We’ve all heard that GOP Presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, has an unmarried, teenaged daughter who’s pregnant. My first thought is that, whatever my misgivings about Palin, her press release acknowledging the pregnancy was the kind of loving, respectful, and responsible statement I hope I would say if I were handling the same thing in the national spotlight. There’s legitimate reason to question her experience, the wisdom of McCain’s choice, her politics, and any actual scandal around her — and, honestly, I don’t expect her to survive on the ticket all the way ’til the election. But Bristol Palin and her boyfriend aren’t in public office, and they should be loved, supported, strengthened and held close during this or any other time.
But, having already gushed about the “hot school-marmish” appeal of that “pippin,” Sarah Palin, Moscow’s favorite Bully from the Pulpit has once again weighed in on just who, exactly, is at fault here (because there MUST be fault, it MUST be determined by Wilson, and we MUST be told by him how to judge this one). The responsibility for this is Todd Palin’s, Wilson opines, because HE is responsible for his daughter’s conduct, and HE obviously didn’t give her the love, support, security and affirmation she needed, such that she had to go out and get all giggly-in-love with a boyfriend. Wilson has decreed it; it is thus true.
This would be sad if it weren’t so patently self-aggrandizing — Wilson suggested that Palin might just be a new Deborah of Old Testament leadership renown, and he lauded her genuine Christian faith as he carefully noted that it might not, maybe, be following the spirit of antichrist to vote for a national ticket with a woman on it. But the pippin and now her pippin-ette have thrown Wilson a curve: obvious sin, undeniable result, and now he’s stuck. Rather than simply evaluating Palin on whatever merit she offers the GOP and the country, he can reassert his place in the drama — there must be a place for Wilson’s wisdom in every drama — by qualifying his near-support with a sure denunciation of That Which Is None Of His Damned Business. Todd Palin, my apologies to you for our local boor’s bitingly judgmental comment. We’ve had to put up with him here in Moscow, but I see no reason why he should even be a blip on the radar screen of your heart and mind.
I breathlessly await Wilson’s declaration of guilt in the Lindsay Lohan-Samantha Ronson episode. Enquiring minds want to know.