Forget Mr. Toad's Wild Jet Ride from Texas to Anchorage. Forget that rumors that Bristol Palin was pregnant can be dated to before March 2008. Forget that Sarah Palin was the skinniest 44 year old pregnant woman ever on the planet. Forget that she didn't tell her own mother she was pregnant until she was seven months. Forget that a woman with five high risk factors chose to give birth attended by a family practice physician at a rural hospital with no high-risk facilities. Forget that not one photograph of the "happy family" is available from the time of the birth. Ignore it all.
Assume only two things: rumors begin to fly on August 30, 2008 that Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin was not Trig Palin's mother and that the McCain campaign decides that the rumors must be countered. (Both of these things are indisputably true.)
You have two choices:
1. Ask the physician whom you have stated publicly delivered Trig, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, someone for whom you wrote recommendations on at least one occasion that helped her get a prestigious award, someone you appointed to a state medical advisory board, someone who had delivered one of your previous children - accompanied by perhaps Norman Stephens, the Mat-Su Regional Hospital CEO - to give a press conference. Ask her to make one statement: "On 6:30 a.m. on April 18th Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig Palin here at Mat-Su Regional Hospital. I was the physician in attendance. Sarah Palin is Trig Palin's biological mother. The rumors and allegations that Sarah Palin is not Trig Palin's biological mother are entirely false. Thank you."
OR
2. Announce to the world that your 17 year old daughter is five months pregnant (while providing no actual proof), making her the most notorious (and I don't use that word lightly) pregnant teen on the planet, opening not only your daughter to endless speculation and scrutiny but allowing a dialogue on your own parenting to begin, something that can in no way help your candidacy.
Hmmm. Tough call. Number one, number two. Number one, number two. Oh, hell. Let's go with number two.
It all comes down to that.
No Time for Tuckerman
-
Time. It is precious, they say. It flies, they say. And former Republican
Party Chair, former Dunleavy Chief of Staff, and now former University of
Alaska ...
1 year ago
30 comments:
Yes, it is both shameful and ironic that if Sarah has told an elaborate lie that Trig is HER baby to protect her 17-year-old daughter and to save face politically that she has ended up making her 17-year-old daughter the most notorious pregnant out of wedlock teen-ager in the world. So obviously Sarah's political career is more important than any trauma that her daughter might be experiencing. I wish those rightwing women out there who are looking at her as some kind of a "great" role model would realize that Sarah is anything but a "great" role model. -- Ohio Granny
Audrey, thank you for once again answering the escalating argument with your calm and thoughtful take on things. You have eloquently arrived at the heart of the matter. Last night I too was thinking over all the circumstantial evidence and kept spinning around that core issue. Even if you leave everything else aside, why answer a rumor with such a giant and unnecessary tabloidy shocker? Bristol has been kept out of the spotlight for the past month. She could have gone on preparing for her baby in private. I keep returning to that charged moment at the end of August when the roar of the rumors had gotten too loud not to answer. We have to imagine that Sarah Palin had given birth to Trig in April. She'd been tapped for VP and finally had to answer the rumors about his birth. There shouldn't have been any panic or desperation about it -- oh God, what do we do? How do we answer this? We'll have to reveal Bristol's secret-- because all she had to do was prove something that was undeniably true and very easy to prove and had absolutely nothing at all to do with Bristol. Are you or are you not the mother of Trig? I am and here is proof. Why why why why prove it by bringing up anything about Bristol at all. I can't get around that. I can't get past it.
Lower 48
Today is Bristol Palin's 18th birthday (http://courtrecords.alaska.gov/pa/ep.urd/pamw2000.o_party_sum?44738506|1).
So where is the big party for the 18th birthday of a vice-presidential candidate's daughter?
Where is Sarah bringing Bristol onstage at a rally and asking every person to sing happy birthday to her?
Where is Bristol? Where is Bristol?
She isn't a great role model either way - if she did give birth to Trig the risk she took don't make sense.
I don't like the National Inquirer - but on this issue I hope they can come up with enough money or whatever it takes to get at least one person come through with some proof.
My heart is with Bristol and Levi. But Palin needs to be stop once and for all - and she is the one that made this an issue by not revealing the truth.
I've come here for a couple of weeks... never posted. Read mostly out of curiosity. Not a McCain supporter but thought the baby rumors were crazy. I don't anymore. This last post from Audrey has convinced me. It's like the other commenter said "the core issue".
Why dump on your girl when there had to be other ways?
How could there NOT be other ways?
How is it possible that the only way you can prove you had a baby is to reveal this about your OWN DAUGHTER?
There is possibility 3:
A. Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig in April.
B. Bristol Palin is currently pregnant and due in December.
Forget that you've read info from people on this blog who have written about PERSONAL experiences and exposure to this situation. Forget that they have been driven away from what should be a civil and productive debate by being attacked with ad hominem missives. Forget that you heard from someone who tried to get a photo to the National Enquirer of Bristol and the Enquirer replied that they were NOT working on the story because the FACTS point to SARAH being the mother. Forget that you don't have all the FACTS - only what you have gleaned off the internet. Forget that the Palins did what any other family would do in a similar situation by 'fronting' Bristol's pregnancy - consider the alternative - 'let's just hope no one notices'?!!??? Forget anything that anyone writes that doesn't fit your warped version of what you 'think' happened- you're having far too much fun playing cyber-lynch mob.
What will you do after the GOP loses this election?
Where did someone state that they tried to get a photo of Bristol to the Enquirer? If I missed something, please show me where this is stated.
My understanding is that one of our regular posters contacted the Enquirer and was told that - at this point in time - they believe the facts point to Sarah being the mother. I was told by the Enquirer on more than one occasion 2-3 weeks ago (and I have not talked to them since) that they were "working the story" and could not prove it either way specifically because they could get no concrete "fix" on where Bristol Palin actually was during the months in question. A direct quote from one of the emails I exchanged: "No one is talking."
They have never published anything decisive on it. I cannot believe that given the opportunity to pick up a documented photo of Bristol Palin - not pregnant between, say, March 1, 2008 and April 17, 2008, they would not take it. If they won't, I certainly will. I will pay for it and I will publish it. If someone has such a photo, why in the world hasn't it been made available before now?
Furthermore, your inane comment misses the entire point of my post. No one forced the McCain campaign to make a statement last September 1, 2008. They had every opportunity to simply ignore the rumors, as they have ignored the allegations regarding Sarah Palin's affair and Track Palin's drug use.
But they didn't. They chose to make a response. And my statement is simple. Why reveal something (that you then refuse to verify) about your 17 year old daughter in such a - to borrow the phrase of one poster - "tabloidy" way if you have someone credible to stand up and make a simple, unequivocal, unimpeachable statement of proof.
Cathy Baldwin-Johnson has categorically refused to comment on this birth. Her few ambiguous statements made last April don't count. She has been listed as refusing to talk to People, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. No one is asking for private details of the birth. No one is asking for explicit videos. No one needs to know whether Gov. Palin had an episiotomy or not.
Many on the "other side" of the issue have alleged that Palin's mad rush to return to Alaska was motivated in large part by her desire to have her "good friend" Baldwin-Johnson deliver her baby. So why the HELL won't her good friend stand up in front of a camera and say that Sarah Palin is Trig Palin's mother?
And for those who say, piously, "Well, she shouldn't have to," I return to the original premise. It was the McCain campaign who made the decision that something had to be said. And Baldwin-Johnson should have been the one to speak directly to Sarah Palin's status as Trig Palin's mother. She was the logical choice.
Bristol should have had nothing to do with it. Certainly, her pregnancy (if real) would probably have come out quietly during the campaign... news reports claim it was "common knowledge." But it could have been handled discretely and sensitively, and as the "family matter" it is. It should not have been - and simply cannot be - the ONLY available proof that Sarah Palin gave birth in April. Period.
I stand by my statement. You're not going to use something like that if you have any other option. And if you have no other option, it's valid for all of us to wonder why.
Yay Audrey! You make so much sense.
Look under the post you wrote about the National Enquirer for the response from IMA S who included an email reply from the Managzine a few days ago.
You should probably write back to the National Enquirer for an update. At the very least, you can re-susbscribe.
Perhaps some of the doctors on this blog can comment better, but the thing that I keep turning over in my mind that makes no sense is that in addition to having gone MIA, Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson no longer has hospital privileges at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.
This just makes no sense to me. No one other than Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson (who is not an oby-gyn) could deliver this high-risk baby, and the baby, for some reason, had to be be delivered nowhere else but this small community hospital without a neonatal ICU. And now Dr. Baldwin-Johnson has either resigned voluntarily from the staff, or has been kicked off staff. All of the other doctors at the medical group that Dr.
Baldwin-Johnson founded still have privileges at Mat-Su. But Dr. Baldwin-Johnson conspicuously does not.
Can any of the doctors out there think of any reasonable explanation why suddenly Dr. Baldwin-Johnson no longer has hospital privileges at Mat-Su? She doesn't seem to have retired from the practice of medicine.
I watched the last days of August with much interest at Obama announced his running mate and a few days later, McCain chose Palin.
Rumors started to fly about Trig and who was his actual mother. Then Bristol's pregnancy was announced "proving" that Trig was Sarah's.
I was horrified that a mother would put her own daughter's private business into the public fray for speculation and ridicule. What kind of a mother was she?
Days later, Sarah trooed all her children onto the RNC national stage for the public to see. What other children of any other pres or vp candidate was on stage with their parent?
Again, I was horrified at Sarah using her children as pawns and stepping stones for her ambition.
I believe that Sarah is capable of lying to the public about the birth of Trig. She is the type of person who would do ~anything~ for power and ambition.... even lie about her daughter's pregnancy and pretend that she delivered Trig (to save face as the "abstinence" governor, I doubt she did it for Bristol).
I also suspect that Karl Rove and his minions do not know the truth and the real truth will come out after McCain loses the election and Palin goes back to Alaska.
Her lies will bring her down.
Audrey, I agree with everything you've said. I think we have to be thankful that Sarah Palin is such a drama queen, that she just doesn't get the real issue. She could have even ignored the rumors about Trig, and it would have been better than throwing her 17 year old out there for close scrutiny. I feel for Bristol. She's got a whacked out mother.
I just pray that Sarah does not even get close to the office of VP, let alone get the chance to be President. The thought just boggles my mind, but then, even if the truth of Trig's birth never comes to light, there are so many other things about Sarah that she just can't hide. And those things will kill her in the polls.
Here is a great link to all the missing information:
Consider This
Bristol is seen on the TMZ video of Palin arriving in NYC today.
I just realized that Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson no longer having hospital privileges at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center (wonder if she still has privileges anywhere?) fits in perfectly with Bristol's upcoming home birth. Dr. Baldwin-Johnson can't deliver her patient at the hospital because she no longer has hospital privileges for some reason. Perfect cover for more lies. Who knows if Bristol is even pregnant.
According to the New York Times on Friday:
"After her rally in Lancaster, Ms. Palin flew to New York, where she is scheduled to appear on “Saturday Night Live.” She was accompaniedby her daughter, Bristol, who celebrated her 18th birthday on Saturday, and Ms. Palin’s infant son, Trig."
Pictures to surface? Apparently, Bristol has been released from purdah.
Caveat--I am no lawyer. In some quick research, I found the following:
According to the Electric Frontier Foundation's discussion of the Online Defamation Law, defamation (a potentially libelous statement, in this case) can be defined as
"A statement of verifiable fact (which is) a statement that conveys a provably false factual assertion."
Furthermore,
"A public figure must show "actual malice" — that you published with either knowledge of falsity or in reckless disregard for the truth. This is a difficult standard for a plaintiff to meet."
I think it's obvious that Audrey has gone to great length in her postings to stay as fact-based as possible.
Also keep in mind that, according to discussion of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, found at www.avivadirectory.com/blogger-law,
bloggers who allow user comments are protected
"...from things like having to monitor for defamation, slander or hurtful talk...(though) not...for federal crimes or intellectual property violations."
However, given my admittedly paltry knowledge of the current laws, I'll await with bated breath examples of where you think this site has violated any of them. Or possibly you could just go away now.
MC
Another Bristol siting in Muncie, Indiana last Friday.
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20081018/NEWS01/810180341/1002
"About 4:30 p.m., an aide carrying Trig in his car seat emerged from the terminal, followed by 17-year-old Bristol Palin, who is set to give birth to the Alaska governor's first grandchild early next year. Bristol, holding her infant brother's bottle, joined him in the SUV to wait for their mother."
@ anonymous who said "Pictures to surface? Apparently, Bristol has been released from purdah."
Look here http://www.tmz.com/2008/10/18/palins-looks-heat-up-nyc/ for some video. There are some quick images of Bristol getting out of the SUV wearing a sweatshirt...Not sure...but she doesn't look 7 mos pregnant. Not like the short blonde who does the news who is pregnant...(I don't know how far along she is, but she is huge and very round)
Yet another Bristol siting in Indiania:
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20081018/NEWS01/810180343/1002
"There was a flurry of activity and a distinct order of deplaning was evident: first came even more Secret Service agents (for a presence of about 20 total), then the photographers and videographers with the traveling press (a somewhat scraggly bunch wearing comfortable clothes and shoes and looking travel weary) lugging equipment and boom mics scrambled to get in place under the wing. The reporters followed with laptops open, ready to transmit. Various campaign aides came next, followed by Bristol Palin with baby bottle in hand. Then Palin herself descended the steps with a car seat holding Trig, who has to be one of the calmest and happiest babies ever. A gaggle of young female aides/nannies followed with all of the accouterments of a traveling mother/candidate and baby.
Palin waved and thanked the tiny crowd and the local press and disappeared into the terminal for a couple of interviews with Indianapolis media. The encounter lasted about two minutes."
There is a picture at the link of Sarah deplaning carrying Trig in a carrier, one hand on the carrier, the other hand waving gaily. I'm sorry but she reminds me of Paris Hilton carrying around her chihuahua -- baby as prop. It just doesn't seem responsible to me to drag around an infant like that.
Well, you guys are also discounting the possibility that they WANT these sorts of stories out there, regardless of the facts of the case.
This could be bait, a la George W. Bush's TANG/Dan Rather fiasco.
Don't take the bait, in that case. Leave this alone.
If it's real, it will come out eventually.
If it's not, we don't want to find out until after the election, and then, who besides Alaskans should give a shit?
This is my opinion and personally I think there is something fishy about it and have from Day 1. But, keep the eyes on the prize.
This isn't needed news so while I love my schadenfreude, I prefer to win elections.
Monkey
Well, Monkey, maybe they do want these stories out there to push the anti Roe vs Wade agenda. See, Sarah Palin's daughter chose to keep her baby and marry the father.
Now everyone is counting down the months and days until she delivers.
I'm hoping McCain/Palin loses, but even so, Bristol's next baby will make headline news. I feel so sorry for that poor girl.
Perhaps Monkey is right, keep your eyes on the big picture.
It's just that Sarah has no respect for the right to privacy and wants to peer into our wombs and make sure that if we are raped, we have to bear the rapist's baby. It's that utter disrespect for my womb, my right to privacy and my dignity that has made me a little curious as to what's been going on in that womb of hers and the womb of her teenage daughter.
Look, the woman got to go on SNL and rub shoulders with Alec Baldwin. For a vain, hypocritical power-mongerer, isn't that reason enough to throw your daughter the bus.
Apparently, the problem with us liberal parents is that we don't know how to prioritize.
And Todd, please stop coming on here and disagreeing with Audrey. Really, it's embarrassing.
Monkey,
I have suspected for weeks that the McCain campaign knows the truth about Trig's birth (whatever it is), knows the truth about Bristol's stage of pregnancy (whatever it is), doesn't care about Troopergate, or the real role of Todd "First Dude" or whatever.
Why?
McCain is not stupid. Like him or not, he's been around a long time and you cannot convince me that he believes on any level that Sarah Palin is qualified, capable, or competent to be President of the United States. He chose her for one reason: because the powers behind the RNC convinced him that without that conservative Christian base being energized, without James Dobson and Rush Limbaugh et al., he could not win. And certainly for a time, their call appeared to be correct.
I suspect he perhaps did not know about babygate prior to his selection of her. There appears to have been a lot of simmering doubts about the story in Alaska, but very little had appeared in print. The Anchorage Daily News has stated that they had been contacted about the story repeatedly for months... but, before August 30th, they'd never once mentioned it in print. A superficial "vetting" may well not have revealed it.
Once it came out, McCain had a choice: replace her now (just when she's giving him a huge boost in the polls) and look like a moron, or try to tough it out, let her help him to the election and then, who cares? Faked a pregnancy? Lied about Troopergate? Just reasons to dump her.
Of course, now it seems as if it may not matter as Obama appears to have a significant lead. But I think that as of 9/2 McCain's sole concern was that Palin help him to get elected, and after that, she could just go hunt caribou again. Or maybe it's moose.
If you read the ADN reporter blogs carefully, you will note that they were approached with the Bristol is pregnant rumor, not the Trig is Bristol's rumor.
It's reporters are professionals who abide by high journalistic standards. As such, they do not report rumors. OR Gossip. Which is what all this amounts to. Gossip.
ADN is a somewhat 'liberal' newspaper owned by the McClatchy company. Reporters have won Pulitizer's for investigative journalism.
Gossip is fun, right girls and guys?
Sorry, but here is the exact quote from the ADN website:
"OK - the Palin baby speculation is inescapable at this point. The left-leaning Daily Kos posted an item Friday called "Palin's faked "pregnancy"? Covering for teen daughter?"
It's a version of a rumor - long simmering in Alaska -- that Palin's daughter Bristol was pregnant and the governor somehow covered it up by pretending to have the baby (Trig) herself.
So, time for some rumor patrol. It'd be nice to put this to bed.
The answer here should be pretty simple. It happened or it didn't. For months, we have been getting anonymous people telling us they "know" it's true, or people we do know telling us they've heard it fifth-hand."
I think that's pretty clear. The rumor was both that Bristol was pregnant and that Sarah covered it up for her by pretending to give birth to Trig. And at least this reporter appears to be confirming that they'd been approached about the rumor "for months" by multiple people. (This was published on 8/29.)
This is direct quote from ADN. I don't see how my repeating it constitutes gossip.
I'd like to point out the diabolic nature of the Bristol-is-5-months-pregnant-now non-denial denial put out by the McCain campaign to counter the initial rumors. Having followed the entire explosion that Labor Day weekend, I can savely say that NONE of those of us posting, analyzing and discussing the assertion that Sarah Palin faked her pregnancy even speculated that Bristol was pregnant NOW!
Who could have suspected that (?), particularly since Bristol was the obvious mother of Trig's if not Sarah Palin. But we must conclude that the McCain campaign knows the whole truth -- while we do not -- and chose to attack the TRUE "rumors" at their weakest point. This is SOP for any criminal defense or other legal matter, and then the defense does everything possible to prevent leakage of any information that would validate the assetions despite the counterattack on what the investigators got wrong.
Take, for example, O.J. Simpson and the bloody glove. For all we know, Simpson knew in advance that those gloves did not fit him when he went to Nicole Brown's home intending to kill her. He would leave that piece of evidence behind to deflect guilt to someone else, and when asked to try them on, they wouldn't fit. And if "it doesn't fit you must acquit."
So, suppose, that we are right and Sarah Palin is not Trig's mother. And the McCain campaign knows this AND knews that Bristol is not the mother, but is pregnant now. Which piece of information do you reveal?
Note that there has never been a formal denial of the rumor. Keep digging, Audrey
Dangerous
After you're done with the Palins, can you please get to the bottom of that Easter Bunny stuff.
Thanks!
If the Palins want everyone to think that Sarah is Trig's mom, why do they have Bristol carrying Trig around all the time, being photographed with the look of a mother's love on her face? They should show Todd carrying Trig around. Maybe it's on purpose. Maybe they know that someday we will learn the Bristol's the mom, and the photos are to subtly plant the idea subconsciously in our minds.
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