Scorn for John McCain and Sarah Palin, but sympathy for Bristol Palin

This story was released today, in order to refute this story.

This editorial put it pretty well (as Rebecca Traister from Salon often does).

It should be stated that the new story doesn't explain many of the issues with the old story. If Palin's daughter has a sudden miscarriage in the very very near future, then one can make their own conspiracy theories. But let us assume that the new story is true and the old story is not...

It's somewhat ironic that the first woman on a GOP presidential ticket immediately unloads a gender-specific soap opera story that would have been laughed out of any television pitch meeting (I wonder if this upcoming season of 24, featuring a female president, will touch on this at all). Regardless of how this all turns out, this is a major step backwards for the political conversation in regards to women holding the highest office in the land. I wish I could laugh at the hypocrisy, or giggle at John McCain's stunningly bone-headed selection. I wish I could smirk at how pissed off the far more qualified women in the GOP (Kay Bailey Hutchison, Liddy Dole, Condoleezza Rice, Christine Todd Whitman, Meg Whitman, etc) must be, that McCain went with this neophyte instead of them, and now within 48 hours Sarah Palin once again returned the national dialogue about female politicians to such tawdry sex-based issues. McCain and Palin have ironically made that glass ceiling that much thicker for whomever comes next.

But, in the end, this is about a person who accidentally got pregnant and made a choice to keep the baby. I certainly can relate. But the difference is that I had a choice, and I had the privacy needed to contemplate such a drastic choice. It's no secret amongst friends and family, but my daughter was conceived about a year before my wife and I were married. Truthfully, I found out literally five hours after I finalized my purchase of an engagement ring. In the end, we moved in together exactly on schedule, we got engaged on the day I had always planned it (well, one day late), and we got married last December, which was about when we had planned.

There was some standard hand-wringing for a few days, but it was an inevitable decision. We were financially secure adults and planning on getting married and having a family, so this was just putting the horse before the cart. When Allison asks the inevitable question someday, as she notices that she's in the wedding pictures or does the math, the answer will be easy (and understandable to anyone who's ever raised an infant): "No, sweetie," as we warmly chuckle, "we got married despite you."

It should be noted that this experience made me even more pro-choice. While I certainly have no regrets about our decision, and I certainly find it difficult, if not saddening, to imagine us making a different choice, I could never ever imagine anyone not being able to make that choice for themselves.

I will give my scorn to John McCain for potentially setting back gender politics by a good twenty to thirty years and by allowing someone who clearly lacks judgment to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. On that note, I wouldn't be surprised if Palin drops out in the next week, to be replaced by one of the women on the above list. I will give my scorn to Sarah Palin for making her daughter go through this under the spotlight of the entire world, knowing full well that her daughter will now be hounded by Star and US for the rest of her days.

And I will continue to criticize them for the hypocrisy of being pro-choice in their home, but working to take away choice in other people's homes. I will continue to criticize them for constantly supporting 'abstinence-only' education despite repeated studies that shows that it is less effective in preventing just the sort of situation we apparently have here. And I will hope that this current situation causes those on the Right to amend their own scorn towards others in this position. I can't help wondering how compassionate the GOP would have been had this happened to Chelsea Clinton or, in the near future, the seventeen-year old daughter of Barack Obama. Maybe this will show them the light in demanding that those who choose to keep unwanted pregnancies at least be given access to affordable health care, the kind that the Palin family will have. We can hope that something good can come out of this other than tabloid sleaze and gender stereotyping.

But to Bristol Palin, I offer only sympathies and best wishes. She'll need them, especially with this most private of moments being played out for constant commentary on the national stage. On the plus side, she'll hopefully discover that sometimes being violently beaten with a plastic coat hanger by a giggling assailant can be the best part of your day. Here's hoping that thirty-or-so years from now, my kid and her kid can face off on the political stage at a national level. I have no doubt that my kid can kick her kid's ass. But them, I'm a parent and thus a little biased.

Scott Mendelson