ST. PAUL, Sept. 2, 2008
GOP Delegates Unfazed By Palin Pregnancy
CBSNews.com Reports: In St. Paul, News Of Bristol Palin's Pregnancy Prompts Support For McCain's Vice Presidential Pick
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Play CBS Video Video Palin Family Pregnancy News John McCain's Campaign released a written statement revealing that Sarah Palin's unwed teen daughter is five months pregnant. Chip Reid reports.
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Video Reactions To Sarah Palin Nod Alaskans are proud of their governor as John Blackstone reports. But Democrats are questioning John McCain's VP choice, Bob Schieffer tells Maggie Rodriguez.
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Video RNC Reflects On Gustav Delegates and Politicians at the RNC react to Hurricane Gustav and how the weather is affecting the convention.
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Bristol Palin, 17, at the campaign rally where Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced Bristol's mom, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as his vice presidential running mate in Dayton, Ohio, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008. (AP)
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Photo Essay Sarah Palin Alaska's youngest and first female governor tabbed to be McCain's running mate.
As the scaled-down Republican National Convention kicked off in in the shadow of Hurricane Gustav Monday, the presidential campaign was shaken by revelations that Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s newly-minted running mate, is pregnant.
It was the latest curveball tied to Palin, whose sudden rise to national prominence came as a shock to both Republican insiders and the media. The Alaska governor’s nomination spurred ceaseless debate over whether McCain’s selection of woman who is largely unknown and relatively inexperienced - but who is extremely popular in her state and pleasing to the conservative base - will ultimately prove a help or a hindrance to the Republican ticket.
Monday’s news reportedly prompted concern inside the GOP establishment that more potentially-damaging stories about Palin’s family will come out. (Indeed, Monday also brought the revelation that Palin’s husband was arrested in 1986 for DUI.) The story seemed to feed into the notion that Palin, who is untested on the national stage and was not aggressively vetted, could bring so much baggage that it outweighs her benefits.
There’s a potential problem with that interpretation, however: Republicans on the convention floor in St. Paul remain just as fired up about Palin as they were when the pick was announced. If anything, the news about Bristol Palin, who the family says will marry the father of her child, has spurred more support for her mother.
“Like so many other American families who are in the same situation, I think it's great that she instilled in her daughter the values to have the child and not to sneak off some place and have an abortion,” said Louisiana delegate George White.
“Especially in the society that we live in now, it’s a commonplace event,” said Madison, Mississippi delegate Walley Naylor. “Not that it's right, but it doesn't reflect badly upon her. I think that it’s great that even though young children are making that decision to become pregnant they've also decided to take responsibility for their actions and decide to follow up with that and get married and raise this child.”
Keri Brehm, a Colorado delegate, was one of three women wearing shirts that spelled out “We Love Sarah” on the back. She said yesterday’s news has not dampened her enthusiasm for the soon-to-be vice presidential nominee.
“That's a personal, private family matter and I trust that they will handle it in the best way,” said Brehm, who describes herself as very conservative and in line with Palin’s views. “I'm glad she has a lot of family support to help her.”
Palin opposes abortion rights and backed abstinence-only education during her run for governor two years ago. The McCain camp says McCain knew about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before tapping her and did not feel it had any impact of Sarah Palin’s potential as a running mate.
“It's an American issue and I hope she gets elected and that will be one issue they can focus on - make sure we're teaching kids abstinence,” said North Carolina delegate Justin Burr, who said Bristol Palin’s pregnancy offers the opportunity for a greater spotlight on such issues.
CBS News’ Steve Chaggaris and Arden Farhi spoke to five self-identified conservative, evangelical, anti-abortion female GOP delegates. Across the board, they stood behind Palin.
"What American family doesn't have to deal with a family crisis?,” one asked. “It shows that she feels our pain."
South Carolina Republican Chairman Katon Dawson echoed that message in an interview with CBSNews.com, saying that the situation is a "family problem not unique in America." Dawson remains "euphoric" about the choice of Palin for the ticket and said that her selection has set conservative activists "on fire" in support of the ticket.
Conservatives had long ago rallied around Palin because of her devotion towards her youngest son, Trig, who was born with Down syndrome. Anti-abortion activists have rallied around her because prenatel tests provide women the choice to abort such pregnancies and the governor has publicly discussed her decision in relation to that. The fact that Bristol Palin is having a baby, news the McCain camp suggested was released to knock down rumors that Trig was actually Bristol’s child, in a sense burnishes Palin’s anti-abortion rights credentials.
Republican delegates attending the convention are the core of the party and at odds with the overall electorate on some important aspects of the political landscape. Eighty percent of the delegates in a recent CBS News survey said they approved of the job President Bush is doing - a far higher percentage than the American people overall, who put the president’s approval rating at 28 percent. But these are the activists McCain needs to energize as a force for the fall election, and his selection of Palin still appears to be doing just that.
“I think that's a family matter and I've seen my own friends that have been pregnant at a young age,” said John Tyler Hammons, an Oklahoma delegate who at 19 is the youngest mayor in the country. “It's a burden that's very personal and I don't think it needs to be discussed in a public fashion.”
By Brian Montopoli
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Add a Comment See all 1842 Comments
- This upcoming %u201Cmarriage%u201C will be a cynical, carefully orchestrated political event, nothing more. It will be done in order to cast an aura of respectability around the cruel injunctions of the religious right. The lives of two teenagers will be ruthlessly sacrificed for the naked political ambitions of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Bristol and Levi will be forced to undergo a ritual that neither one of them wants. In the coming days, you will see the real Sarah Palin trying to pass this travesty off as legitimate, to her eternal shame. Can she possibly think we will fall for it? Poor Levi and Bristol have become unwitting pawns in the most vicious quest for power in our times; running for the US presidency. Sarah Palin is worse then a bad mother. She is a bad human being. John McCain is debased beyond redemptiion.
- Reply to this comment
- this where Obama came in
- Reply to this comment
- What family values? Four months from now Palin will have the following in her house:
-a husband who works full time locally
-a wife who works full time
-a newborn with Downs Syndrome who has very special medical and parenting needs
-a newborn whose parents are still children
-a 17-yr-old who obviously needs more parental love and guidance
-two other minor children who will probably be ignored as any available adult attention goes to the two newborns
Now, I ask you, if you are a parent and the above is in your house, would you agree to spend the next 4 or 8 years flying around the nation and the world and working long hours? Or would you and your spouse decide to curtail your careers for a few years, choose jobs where you can both be at home every night with your children, and give your needy family the support they need?
What does it say about Palin''s family values that she and her husband have SO many minor children in need in their home, yet, when McCain asked her to run for VP, the two Palin parents thought "yeah that sounds like a good idea?"
Pro-life doesn''t just mean that the mom and dad should support the child''s right to be born. Pro-life also means that the mom and dad should support the child AFTER s/he is born. And Palin fails miserably. - Reply to this comment
- Here%u2019s the deal. McCain%u2019s choice of Sarah Palin is a declaration of war against decency, intelligence, and morality. Defeat this stinking abomination and down will come the rest: George W. Bush, James Dobson, Anne Coulter, the NRA, Fox News and the evangelical rabble that is a disease in the body politic. I do not intend to be kind to the enemies of civilization.
- Reply to this comment
- It''s the backlash from these types of comments and blogs from you and your liberal friends that is going to win the election for McCAin/Palin.
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Posted by cbville72
If you believe that then you are considerably handicapped intellectually, and you have my utmost sympathy. If you are just saying it to impress people then you are considerably handicapped intellectually, and you have my utmost sympathy. - Reply to this comment
- The GOP VP has more experience as a LEADER/DECISION maker than Biden and Obama combined.
Are you counting her time as a beauty pageant contestant as quadruple? - Reply to this comment
- All of a sudden this little sperm burping gutter ***** is a hero because she''s doing us all the favor of keeping the baby. The very definitions of morality itself are having to be changed to keep this train wreck of a candidacy moving forward. No matter what shocking revelations are to come in the next two months, the GOP is ready to excuse them away as their candidates being "Real". Well, by that definition, Clinton proved to be pretty "Real" and he got impeached for it.
Shout the name of God, close your mind, attack the black man and all that he stands for, and surrender your rights to fight the non-believers. It may work, it may not. - Reply to this comment
- Huh? check your facts there cowboy.....(not that the facts should ever get in the way of a good rant).
Posted by lucasnico
She had executive experience as a Governor. Obama has what kind of executive experience? The GOP VP has more experience as a LEADER/DECISION maker than Biden and Obama combined. - Reply to this comment
- Poor, poor Obamaphiles.
Your messiah has less leadership experience than a 44 year old mother of five from Alaska.
Posted by HawkSprings
Huh? check your facts there cowboy.....(not that the facts should ever get in the way of a good rant). - Reply to this comment
- Good night my fellow Americans.
- Reply to this comment
- Obama thinks that Sarah''s daughter is being punished by having this baby.
He''d just kill it. - Reply to this comment
- a president that hates America! Imagine, President Palin!
Posted by Voltaire777
Kinda like B.O.not wearing a flag lapel while serving as a senator and his wife only being recently proud to be an American. - Reply to this comment
- Oh Voltaire777,
You are so lame.
Sarah Palin never belonged to them, and they are calling the Federal Government a monster, not the Country.
Many Americans agree that the Federal Government is a monster.
Hasn''t Obama said it''s broken and not working?
Hasn''t Obama said he wants to bring CHANGE to the Federal government?
That''s why he picked JOE BIDEN, a Washington Insider since 1972 to be his running mate!
Now THERE''S change you can believe in!!!
HAHAHAHAHA!! - Reply to this comment
- Great job and great writing skills. You really made a difference!
============================
Why, thank you kindly. That%u2019s a compliment coming from the likes of you. If you aren%u2019t outraged about how Palin is using this kid, there is no hope for you. And you think you are the virtuous one. - Reply to this comment
- And I am a woman, and I would want to see someone with Values and Standards in the White House.
Posted by missglo
At least her daughter didn''t have an abortion! At least this family has the guts to deal with it as a family like many American families do everyday. They understand and have more in common with the average American family, which is better than an elitist, fancy, over educated, privileged, 40 year beltway politician and their families. - Reply to this comment
- "America loves an underdog, and the hatchet job the media has done on Sarah Palin is disgraceful. This is how we treat people who stand up for what they believe and do the right thing?"
"Assuming she does well with her acceptance speech and VP debate against Biden -which I fully expect her to since she is smart, articulate, and has the facts on her side - look for her to come out of this whole process a bonafide hero."
McCain-Palin 08''
Posted by JJHLH1
Exactly.
The Dembots and their lapdogs in the Media are trying to make Palin out to be a stupid backwards woman. What''s really funny about the hatchet job they are trying to do on Palin is it only lowers the bar for her in her debate with Biden.
They are framing things so that as long as Palin responds coherently and gracefully in the debate, Biden will come off looking like the loser... which he is anyways.
It''s very funny to watch! - Reply to this comment
- richsh, I freely admit to detesting Sarah Palin. Everything%u2019s fair in love and war as they say and believe me, this IS war
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Posted by heuristic1 at 12:05 AM : Sep 03, 2008
No it''s not war. It''s a political discussion in which you have openly aired your lack of class. You should be proud though. It''s the backlash from these types of comments and blogs from you and your liberal friends that is going to win the election for McCAin/Palin.
Great job and great writing skills. You really made a difference! - Reply to this comment
- I was thinking about sitting this election out...not now, after what I''ve seen the past two days from the irresponsible mainsteam media.
America loves an underdog, and the hatchet job the media has done on Sarah Palin is disgraceful. This is how we treat people who stand up for what they believe and do the right thing?
Assuming she does well with her acceptance speech and VP debate against Biden -which I fully expect her to since she is smart, articulate, and has the facts on her side - look for her to come out of this whole process a bonafide hero.
McCain-Palin 08'' - Reply to this comment
- erichsh wrote - heuristic1 is typical of the hate-filled, loathsome blah blah blah
===============================
erichsh, I freely admit to detesting Sarah Palin. Everything%u2019s fair in love and war as they say and believe me, this IS war - Reply to this comment
- Poor, poor Obamaphiles.
Your messiah has less leadership experience than a 44 year old mother of five from Alaska.
You should have chosen the woman for your candidate back when you had the chance.
Now you''ll have to vote GOP to do that.
BARRACUDA!!! - Reply to this comment
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