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One Most Likely Biting the Dust

September 1st, 2008
By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor

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On Friday, as part of a list of potential issues which looked as if they might complicate (if not stick a knife in) the Republican ticket following the selection of Sarah Palin, I wondered “if the following would turn into a story.” The “following” in that case was a set of pictures which began circulating of the Governor questioning whether or not she was actually pregnant this year. Well, it most certainly did turn into a story that raged all weekend across the blogosphere. However, while there was a lot of smoke and many questions raised, it’s looking unlikely that any fire will be found underneath.

palinpregnant.jpg

The photo doesn’t seem to be dated, but she certainly appears to be expecting. Even with the odd questions surrounding her plane flight, etc. it’s looking more and more as if this one is going to fall down the rabbit hole as a swing-and-a-miss by the bloggers. The campaign has a bit much on its hands at the moment to be answering every question and theory from Blogistan but I imagine they will be able to nail this one shut with little to no trouble should they choose to. Obviously, nothing as drastic as DNA tests or such will be required. No doubt the family should be able to proudly display some snapshots or video clips of the happy mother in the delivery room with the newborn son. (In 2008 who doesn’t have those?) Either way, it’s looking more and more like a case of chasing vapors.

Now all they need to do is get started on the list of the rest of the questions, issues, gaffes and other historical items, and they just might have themselves a viable candidate! (And just for the record, no… the clearing-up of the most tawdry, vacuous item to emerge in the first twelve hours really doesn’t change my disappointment in McCain’s selection of Palin nor encourage me about her viability as a VP and potential President on a moment’s notice. Nor does it sell me on the idea that she underwent a long, thorough vetting.)

UPDATE: (Can we ever have one of these without updates?)

Assuming the provided dates are correct, Bristol could NOT have been the mother of Trig because she is currently five months pregnant. This would mean that she couldn’t have given birth on May 10th of this year to Trig. That should pretty much wrap this up.



This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am and is filed under Sarah Palin, 2008 Elections, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 44 Comments

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    I admit I focused on this issue too much and made some ill-advised comments on it. I will be happy to see it die a deserved death, except for one last thing. All of this could have been spared, had the McCain campaign done it's job.
    Clearly these rumors were out there, had they been looked into they could have had the happy delivery room pictures ready and the Doctor available to answer questions and turned this story back on those who were pushing it. Instead, the odd looking pictures get immediately removed from the Governor's web-site rising even more questions. I still question Palin's judgement for flying 8 hours after her water broke, but I question McCain's judgement even more, if you are going to sell the story, you need to check the story out and be ready to defend it.
    One last point, I was told by another Moderate Voice reader that Todd Palin has quit his job to focus on the kids while Governor Palin campaigns. Kudos to him and to Governor Palin for making choices that put their kids first. I will not bring up any "Mommy War" comments up regarding the Palins. I wish there were more male conservatives willing to make the same choices. However, there are a whole bunch of other reasons why I won't vote the Republican ticket.
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    The left wing blogs maintain their reputation for class.

    (Heh)
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    This acknowledgment is, in fact, classy.
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    The least you could have done Jazz was apologize for the smear mongering.

    I used to really respect TMV even if it tends to lean left. I thought it as a place above shallow and unsubstantiated rumors. There are still authors I respect and even disagree with but the fact that there has been no apology shows poorly on TMV, Joe and especially Jazz. I expected better and yes this whole thing is akin to the Obama is a Muslim smears.
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    I'm glad to see Jazz and the Moderate Voice retract this baseless fact free rumor.

    An apology is also in order, but that is between Jazz and his conscience.

    A lot of damage has been done by associating the reputation of The Moderate Voice with this garbage. As Jazz mentioned before - many sites linked to his rumor mongering post - They picked his post rather than the many others flinging this crap specifically because The Moderate Voice banner on the top of the page lent credibility to the non-story.

    This will, of course, not end it. I expect we'll soon see the left-wing equivalent of the 9/11 Truthers in this thread foaming at the mouth and invoking pregnancy pillows or photoshop, questioning dates, and selling bigfoot corpses.

    You reap what you sow, Jazz.
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    Give me a break!

    This is not akin to the Muslim smears, because it will, for the most part, stop.

    Meanwhile, there's a best-selling book promoting the Muslim smears!!!
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    Here's another retraction they might want to consider.

    The deal with the sister's ex-husband and firing his boss for not firing him.

    I personally have lived this bad-cop scenario. I caught an attempted arson on my property on video tape with the suspect point-blank front and side profile shots. The suspect's father was friends with the DA, so guess what? They didn't even question the suspect and brought a case against me for "harassing" the suspect; which they later dropped on the eve of when it was scheduled to go to a jury.

    Imagine this scenario, which is quite common I might add. Imagine that the ex-husband was stalking his wife or some such nefarious behavior that disgruntled ex's are statistically quite capable of. Imagine that Palin's sister tried to get the authorities to help her to gales of guffaws....like they're going to punish one of their own....not...

    And so, Governor Palin contacted the boss and instructed him to take punitive action against his officer. The boss refused. The boss was then fired.

    If this was the scenario, as it likely could have been, then Palin's actions are wholly correct and completely excuseable.

    As always, devil's advocate..
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    And now it turns out that Bristol Palin really is pregnant, as reported by NBC and Reuters after an Alaskan blog posted pictures taken by John McCain's daughter yesterday (all available through Google).

    I'd say no one could make this whole thing up, but after reading blogs regularly the last few years, maybe there now will be a post linking to a blog two years ago that predicted the entire scenario. The world has changed.

    For all the outrage, there was something weird going on here. For all the talk of privacy, the fact that Sarah Palin believes in abstinence-only education makes this a campaign issue. I don't want to write about it more than this, but I bet someone will.
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    I think that is it is fair that her stand on abstinence only education come into consideration. However as David has just stated people now will believe that the rumor was true and Palin couldn't fake it twice. This isn't going away and TMV helped the fire spread.
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    George,
    It's amazing how rightwingers are able to act so offended at the slightest challenge to their stars integrity.

    Obama has been called accused of being a secret muslim, a friend of terrorists, a unapologetic racist, a sexist, and Pa