Another Media Frenzy

Some headlines from around the country about "the Palin pregnancy."

"In Political Realm, 'Family Problem' Emerges as Test" New York Times

"McCain fought money on teen pregnancy programs" Associated Press

"Palin: Just how well was she vetted?" MSNBC

"Gov. Palin and her daughter, Bristol" Albany Times Union, NY

"Republicans rally around their VP candidate" Staten Island Advance, NY

"Everybody has an opinion on Bristol pregnancy" San Francisco Chronicle

"We're Sorry, but Palin Baby Daddy Levi Johnston is Sex on Skates" New York Magazine

Okay, after that last one, I think I've seen enough. Those headlines don't come from viscious bloggers with no sense of responsibility. No, they come from some of the most respected news organizations around the country.

We don't have anything more important to cover in this campaign than the out of wedlock pregnancy of a seventeen year old girl? We have to slander someone who may or may not be the father to sell magazines? Somehow I thought there was a difference between New York Magazine and the Star tabliod sold at my supermarket.

I guess not, eh?

I'm no fan of Sarah Palin. There are a lot of things she stands for that I am in strong disagreement with. But do we need to drag her daughter through the mud because John McCain showed the bad judgment to select her as his running mate? And do we need to gratuitously drag the name of the putative father through the mud too? I think we can, and should, do better than making this campaign about the sex lives of teenagers.

The only issue that the Sarah Palin candidacy should bring up is the one about how a President McCain makes decisions. Personally, I see an impetuousness that is unsettling. Is that how a McCain presidency would be: dithering till the last moment then choosing the spectacular but ill-conceived option?

McCain wanted Lieberman or Ridge. But the Conservative christians of the Republican Religious Right would have neither and threatened to turn the normally staid Republican Convention into something that resembled the 1968 Democratic Convention. So McCain caved and gave them their ideological sister.

Would a President McCain cave to Vladimir Putin in so craven a manner? I'd like to think not. But even scarier, would McCain issue Putin some ultimatim, like withdraw or we'll bomb you, and start a major war with the Russians? I'm not so sure gambler McCain, impetuous McCain would not.

And, to me, that's the only issue about the Palin selection: what it says about McCain's judgment and his decision-making process.

Oh, and since the vice-presidency really doesn't have much in the way of formal duties--and the McCain selection of Palin fits with his own view of a weak and ineffective vice-presidency--I think the lady will have plenty of time to tend to any family business that needs her attention.

(My real hope is that after a couple of heady months of campaigning, she can tend to her family from the comfort of her Alaskan Governor's Mansion, or whatever they have up there.)