Bristol Palin CHOOSES To Have Her Baby

1 - The McCainstream Media nor anyone other than the Palin family and the McCain campaign brought this up. Remember that when you hear the right wing attempt to make this about Bristol's right to privacy and accuse the Democrats of exploiting the issue.

Here is the 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," Sarah and Todd Palin said in the brief statement. "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," they added.

Barack Obama's statement:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday the pregnancy of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter was not relevant to the campaign and reporters should back off of it...

“People’s families are off-limits and people’s children are especially off-limits,” Obama told reporters following a campaign event in Monroe, Michigan. “This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as a governor or potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories,” he added.

... A senior McCain campaign aide was quoted in the Reuters story as suggesting that Obama’s campaign was linked to the bloggers who were spreading the rumors.

“I am offended by that statement,” Obama said when asked about it by a reporter. “There is no evidence at all that any of this involved us. Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be,” he added. “And if I ever thought there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they’d be fired.”

Subject closed.

2 - According to the Palin family statement, Bristol Palin made the "decision"? What decision? I thought Pro-Lifers didn't have a decision to make.

3 - Roe v. Wade protects PRIVACY, which is why this matter should be dropped and not politicized in terms of speaking about Bristol, but isn't it fair game to question Sarah Palin about her Pro-Life stance and ask, "Why is it okay for you or your daughter to CHOOSE to have a baby, but it's not okay to CHOOSE to have an abortion?"

It's called "Pro-Choice" not "Pro-Abortion." Abortion is not the issue. The right to have a CHOICE and the right to PRIVACY in making that choice are the issues.

UPDATE (9/2/08 9am):

A commenter named "Reality Based" on Jake Tapper's blog makes a very articulate point... a lot more articulate than I did late last night after a day of barbeque and beer:

You know, ordinarily I’d agree with the proposition that a candidate's children matters should be generally off limits. But in this case the McCain/Palin campaign has made it absolutely relevant by trumpeting Palin’s family life and “authenticity” as some sort of qualification to the vice-presidency, and thus the presidency. Palin rides shotgun on the fundie’s wet dreams of banning abortion and punishing premarital sex. Then her own teenage daughter has an unplanned pregnancy, and she “chooses” to keep the baby (a choice that Palin would deny MY daughter). It is not inappropriate to point out the arrogance and mean-spiritedness on display here.

Absofuckinlutely.