"She isn't going to be replaced, if McCain were forced to do that he might as well throw in the towel."

Danni:

Actually, a carefully managed replacement might do McCain quite a bit of good.

Here's the script as I see it:

He gets through the convention, having reached his desired goal of grabbing as many eyeballs as possible with Caribou Barbie.

Next (in a week or two), after more revelations about Caribou Barbie (or more outrage about the existing ones), McCain comes out and says that he now believes them and he is shocked - shocked! - by what has emerged in spite of his super-duper vetting of her.

He then declares, forcefully, that he Will Have None of This, and tells a breathless nation that Pawlenty has been chosen to replace his fallen pick, 'cuz Big John ain't having no corruption in his Casa Blanca.

It will play pretty well, I think. It may even have been planned this way from the start (maybe even by Rove, who has been suspiciously quiet and circumspect this election cycle); there's very little other explanation for the suddenness of McCain's choice of Palin. He's used her like a Kleenex, in my view. She'll be wadded up and thrown away soon.

"Unless Gidget is allowed to sink or swim on her own at some point as a candidate I'd say that's good indication that each and every nasty thing said about her to date are true."

This goes back to my hunch about what's going to happen. The media firestorm is such that even McCain is beginning to realize he made a boo-boo. He's gotten his staff to wind her up and let her go through the motions of the convention, but he can't afford to let her off her leash, because he already knows he's got to replace her. The more she talks off the top of her untidily coiffed head, the more damage there will be to undo.

"My point is that Palin has been in the spotlight and under pressure in a variety of situations."

What are you on? Since being selected, Caribou Barbie has yet to appear off her leash for interviews, debates, or anything else. Yeah, she's been in the public eye, but she has not had to think on her feet in front of a TV audience, answering unscripted questions. There are already considerable rumblings from the press concerning her non-availability to them.

"Hell, just use the woman part would work for this pathetic crowd."

Why was the phrase vagina dentata the first thing that came to mind when I read that?

"OMG

check this link out. AOL just flashed this
news.aol.com"

I have a good hot hunch that Ol' Sarah is gonna flame out very soon, and that she already knows it. As rcade said yesterday, McCain would be insane to cut her loose during the convention itself, but I have a feeling an Eagleton replay is in the works. Did you see right after her speech last night? After she took her applause, McCain got up on stage and hugged her for the cameras. She recoiled visibly both times, and her smile took a hike, too. Something is wrong between the two of them, I'm betting.

My thinking at this point is that within about two weeks, the already-serious problems with Palin will become insurmountable, and she'll be forced to step aside in favor of Pawlenty. McCain will have to act within that time frame, because to act later would mean a loss of momentum that couldn't be made up in time for the voting.

Yup, when an investigation's on, she wants everything set up her way, and to respond only as and if she sees fit.

Dickless Cheney, sez I.

Send Caribou Barbie instead.

"The longer this is in the news, the more it hurts Obama. After all, he's the only one on the ticket whose 17 year-old mother was impregnated by a 24 year-old married graduate student from Kenya. How d'ya like them apples?"

RIR:

It has been a long time since children have been been given any shit about the parental actions that led to their births.

Of course, in your case, we might be willing to make an exception.

RIR:

As you yourself have pointed out any number of times in reference to Hillary Clinton, being First Lady isn't a job. There are some duties and responsibilities that tradition has placed upon First Ladies, but considering that the First Lady has a secretarial staff, household staff, and every other resource of the White House but the red phone at her disposal, it should be possible for Michelle Obama to squeeze out enough time to give her daughters a little attention. Even if Michelle's time gets a little tight from time to time, neither of her daughters is a baby in arms with special needs.

What Caribou Barbie proposes to do is to take on the second most responsible job in the land, with the ever-present possibility that the Apoplectic in Chief will buy the farm, thereby leapfrogging her into the top slot. Neither option will leave her a whole bunch of family time, which is going to be a little rough on a Downs baby.

Stop talking out of both sides of your mouth.

"I'm sorry, but I just don't get why they are parading the girl and the boyfriend around."

Yeah, kinda knocks that whole "private family matter" thing down, doesn't it?

Your point about Rethug faux outrage over Clinton's hummer is well made. It's "any port in a storm" with these folks, every time; they'll use anything they can to get voters worked up, then wjhen they're caught doing something similar, everyone's supposed to overlook it.

What I cannot figure out is that so far, it's working the way they want it to. You'd think anyone with an I.Q. over 8 would see the difference between what they say and what they do.

"Sounds like she was just responding to the will of the voters in that podunk town?"

I am so sick of hearing about "the will of the people". We have a Constitution that provides a legal framework upon which this country is built. We have a Bill of Rights. We have (well, we're supposed to have) separation of church and state. If anyone - or any group - finds these things incompatible with their own personal "will", let them move to some other country where laws are different.

You want a country where the laws are different every regime change, I suggest Uganda.

"Aides Say Team Interviewed Palin Late in the Process

www.washingtonpost.com

(less than someone applying for assistant manager at Applebee's would be interviewed)"

AU:

Here's my favorite sentence from that article:

"One U.S. law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the FBI does not conduct any kind of background checks or criminal history searches on behalf of political candidates or parties."

In other words, the McCain claimed that Palin was subjected to a type of vetting that does not exist.

There is more on this from Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic Monthly, here:

It all makes sense now.

Palin has been positioning herself as Queen Caribou Barbie, and that wrinkly nutsack McCain derailed her.

That's why she was so forthcoming about Baby Oopsie - she wants to be sent back to her queendom, where, if her secessionist efforts are successful, she can have a Coronation parade in the royal Camaro, waving to her loyal subjects through the T-top.

"I sincerely doubt if Bristol and her boyfriend(17 and 18 respectively) want to go on firgging talk shows to gab about their sex lives."

Oh no, indeed. It would hardly be about that. It would be a Triumphant, Uplifting story about Young Love, Overcoming Obstacles, and how Mommy got a bad rap. Especially that last part. Trust me, the McCainers will spin this.

"MTW- Then why are you linking to these kids?

I agree with your assessment of McCain's idiocy in obviously not vetting palin.

But leave the kids alone."

Does it not occur to you that the link (which I found via the Drudge Report, BTW) is the clearest possible example of how badly McCain screwed up? My sympathies are with these kids, believe me. But the cat's long since out of the bag.

This should show any thinking person just how little the GOP cares about consequences when expediency is at stake. These two kids will be okay, trust me. In fact, I expect them to be doing the talk-show rounds within days, at a handsome rate of remuneration. After that, book deals. The days of stitching ye scarlet letter to ye offender's bodice are long over.

"Whore-
Drop the National Enquirer shit. Neither of these teenaged children is running for office.

It's about McCain, and his evident inability to place the nation before his own reckless political maneuvers."

BetelG:

You're absolutely right it's about McCain and his evident inability. His reckless political maneuvers are what put all this National Enquirer shit into existence. He didn't vet his Veep choice as he should have, because it was more important to diffuse Obama's major-league acceptance speech right then than it was to do his job properly, or direct that it be done properly.

Now his campaign is ass-deep in stuff the author of Peyton Place never dreamed of. You think I'm gleeful about what these kids are going through? I'm disgusted, because ten minutes of background checking should have turned this up, and a dignified "Thanks, Sarah, we'll get back to you," should have been the end of McCain's interest in her.

What I am glad about is summed up in the old adage, "Any ladle's sweet that dishes out some gravy." This situation stands to send Methusaleh's campaign down the tubeolas, where it belongs, and for that, I think young Mr. Johnston ought to get a medal.

....And here's the daddy!

Turns out he's 18 (hmm...was he therefore guilty of statutory rape with the 17-year-old Bristol?), and his MySpace page (now conveniently taken down) is said to have carried his own description of himself as a "fucking redneck."

Name's Levi Johnston, and I want to be among the first here to congratulate him. Not even Bill Clinton's pee-pee stirred up as much trouble as this fellow's has.

"Mary--what issues? The dughter is pregnant--she is getting married and having the baby.

Sarah is pro life."

Murph:

"Pro-life" is too often a smarmy euphemism for "anti-choice". While I'm all for sensible, medically sound limits on abortion (vacuuming a later-pregnancy baby out of Mommy is nasty business, no good for Mommy's health, emotional well-being, or the doctor's malpractice rates), the option needs to exist. No woman should be legally forced to carry a rapist's baby, for instance; it's way too much emotional trauma to visit on anyone. She's not only been raped, but she's got a permanent reminder of the occasion? Give me a break - except Palin doesn't want you to have one.

Palin's position does not take the intensely personal circumstances that can arise when a woman - particularly a young one - gets pregnant into account. A young woman can be unskilled and her education unfinished, which in a lower-income setting can doom her to welfare and a housing project. Palin's daughter has resources, or at least the Palins themselves do, and are willing to expend them on her. Lots of young women who have scratched their itch (or have been smooth-talked into scratching some guy's) have ended up in profound trouble by deciding to have their "cute little baby." Cute little babies need care, and a place to live, and food, and utilities, and a young single mother is one of the least likely people to be able to provide all those things at once.

Any young woman who is facing all that - and who makes an informed decision to abort at the proper, early stage of pregnancy - is hardly to be blamed, and she should have the option of a relatively safe procedure under proper medical care. If men could get pregnant, with all the attendant hassles and economic limitations, abortions would be available by getting pills from vending machines.

Palin is forgetting that her her world view and the real world are two different things. Perhaps all this public scrutiny of her personal circumstances will enlighten her as to the difference.

"This is not our business any more then Clinton's blow job was. It's not, at all!"

Soheifox:

Sorry, but it is. Sarah Palin has established herself as anti-abortion. She is part of a political party that has done everything but send troops into the streets to enforce abstinence-only sex education. She is part of a highly flawed machine that wants to promote some fantasy world of rigid 1755 "morality" when the record shows - and shows very clearly - that these Republican ayatollahs cannot conform their own behavior to any moral code but their weird, dysfunctional private ones. For all Sarah Palin's caterwauling about honesty, she didn't make this situation public until bloggers forced her hand.

She preaches one thing, her record shows very clearly that another is practiced. It's Larry Craig with a sex change, sorry. I do not want people, of either party, in charge of social policy when their off-the-job behavior so strongly suggests that they can't deal with the very issues they want the rest of us to deal with according to laws they've passed.

Just in case you're going to try tying this to Clinton's blow job (and I'm willing to bet your fingers are hovering over the "B" and "J" keys right this minute, itching fiercely), that was private consensual behavior between two adults, and a legal sex act, however distasteful you may find it. Still, the instant the press got wind of it, a witch-hunt of proportions they'd have envied in seventeenth-century Salem ensued. What's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose, honey. Bristol herself might actually have some right to a bit of privacy here, but it is her mother's actions that threw open her closet, and her mother who will have to take the blame.

"Allowing for estimation vagaries, she would have had to have sex almost immediately (within a few days) of conceiving Trig. My wife was very sore down there for about 4 weeks.

Anything is possible, but you are really grasping at straws with this one."

Jeff:

First, I'm assuming your wife is not 17, though I wouldn't discount that possibility entirely where you're concerned. A very young woman is fertile as a rabbit, and much more resilient when it comes to giving birth.

Second, you're not speaking to the neatness issue, which is really the important one. McCain's minions have pushed really hard to make sure we have FIVE. WHOLE. DAMN. MONTHS. in our heads. Why? So that folks like you will do a little math and conclude it's impossible for the previous allegation to be true? I'd be very interested in a time machine right now, so I could fast-foward to Little Oopsie Palin's impending birth, and see whether it times out at nine months proper from the time Bristol's doctors say it began, or if somehow an unusually large and healthy "preemie" emerges.

I'm telling you - something is W.R.O.N.G. here, and your party is about to have a major disruption to its par-tay.

Jeffie:

"Palin's daugher is 5 months pregnant.

Let's see:

1 month - May 18
2 - June 18
3 - July 18
4 - August 18
5 - September 18

find other things to criticize Palin for. This one is going nowhere."

Not that there isn't plenty more to criticize Palin for, but I'm comfy sticking with this one for the moment.

Number one, pregnancy calculations aren't all that damn specific. By your reckoning, there's a mere two-and-a-half week difference between the time elapsed since Trig's birth and the five-month span claimed for Bristol's oopsie; being off by that much is a long way from being unheard-of.

Number two, it's damned odd that the McCain campaign was at such pains to specify the term of the pregnancy to date. Usually, there's just a confirmation of the baby bump, and a statement that the baby will be due within a time frame ("Angelina is expecting her baby in late July," that sort of thing. But nooooooooooo - the McCain-raisers have got to say, "Five months. Did you hear us? GET IT? FIIIIIIVE MONNNNNNNNNNTHS!!!

Fearless prediction - Rush's "babe" is going to be withdrawn as Veep nominee, very soon. Too many hinky places in her resume and personal history.

"Neatness is always the result of deliberate planning."

Martin Landau, North by Northwest, 1959

"WTF is Sarah Palin hiding in her hair?"

Doc:

That's a "hair handle", intended for husbandly, Cro-Magnon-style dragging around the cave while wifey sports a rhapsodic, shit-eating grin at the attention.

It's the Republican thang tuh dew.

P.S.: I for one would not be surprised if both Palin pregnancy stories are true. It would make a certain amount of redneck sense if lil' Bristol got bailed out on a first pregnancy by Momma arranging matters so's the Downs baby appeared to be her own. Since that would have left lil' Bristol having taken absolutely no heat or responsibility for Preggo No. 1, she'd have been set up for Preggo No. 2, which if I'm right, she achieved at almost minimum biological interval. At the very least, Sarah Palin has not been forthcoming with the American electorate with something that should have been handled forthrightly, i.e., "Sarah Palin's oldest daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant, and plans to be wed in XXXX." No one would have blinked twice at that. Not these days.

Actually, I believe Bush this time, because there is one undeniable sign that things are about to get better:

He's leaving office!

"Mr. Nagin was re-elected because of his tremendous leadership skills."

Like leaving all New Orleans' city buses unused and in the path of the storm when tremendous numbers of lower-income people needed immediate transport out of harm's way, due to inadequate planning and warnings?

"'It wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster,' McCain told Wallace."

Well, McCain better do a little praying, because it would be even less appropriate for any of those Republican-rebuilt levees to fail and flood N.O. again.