that his mother or father are the only parents we haven’t seen or heard from.
Hmmmmm, I wonder why that is?
mssc54, I heard from a very good and non-insane friend that Obama was estranged from his mother and wouldn’t even go visit her when she was dying of cancer.
Joy, my apologies in advance for the following.
How many people are really thinking about who Obama is? I haven’t read his books, but I understand one is focused on admiring his dad, who was absent, non-American, and didn’t raise him, while the other is focused on admiring the pastor of the Church of God Damn America. His mom was white and I read that she was an atheist and she didn’t raise him either. He claims to be black American, but he wasn’t born into or raised in black America. He claims to be a Christian, but what are his Christian roots? He claims in his own speech (which I read on his official Website) that he joined the Christian church because it was politically expedient. When asked, he answers that he believes in God / Jesus, but he never mentions them as guiding forces or sources of strength in other contexts (that I’ve observed). Not that I believe you must be Christian, but at least don’t lie about it. He claims to be American, and we’ve all heard the questions about that. He claims to reach across the aisle, but his record is on the extreme left. He claims to have the support of leaders in the Mideast – yeah, knowing he’s the favorite of the friends of Al-Qaida and Hamas makes me feel better!
You may have noted that Illinois votes about 80% democrat in the general elections, which is one of the most liberal results in the country. Well, when Obama was in the Illinois state congress, he departed from his party twice that I happened to read about over the years (I said I’d been watching him): once to block a very popular bill against infanticide (which he terms “live-birth abortion” and amounts to leaving a living, breathing, viable baby to die of starvation and exposure after birth), and once as the only vote against a law designed to protect children against pedophile repeat offenders. Friends, this guy is too left for the liberals. Please do your research if you are still undecided. Don’t just listen to his mantra of “change, change” versus “same old, same old.” Anyone can say those words; they have no substance. The substance is in the records of the candidates.
I shall try to shut up now.
You don’t need to apologize to me SKL. You know we agree. Your just smarter than I am.
I love what you said SKL!!! We’re lucky to have such a smart friend on here aren’t we?!
Yes we are Nikki.
I moved out of my parents house at 17 and they didnt have much control over me.. Often our children go against our views and thoughts.. That shouldn’t impact her politically but it will. Thats how politics works. Its an ugly political world and they will use anything against anyone. If one side feeds the homeless to make themselves look good the other side is going to say they didnt feed them enough. It doesn’t matter what the topic is. They are going to find something to go after them for. Family has always been part of the political equation and will always continue to be. Its always going to be a factor good and bad. They’ve used family to promote and attack candidates for years.. It wont change. To most what happens in candidates families matters.. Its part of who they are what makes them tick. Its part of their life and most people in politics think its fair game. Most of the voting people agree. They want to know back ground and who the candidate is what makes them who they are. Family and where they come from matters. They can say what they stand for all day long but if they have nothing to back it up then its just words. Live what you preach kinda thing.
Now this girl is 17 and pregnant.. Its not the ideal situation but its one they will live with and it has no reflection on what kind of mother Palin is. Kids get pregnant all the time and parents have no more control over them than they do over the wind and rain. I’d be more concerned if she was 13 or 14 and pregnant.. Then i’d be asking myself where the heck her mother was when it happened but not when it comes to a 17 year old.. yeah to me those few years in age difference matters.. Doesnt matter if we like it or not.. The media is going to attack on something like this.. They thrive on it. Some will use it against palin and mccain and some wont see the big deal.
I too am really tired of hearing this. No matter what news or channel you turn on, Internet and blogs, it’s all that’s on. Don’t we have more serious issues to talk about?
Teen pregnancy has been around for, lets see now, forever and it’s pointless to lay blame on anyone. You just have to suck it up and deal with it. My older brother had a child out of wedlock at 19 and the world didn’t come crashing down on my mother and we love that child.
Part of me agrees with Jennifer. People shouldn’t vote for someone because of what sex they are or race. You have to vote for the issues. Which though leads me to this, what are Obama’s issues? As far as I can tell, all he does is talk, very eloquently I may add, about “change.” He’s just added “hope” to that. What does that mean exactly?
I have voted only Republican in my life. It’s not that I would only vote that way but it’s just the way it ended up but I was strongly following and considering Hillary. She had a lot to say and I agreed with her on a lot of issues. But being she’s out, I will be voting for McCain and I decided this before Palin. Actually we all thought he would pick our governor Tim Pawlenty (MN).
I agree with all of you, leave the kid alone. She has nothing to do with it. Can you imagine how she must feel?
I wonder what SA would be like if we all debated our 50 different political parties like this. Good for you guys, it doesn’t matter what side of the fence you sit the fact is that you are sitting and debating it out, taking an active interest in your countries leaders. No sarcasm (just in case you think it is) – I am being serious here (shock horror shush).
Wow Joy. You were right when you said politics seems to bring out arguments. Like I said before I really hate this time of year.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a presidential election where I’ve been excited about a candidate before. I’m not excited about the candidates in this election either. I’m interested though because I think it’s been a very unique election.
I know I’m the minority here in this discussion. I’m not a democrat. I’m not a republican. I hate the fact that parties even exist. I think it’s ridiculous that as a nation we can’t have come up with a better idea than that.
I’m not an Obama-lover, and I do fear that his cries of change are nothing more than eloquent speech that do well to charge up the young.
On the other side of the coin I really hate where we are currently as a nation and I’m not sure that even if Obama sat in the oval office all day playing Wii that it would make things much worse than they currently are.
I don’t care if Palin’s daughter is pregnant, if she has 12 kids. I don’t care if Obama’s parents are atheists, were abusive or anything else. It doesn’t matter. Bush’s daughter also was picked up for underage drinking, and we know what went on when the Clinton family was in the White House. It’s all personal. I don’t care, I don’t need to know.
NOW…if someone could just shut the media up from reporting about it then it would be easier.
It may just be because I’m not active in a particular faith, but I really prefer to keep my faith and politics separate. I’ve been surprised even in the comments on this post how many reference God, faith, church, Christianity, or lack thereof. It really shouldn’t matter and should have no bearing on a person’s politics in my opinion. I realize though that others may strongly disagree. Thus the very same reasons that topics like abortion and gay marriage are so hot for so many people. It becomes a matter of faith, not merely politics and law.
I’m afraid I have to politely disagree with SKL’s comment about partial birth abortion. I just hope we can agree to disagree? I used to against the idea of it due to how late it was in pregnancy until I did a bit more pregnancy. Then I happened across one woman’s blog at Uppercase Woman where she talked about her story with infertility and then finally conceiving twins only to becomes seriously ill with pre-eclampsia mid-to late pregnancy. After being treated in the hospital for days with her condition worsening her doctor determined that a decision had to be made. Her or the babies. While it was still not a guarantee that even she would survive, her husband made the decision to save her life. They lost their twins through a procedure that would be considered a partial birth abortion. If laws were passed prohibiting such procedures her doctor would not have been able to save her life. They later conceived a daughter who was born premature and she had to have a full hysterectomy after her daughter’s birth. It really made me think though whether I ACTUALLY wanted a law in place regarding medical procedures involving fertility. While we often think of those women who ‘choose’ to end their pregnancies what about those who MUST have their pregnancy terminated? If we create one law like this would it open the door to other laws? As a person who had to go through fertility testing and treatments to have healthy children I’d rather keep the government out of my bedroom.
Now I feel all grumpy… 😦
Yikes! I was all charged up! “until I did a bit more pregnancy?”
Hee-hee…that should be until I did a bit more READING…
Geez…
Jennifer, we don’t all have to agree. That’s why we live in America. I blame the media also for this latest thing with her daughter.
Joy your response #18 to Jennifer was written wrong.
I am certain what you intended to write is; “Jennifer, we don’t all have to agree. Others are free to get as wrong as they want.” 🙂
Amen to your post, Joy. Well said, and I love the comments that it has generated. I feel compassion for the daughter. I have a 17 year old daughter and I would hate for her to have such a MISTAKE splashed all over the national media. It is not the mother’s fault. The daughter made choices and now she is experiencing the consequences, which must be very painful, she should not have the added burden of being made to feel guilty because now her mother’s candidacy for v.p. is tainted just because she made certain choices. Let the poor girl alone, and let her family deal with it in private.
Jennifer, please allow me to clarify. I was not talking about partial-birth abortion. I was talking about LIVE birth “abortion” [infanticide]. A baby is born and it’s separate from the womb and breathing and crying and viable. All it needs to remain alive is to be fed just like any other baby. But if the mother says she doesn’t want it, it is left on a shelf or in the garbage to die. THAT is the practice the Illinois congress wanted to ban and THAT is the bill Obama blocked. His reasoning at the time was that it restricted women’s rights too much.
I’d say it was like the days when poor people in India or China would strangle newborn girls and such. But no, it’s worse than that, because at least strangulation is a relatively quick death.
As for God, etc., please again allow me to clarify. I study many religions and don’t consider myself a “Christian.” I don’t care if Obama is a Christian. What offends me is that he is PROFESSING to be a Christian because it is politically expedient. And I believe he’s not telling the truth. And that scares me. If you’re Muslim, Atheist, agnostic, whatever, just say so. What else is he lying about? I have personally heard him tell many lies, but the one about religion really blows me away.
I think I am a good person and a good mom but my son is still a heroin addict. Kids get pregnant. It’s got nothing to do with how Sarah Palin will act as vice president. Maybe her daughter’s pregnancy will make her that much stronger. I know my son’s addiction made me stronger.
Great post, Joy!!
You are a good person Joan. I don’t have girl crushes on just anyone! I hope Damon will be okay and I’ve really missed your blogging.
Thanks for clarifying SKL. I did misunderstand what you meant the first time. There certainly is a big difference.
I love the ADULT conversation we are all having here. Sometimes people get really mean and they’re childish side comes out. We all can disagree with out fighting and name calling, it’s been refreshing.
I do too Nikki. This doesn’t happen on to many blogs. Even though we disagree, we can discuss and move on to tomorrow.
Oh, I love the discussion!!!! I never really thought of myself as a Democrat or Republican, but the last couple of elections I have voted Republican. I was actually thinking about this on the way to work this morning b/c it was all over the radio AGAIN. LIKE WE DIDN’T HEAR IT THE FIRST 50 TIMES!!!!!!! I don’t care that her daughter is pregnant. I was pregnant at 19 and engaged, but still felt like the world was going to end, but it didn’t. It just makes you grow up. I think if all of us does some digging in our family history we’d find someone who had a child out of wedlock. That’s just my hunch!
The part I hate about politics is that it makes everyone so crazy! Maybe if I could get fired up about a candidate I’d understand, but I just can’t. It really stinks that I have to vote in November for the person I dislike the least!
Ok, I need to go watch some TV.
You said it best Sue: “It really stinks that I have to vote in November for the person I dislike the least!”
That’s how I feel every four years….
Since people seem to enjoy American Idol so much (not me personally, but others do) perhaps we should just have a our elections like that…a giant reality show where we can all call in and cast our vote…..
Or maybe since it’s every 4 years we should organize it better so we can include it with the Olympics somehow?
Our current system of 3 years out of every 4 of a presidency spent campaigning for the next election is ridiculous.
I don’t know….I’m thankful I don’t have cable tv…the internet and newspapers are bad enough….
LOL Jen, that American Idol idea is good.
Wow, after watching her speak tonight, I fell in love with her. So did my husband and my youngest son. Let’s see now what everyone is talking about tomorrow. WOW, I’ve never been this impressed.
They are already saying “we’re shocked, she’s so MEAN! Wow, it’s no more nice guy, we’re gonna start giving her a hard time now!”
Heh heh.
Great speech. I hope she won over a few folks who were on the fence. She’s gonna kick some butt. Charming but deadly. I love her.
My husband is in love with another woman. Tonight he said “I love SKL!!!” LOL!! I’m sure he didn’t want me to tell but I’m gonna anyway!!!
Hee hee, tell your hubby he hasn’t met my bad side!
I want to add this today – after seeing all the political crap being disguised as ‘parenting’ news over at Parent Dish, I’m done with that place. Makes me taste bile.
LOL Goddesss. I was just saying that today to SKL. I can’t believe how much they are talking about it.
Hey, at least it proves they are scared of her!
I hold their fear in contempt. They should use their own personal blogs for that purpose.
There are so few places that I read as it is, and with all of this hatred of Palin, I’m just not visiting as much. I know I’m not the only one.
You’re right, goddess. This morning I promised myself I wouldn’t even read the articles, let alone comment on them. But I am weak and I did leave a comment this evening.
What bugs me even more is another site I discovered, for working moms. They have had at least 5 or 6 posts on this so far. The whole site is devoted to working moms and all they can do is bash Ms. Palin’s choices as a working mom. Makes me wanna puke.
Wouldn’t you think working mom’s would be on her side?? I honestly feel some people just like to argue and pass judgment.
Go girl go… 🙂