Monday, October 6, 2008

A Sneakin' Suspicion

I've received numerous queries, both in comments here on the blog and in email all asking the same thing: Why is the main stream media ignoring this? Why don't they see this?

I think I may have an answer.

Well over a week ago, I was having my daily bout of self-doubt. How could I be the only one that sees this? Where is everyone else? Why isn't anyone else just a little bit curious? Am I the crazy one? Am I WRONG?

Oh, sure, it was clear from my website and blog from the beginning that there were a few kindred souls out there, but I felt in my heart that it was crazy that there wasn't more interest. I mean, there are plenty of people in the Obama campaign who are, I'm sure, FAR more intelligent than I am. They knew that while the "Bristol Baby Bump" photos were discredited, there still remained a lot of very valid questions and concerns. Where WERE all those people? It just could not be plausible that I was the only one who saw all of this.

And then it occurred to me. Those people WERE out there. They'd seen the same things I'd seen, asked the same questions that I did. In addition, they had more time, money, and resources than I do. Plus, they had a huge amount of motivation to get at the truth. These people aren't idiots. They saw the same problems with the "Bristol is now five months pregnant" announcement as I did. The realized that the McCain campaign did not release ONE single actual piece of information about this questioned birth.

I began in that moment to suspect that it was not that all these people doubted that it was true, and were ignoring the story out of blindness or stupidity. I realized that it was possible - even likely - that they know it IS true. And they all had reasons for simply sitting on the story. Of course, at that point for me this was just a guess, a deduction based on facts that I couldn't make "work" any other way.

However, over this last weekend, I received what I consider a very credible tip stating exactly what I had already suspected: the Obama campaign is well aware of the truth. And they have made a deliberate decision not to go public with it.

Why? Because the polling numbers for Obama go up by the day. The McCain campaign has had to concede states (like Michigan) that were once considered battlegrounds and they are having to put additional effort into states that a month ago were squarely in the GOP column. Palin is hurting him more than helping him. He knows it, she knows it, I know it. I think my dog probably knows it. But most importantly, the Obama campaign knows it. Right now, Palin is Obama's best friend. And as much as a lot of us are incredibly disgusted by the lies and the deception and want the truth to come out, the Obama campaign is feeling that the last thing they want to do is upset the apple cart when they don't need to. McCain is losing right now, and the other side is not going to do a thing to change that direction.

And when it comes down to it, you can't really blame the Obama campaign. It's just remotely possible that a different running mate might give him another shot. And obviously that's the last thing they want.

So where does that leave the main stream media? Ironically, in the same boat. If you lean towards McCain / Palin, you're hardly going to follow up on the story. (Witness Fox's sitting on the additional Elan footage.) If you lean towards Obama / Biden, you've figured out where the Obama campaign stands on this - and you're respecting the position.

I'm not suggesting that every mail room kid at CNN knows the truth, or everyone that's sweeping the floor at an Obama campaign post is keeping this secret. That would be a huge coverup involving thousands of people. But I think it's highly likely that at every major network, and in fact in both campaigns, our "big news" is not news at all.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Audrey,

Firstly, what a great blog you have! And your other website, too, is a wonderfully clear presentation of the available evidence of Ms. Palin's deceptions and fakery.

As an Australian living in Australia I would not normally be spending much time reading a blog about, until now, an obscure Alaskan governor. But the bare fact is: the world is watching this election intently. US elections are never just US elections.

Mudflats blog is another regular read of mine now, too.

On the topic of Elan Frank: I could not help but think that Mr. Frank had found his film footage did indeed contain some damning evidence and so chose to sell it to the highest bidder. No doubt he made a nice deal and is doing very well for himself.

But Fox's Mr. Murdoch -- a former Australian I'm ashamed to say -- has also done very well even if he sits on this footage. For two reasons: being a big Republican backer he has saved his party further embarrassment on the issue by not letting go public during the election.

Then, and this is insidious, the Republicans will know he has potentially damaging images -- he'll make sure they know! -- and so if McCain & Palin do happen to win, Murdoch will have an upper hand and they better not be 'mavericks' in any future dealings with him!

Palin's deceptions really make her vulnerable to blackmail. Unfortunately her narcissistic personality means she will deal with her deceptions by resorting to even more lies thus making herself even more vulnerable.

I expect you will have quite a voluminous blog by Nov. 4th!

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

The idea of Rupert Murdoch with more power? Reason one-billion-six-hundred and thirty three NOT to vote for McCain/Palin.

Audrey, what you say is sound logic. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? I mean, Palin is proof of two things: McCain is completely senile and God does indeed love liberals. If He didn't, would he have give us the gift of Sarah Palin? I don't think so.

Anonymous said...

If you aren't already, you should get in contact with cajunboyinthecity's blog.

His 9/25 entry says that he had gotten information from what he considered to be a credible source that something big was about to break on the Palin baby issue. That was a while ago, though.

Gryphen said...

And it is BECAUSE the Obama campaign can't touch this story, and the MSM won't, that your blog and mine are so important.

While I think that the "Troopergate" story is going to drag the McCain/Palin numbers down, and will probably insure an Obama electoral victory, that is not a guarantee that they will not somehow steal the election. Such things have happened in our recent past.

In order to make sure of victory it is important to completely discredit either John McCain, or Sarah Palin, or both.

And in order to accomplish that goal nobody needs to make up ANYTHING. We just have to uncover the truth. That is what I, and my fellow Alaskan bloggers, have demanded concerning the "Troopergate" investigation, and I do not see why we should not demand it concerning this story.

I would never have done anything to embarrass Bristol Palin. But once Sarah threw her under the bus to cover her duplicity, it became obvious that WE could not reveal anything that would cause her any more harm then what her mother had already done to her.

So no you are not alone in your desire to learn the truth. And if any of us manage to do that, we will have helped keep a very bad person out of the Vice Presidency and possible insured a far better future for a seventeen year old girl living in Wasilla, Alaska.

She will not be forced to marry a boy who clearly does not love her, or to lie about her new baby. She can proudly walk around her town without having to hand her child off to her mother whenever a reporter or snoopy neighbor walked by.

Don't give up, it may not seem so, but I believe you are on the side of the angels.

Anonymous said...

I have been a journalist for mainstream media organizations for many years. The reason they don't pick up on this is most emphatically not because they all "know" it is true and think that leaving it alone can only help Obama. Like other people, they've heard the rumor, and that's all they know. Few political reporters covering the campaign are investigatively-oriented and anyway, the story would have to be investigated in Alaska. The reporters sent by the NYT and Wash Post who came back with crap stories were lazy and sloppy and were not assigned (or inclined to) actually probe into whether or not the pregnancy was real. One reason for that is that most news organizations are managed by males who wouldn't dream of assigning an investigative story that was about questioning a woman's pregnancy! It's a bit the way it was in the 60s, when male politicians' affairs were never mentioned. Add to this, male journalists' lack of interest in pregnancy, and even their masculinist aversion to the subject. One exception is Andrew Sullivan, of course, former editor of The New Republic, who has continued to raise questions about Palin's pregnancy on his blog at the Atlantic magazine web site. This was recently written up by Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post.

Anonymous said...

Most of all, I care about who the next President and Vice-President of the United States of America will be.
However, secondarily, because I believe the sanctity of life and the beauty of birth should NEVER be used in this way, especially by someone who preaches PRO-LIFE, the truth must come out even if she goes back to Alaska as a loser.By the way, take down the "doctor" at the same time.
Poor Bristol, can you imagine being her and having this woman and dude as parents? God bless her!

Anonymous said...

p.s. I think if the story is true, the National Enquirer will nail it down at some point, unless they are in the tank for McCain!!

Because even though Palin is hurting McCain, she's also helping him. And the news that she'd faked a pregnancy would completely blow his campaign to smithereens and make them both a laughing stock and punchine for generations. It would remove any doubt from the gathering consensus that McCain's impulsive, addled, cranky, negligent, and reckless.

Anonymous said...

Your website and blog are amazing. I wish to thank you for them. I think the story is slowly breaking into the mainstream media; I just googled it and there are new posts on the Atlantic Monthly site, not just by Sullivan.
Kudos to all the wonderful bloggers! I had never read ANY blog until this election! Also, I submitted a question to the American Assoc. of Family Physicians about their former honoree of the year, K. Baldwin-Johnson, and am waiting for their reply to her own public comments about its being okay to travel while in labor..... maybe more of us should check out that site's archive commending this physician and take her to task.
I do hope that the truth will come out and that people forced to live with this deception will be liberated.

Anonymous said...

A picture tells a thousand words. I have compared pictures of Nicole Kidman at 7 months and Sarah Palin allegedly at 8 months. (Nicole Kidman is the one that everyone holds up to say that Sarah Palin really could have been pregnant in April 2008 - it's just that slender athletic woman don't show). Well, let me tell you, in the pictures that I have seen, Nicole Kidman, though slim of ankle and slim of face, definitely looks pregnant with the telltale basketball bump. Sarah Palin is no Nicole Kidman, and never looked truly pregnant in any shape or form.

Like Sarah Palin, I have a journalism degree, and when I was in school, I took a number of courses in investigative journalism. My professor always used to shout, "follow the money."

Here, I shout, "follow the doctor." I want to know exactly why Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson no longer has hospital privileges at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

Anonymous said...

Sarah Palin is quite short, too, only about 5'4 or 5'2, so unlike Nicole Kidman, there's nowhere in her torso for a 6lb baby to hide.

Audrey, I think your website might lose some readers because the organization is a little confusing. People won't know to click on the blog for the best and most recent discussion!

And under updates it appears that you haven't updated since Sept 30, though of course you have.

Also, a correction is needed: you refer to a very short video of Palin pregnant with Track. I've never seen that. Your reference to it is next to an old family photo of her pregnant, presumably with Track, her firstborn.

Thanks again for your great site.

Anonymous said...

I think it's so important to continue to ask for Palins medical records. If you google "Palins medical records" I see where the McCain camp continues to say that they won't be released until after the election. The American people have a RIGHT to know WHO their elected officials are BEFORE the election. We are simply asking to have access to her medical records. Have an independent group look at them and report to the press. Simple. Obviously they are hiding something. This has been standard procedure and they treat us like we are asking for the moon. WE THE PEOPLE are in command here and McCain/Palin are "servants of the people". Please keep asking.

Anonymous said...

I notice in the live feed that folks from Wasilla are checking out the blog, how about some feedback on this. Help your country out.

Anonymous said...

Kindred spirits are here! We are spreading the word too - your blog and a couple others are daily reads of mine.

I think your theory may be right - by not participating in mudsling and "tipping the apple cart" Obama benefits much more by letting Sarah be Sarah.

But - no matter how this election goes - we have to keep digging for the truth and get it out there - waiting till after the election if that is what Obama wants then I feel confident the experts know best how to handle these things.

Palin isn't going away - she will rear her head again come 2012 - bottomline she is power hungry and blind to her own hubris and believes her own lies.

Just in case Obama's folks don't know the truth - we need to keep digging.

Anonymous said...

P.S. If you want to get more traffic to the blog I'd be happy to offer some suggestions, and perhaps a bit of tweaking to the blog layout as suggested by one of the commentors above.

Anonymous said...

With just 4 weeks until the election, I think that the Obama camp realizes that there is no way they can push the baby story and come out ahead, no matter what the truth is.

The Mainstream Media is afraid they'll be sunk (like Dan Rather) if it can be proved that the baby really is Sarah's.

That leaves the little guys like Audrey and us and the people of Wasilla to keep the issue alive and come up with the truth.

Come on, Wasillians, someone of you must know for certain if Trig is Sarah's son. Help us find the truth.

Anonymous said...

yes the BHO campaign should steer clear.

No upside for them (already winning, great momentum), but HUGE downside if they are tainted with a false allegation like this.

I for one believe it since it's too fishy for me.

Anonymous said...

Where is this Dr. Kathy Baldwin-Johnson? As a professional, why is she hiding out? Does she owe Sarah Palin that much for her award from the American Academy of Family Physicians? Did she not earn it?

Their web site says the award winners must be "credible role models" and "must be in good standing in their medical communities". Okay, she must have been THEN, but is she NOW? What I found most interesting were the quotes by Baldwin-Johnson herself when speaking about victims of abuse, "Oftentimes they are reluctant to tell at first." "We talk about secrets and the different kinds of secrets there are. But if somebody is doing something hurtful to someone and it makes them feel bad it is not a good secret."

Dr. Johnson, don't be reluctant to tell, this is a BAD secret.

You say that most parents want to be good parents, "they just don't have good role models." Are you being a good role model? Are you doing what is in the best interests of young Bristol, not to mention the United States of America? There are many forms of abuse, including abuse of power.

Anonymous said...

I also think the Obama campaign is keeping quiet on this story. They will use it later this month is necessary.

The Republicans are known for the "October" surprise. When it's played, the Obama camp can come out with this story.

I think when this story breaks and it is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trig is not Sarah's baby, it will be the end of her political career.

~~Emma

PalinBaby Question said...

Here's another site that is trying to collect and publish information on the (still open) question of who are the parents of Trig Palin:
www.geocities.com/palinbabyquestion

or if you have to "copy and paste:"
www.geocities.com/palinbabyquestion

Anonymous said...

Apparently there are still some media outlets hot on the story. I turned on Sean Hannity yesterday to see what he was spewing in advance of last night's debate, and a woman from Wasilla was calling in to say that she'd be glad the election was over so the media would leave.

Hannity was saying it was so sad that they were down there obviously trying to dig up dirt on "poor Sarah," and the woman remarked that what upset her was that the reporters were all over the hospital trying to get employees to talk?

"What part of HIPPA don't they understand," the Wasilla caller moaned.

So someone is apparently on the story. I don't know who these media outlets are, or whether they are even national. But you can be sure if there are any reporters other than citizen reporters like Audrey making it known that this is still under investigation, then Palin's people will make sure nothing gets out.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall and hear what's being said to keep them from talking. That within itself would be a major story.

Anonymous said...

And Emma, I agree. This story would only come out via the Obama camp as an October surprise, only if needed, and only if they had Palin dead to rights on this story.

But as Audrey asserts - and I still agree with her - they likely do know this is true and may even have some kind of goods on her.

Someone here claming a long-standing media association commented that the media only has rumors. As another person who worked for years as a reporter at a NYT paper, I can tell you that sometimes the media is the last to know.

If you had some information in a political campaign, you wouldn't feed it to the paper. You'd probably feed it to the political opponent's camp and then let them put it out there. That way you could remain anonymous and suffer no backlash but the result would be the same.

That's something that most journalists already know.

Anonymous said...

Can someone tell me why, if a child has been out of school for 4-5 months with mono, she would be allowed to hold and be close to her newborn baby brother? My son had mono while in high school and was sick for maybe two weeks and very contagious. He most certainly did not miss 4-5 months of school. A friend of mine had severe mono several years ago, was hospitalized for it, and still was only out of school for two weeks. Just another observation that doesn't quite fit in this story.
Or are most of the doctors in Alaska inept and give bad advice?
I think if the Obama camp came out with this now, it would create problems for them. Don't try to fix what isn't broken.
However, I do believe that this has to be settled one way or the other after the election. Because, apparently if McCain loses, the Republican party has plans to set up Palin for a run at the presidency in 2012. God forbid. She has already set back women's causes decades.
And I really feel bad for the poor children involved. I don't think any of them deserve all this scrutiny and it is appalling that Palin would bring them into it like she has.

Anonymous said...

The comment from the poster above that a Wasilla resident telephoned Sean Hannity and said reporters were all over the hospital trying to get employees to talk and the caller moaned, "What part of HIPPA don't they understand?" makes me believe more than ever that a cover-up is going on.

If Sarah Palin really gave birth to Trig, why would they have to play the HIPPA card and threaten employees? If Sarah Palin really gave birth to Trig, wouldn't she want to stop all these rumors? In fact, have the nurse who was in the delivery room give a statement about how she personally handed Trig to the new mother who just gave birth (Sarah).

HIPPA is a good law, but was not meant to be used by lying politicians to protect their lies to the public. This isn't personal, any more than John Edward's affair was personal - both are political and show something about the candidate's character and arrogance.

Let's keep on this story, the best we can, as citizen journalists. The days of Watergate are long gone and our mainstream press has become too cowed to do their jobs. The only newspaper that may possibly break this is the National Enquirer. As a professional with a graduate degree, I used to snicker at the National Enquirer. But I give my word if they break this story, I will buy a lifetime subscription.

Anonymous said...

I live in Wasilla - I don't know any of the Palins or their associates. But - one thing I do know is - if the GOVERNOR'S baby was born at Mat-Su Regional there would be a poster or something in the lobby that says something like "Governor's baby born here." There isn't. That would have been big news there and they would have been bragging about it. And any attendants that were there would have been (very willingly) interviewed by the local papers and most likely had their pictures taken. This would have been huge happy news. The administration of the hospital must know something about this but are covering it up for some unknown (to me)reason. I don't understand how something like this could have been hidden. But, then, I don't know the deep politics surrounding this situation. I am just waiting for the day it all comes to light.

Anonymous said...

Someone who knows how should look into Palin's cell phone records from the infamous day in Texas. I'd bet that she did not send any outgoing phone call at 4:00 in the morning to her doctor, and I would also bet that she received, at some point, an incoming call from Alaska which set this whole thing in motion. Something like, "Bristol's in labor, get back soon!"

Medical records will be impossible to obtain legally, but phone records, maybe not? I haven't heard of anyone looking into this, and it may provide a clearer picture of the events of the morning.

Anonymous said...

Folks, I went back over Audrey's entire Blog and website, and it sparked a few thoughts, recently posted as a comment to Audrey's blog section, "a smoking gun." I will just repeat here, since there is more traffic, that privacy laws can't possibly cover *falsified* documents!!! We are not talking your average patient record here--we are talking a criminally produced fake. Another thought--when viewing Sarah's parents in the eerily empty room at the hospital with Trig, I thought, was Sarah actually still on the plane when this lovely baby was born? The chronology is weird. Did they create a fake hospital room somewhere? Did Sarah fudge a lot of the time line by relying on time zone changes? It always puzzled me that she was in no hurry to get to the hospital, yet she was induced. She was probably still connecting in Seattle when Trig was born!
Remember: it is not a crime to expose these deceptions!! Lastly, would Trig not have been transferred to a better hospital? I can't believe, what with HER risk factors and his, that he would be treated as any other newborn. Wouldn't he have had immediate medical attention, from expert doctors?

Anonymous said...

In response to the last post, it is my understanding that Down's babies have a higher than normal rate of heart defects, but that does not mean that all Down's babies are born with heart defects that need immediate care. Perhaps someone more expert than me can address the question, but I don't think being born a Down's baby necessarily means a baby needs immediate emergency care. I think it is more likely that they will have problems later in life and not hit their development milestones.

Plus, I am still not convinced this isn't fetal alcohol syndrome.

Anonymous said...

mary g
Near as I can tell the photos taken in the hospital room are in Mat Su. I say this because when looking at photos taken for other babies on their web site....the curtains are the same curtains as the palin baby photos. There are only a few examples of those curtains and they are distinctive.
Also the only question that needs to be asked is ..."Did Sarah Palin give birth to Trig Palin". If Sarah is not the patient, then HIPAA does not apply. Correct me if I am wrong, but that is my understanding.

Anonymous said...

To the last poster, I only looked at a few baby pictures from the Mat-Su website. Can you give dates where the windows show? If the windows are the same, then that seals it that the pictures we have seen of Levi's sister holding Trig were taken in the hospital and no way (in the picture where the sister is holding Trig and Sarah Palin is leaning in) does Sarah look like she just gave birth. I wasn't sure if the pictures were taken in the hospital.

I hope this fraudulent scandal is exposed soon.

Anonymous said...

To the last poster, I only looked at a few baby pictures from the Mat-Su website. Can you give dates where the windows show? If the windows are the same, then that seals it that the pictures we have seen of Levi's sister holding Trig were taken in the hospital and no way (in the picture where the sister is holding Trig and Sarah Palin is leaning in) does Sarah look like she just gave birth. I wasn't sure if the pictures were taken in the hospital.

I hope this fraudulent scandal is exposed soon.

Anonymous said...

There is a picture of Sarah & Todd holding Trig in the hospital. They are both standing. Don't they usually put new mothers in wheelchairs?

Anonymous said...

You know, it is AMAZING how many people (smart people) will take the information they are given totally on face value. I mentioned my doubts about Sarah being Trig's Mom to a man I know who is a PhD in physics. He said, "But Bristol is 5 months pregnant, so he couldn't be hers!" I said, "you are a scientist and you believe what someone tells you, just because they say so?" Not to mention, it was the McCain campaign who said so!