The Public's and Our Reactions.

I am looking at the comments on a news site, and for once, they aren't making me totally sick. Of the many post, I would say the large majority aren't happy with Palin. The response of the general public so far seem to be:

***What HYPOCRISY! (One of the most reasonable and fair responses)

***What a slut/white trash (:-(These aren't helpful or fair to Bristol, but they are luckily only small portion.)

***What the hell was McCain thinking?! (A valid question)

***Why would she run for VP and subject her daughter to this? (I was surprised by the number of these responses)

The small number of die-hard conservatives are posting:

***Everybody makes mistakes/at least she didn't abort. (A LOT of people are calling these people out on their family values hypocrisy)

***Well, she now represents a typical American family. (There weren't a lot of these. Some were answered by that dysfunctional isn't normal, but some were left alone.)

What should Obama camp do with new info? They should leave it alone or, if the want to react, respond with congratulations for Bristol's news. What should Democrats do? Not attack Bristol for decisions, but rather discuss Palin's and the Republican's hypocrisy and their support for "abstinence only". This is about how they push the family values onto and condemn us for our choices us, yet they feel they can respond differently. The people who think she is a hero for not aborting were probably going to vote for McCain no matter what. If they confront us about that, we should say we support their choice no matter what they decided to do.

Democrats make this election about issues, but the internets are free to have discussions about McCain's decision. That's fair game as it the Republican's hypocrisy.

...and if this family was Black or Latino, you'd be screaming about promiscuity and family values to beat the band.

As for the Obama campaign, don't say a word. And if asked, "that's a matter for the Palin family to comment on" end of statement.

Thanks and welcome to D.U.

:)

Obama has just put out a statement saying almost the exact same thing and going so far as to mention his mother had him when she was 18...


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There is no reason for the Obama/Biden campaign to touch this with a 10 foot poll. The media can handle the dirty work, if there is any to be done. I think Obama should stay above the fray on drama like this. They can attack Palin on plenty of actual issue based stuff... such as abuse of government power, the far right wing stances of Palin and her bad judgement in political areas.

Obama should come out and ask his supporters to stay away from attacking people's family issues and maybe mention that he expects his family to be treated with the same respect. That kind of statement has even greater relevance as Michelle Obama has been unfairly targeted throughout this entire campaign.

Any damage that is going to be done to the McCain/Palin campaign over all this family drama will happen without the Obama campaign needing to lift a finger. And whether or not that damage is fair is neither here nor there, this is politics, after all.

They probably won't even make a issue of it at all. If they crash and burn, it will be regular people talking. I don't think anybody can control that.

In the spirit of my full pro-choice stance, they are free to decide for themselves how to handle reproductive decisions. I don't know how they feel about it or how they felt about it in the first place. It is not my business to know. I am pro-choice.

I personally refuse to call them out on hypocrisy because that would violate my own position.

I would stick with policy discussions. I think that is what elections are about.

If we want to dig into personal lives, we give implied permission for them to criticize Obama's mother and father for their choices to dig as deep as they can to tear his book apart and use any line they can out of context.

Dirty politics invites more of the same.

The thing that has been misunderstood by the agressive advocates here is that no has come out and said you look ridiculous throwing crap when people have problems the way Obama has been doing.

He's a better and tougher candidate than some people think.