Day: September 1, 2008

Isn’t it fun to find out all the things about the Palins that a vetting committee should have, but to do it at the same time as the McCain campaign? On the same day we find out that McCain running mate Gov. Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, we get the news that her husband, Todd Palin, was once arrested for DUI.

A senior adviser to the McCain campaign confirmed Monday that Todd Palin, husband to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 1984.

“Yes, 24 years ago he had a DWI,” senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt told reporters in St. Paul.

Schmidt was asked if he was worried about the news, and replied, “I was not.”

The story was first reported by David Brody, a CNN contributor and Christian Broadcasting Network News Senior National Correspondent.

In that original story, the year of the arrest was listed as 1986, when Palin was 22 and dating Sarah. Brody refers to the incident as “22 years ago.” He also equates Palin’s arrest to Barack Obama volunteering that he drank beer, smoked cigarettes and tried pot and coke sniffing while sitting around debating issues of the day with his friends in college. He then makes this idiotic statement:

The Palin family looks to be a big plus for McCain not a negative. My guess is that when it is all over and we learn more about this Alaskan family they will probably end up making a pretty positive impression on the nation.

Here’s my guess, David. Sarah Palin will not make it out of September as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Shortly after McCain announced his vice presidential pick on Friday, I told Jon and Buck, “Somewhere, John McCain is praying to God for a do-over.” Since then, there’s been nothing but drama unfolding around Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

It appears she might have covered up her oldest daughter’s pregnancy by claiming the baby was hers, but she now says the same daughter is pregnant. The “Troopergate” scandal in her state belies the idea that Palin runs an impartial ship, since is she is said to have fired the state’s public safety commissioner after he refused to fire her brother-in-law, who was locked in a bitter custody battle with her sister. And in her first flip-flop-slash-lie as a vice presidential candidate, she claimed she opposed Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Ak.) “bridge to nowhere” when public records show her enthusiastic support.

I am thinking John McCain might just get his do-over. In 1972, when Sen. George McGovern’s (D-S.D.) running mate, Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.) was found to have been previously hospitalized for mental disorders, Eagleton eventually withdrew from the ticket. McGovern replaced him with Sargent Shriver, who was married to Eunice Kennedy and whose five children include Maria Shriver, wife of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.).

Richard Nixon was viewed as fairly unbeatable that year, with promises of a secret plan for victory in Vietnam to be revealed after the election. McGovern, always a bit of a dark horse, never recovered from his campaign’s initial disarray and went on to lose the election. Nixon, of course, later resigned after it was found that even though his lead was always comfortable, his own paranoia inspired him to break the law in what would become the standard for all political scandals: Watergate.

McGovern’s campaign showed that it is possible to replace your vice presidential pick after you’ve made it public, but it isn’t necessarily a good move. On the other hand, going forward with a running mate who is a laughing stock is no winner either.

McCain has already lowered expectations for the Republican National Convention. After most senators who are running for re-election pulled out rather than be seen with either Pres. Bush or candidate McCain, his campaign took advantage of Category 2 Hurricane Gustav, using it as the reason the convention would be “scaled back” and “depoliticized.” That their guy is in more trouble than the millions of evacuees from Louisiana seems apparent.

Bristol with her parents and youngest sister, Piper, in 2007

The 17-year-old daughter of vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin is pregnant. The big question is, is this her first or second child?

I’m sure you’ve seen the doubts raised that the elder Palins’ now 4-month-old fifth child is actually theirs. I’ll let you do your own search if not, but to sum up, Sarah Palin’s closest aides said they had no idea she was pregnant when she finally announced it at seven months.

She gave birth a few weeks after under strange circumstances which included flying to Texas, where she claimed her water broke, then giving a speech to a Republican governors’ conference. Afterward, she boarded a seven-hour commercial flight back to Alaska and gave birth to her Down Syndrome baby (or grandchild, depending) in a private hospital under her longtime doctor’s care. Meanwhile, Bristol was removed from school for five months to recover from mono.

Buzzflash had a particularly good forum on all this over the weekend, where they asked people to accept that Sarah Palin really was the child’s mother, and then debate whether she was out of her mind. Most people had a hard time with the basic premise, viewing the situation as a cover-up for the then 16-year-old Bristol’s pregnancy instead.

Now news breaks that Bristol is pregnant.

“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,” reads the statement from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband Todd.

“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,” they continued, referring to their 17-year-old daughter. “As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.”

The Palins said that “Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”

There is no way the McCain campaign actually vetted this nutcase before selecting her as his running mate.

A McCain campaign official tells ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that McCain knew of Bristol’s pregnancy and “didn’t believe Governor Palin should be disqualified” from the vice presidency because of it. “If Democrats try to attack, it will backfire spectacularly,” the official said.

Gov. Palin is a strong proponent of teaching abstinence-only sex education to teenagers.

McCain campaign officials said the information was released to combat unsubstantiated rumors that Gov. Palin’s fifth child, Trig, born in April, was actually Bristol’s child.

The kicker is that the Palins and McCain are claiming that it’s all none of our business.

“We ask that the media respect their daughter in the same tradition that has been afforded children of past candidates,” McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said.

Well gosh, Jill, we’d love to do that but I can’t remember a time when another candidate’s 17-year-old kid was knocked up. Give us some slack as we try to negotiate this new territory of the family values party’s making.