McCain Knew and Did Not Waver
My respect for John McCain only grows:
Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter's pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.It just gets harder and harder for The Left to deal with such loving thinking -- to choose Life rather than Killing:
Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said. "We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins' statement said. "Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," the Palins said. The Palins asked the news media to respect the young couple's privacy. "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the statement concluded.I dare The Left and the Antique Media to go down this path. UPDATE: A Hugh Hewitt reader chooses Palin Love over Obama Punishment:
Hugh – There couldn’t be a clearer difference between conservatives and liberals than this one… Obama… “If my daughter makes a mistake, I don’t want her punished with a baby” Palin… “As [our daughter] faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.” (also… "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family.”) When I, myself, became pregnant in college, my soon-to-be mother in law (a hard-core liberal Democrat who had openly encouraged me to have un-married sex with her son) expressed her “disappointment” in both of us – and immediately pushed for an abortion. My own mother (a sex-before-marriage-is-sin Catholic) immediately comforted me, affirmed her love for me and said, “There’s always room in our family for another baby.” My husband and I have been JOYFULLY married 21 years and have 4 amazing kids…. What an beautiful gift of love my mother gave me that day! Babies...Punishment vs. Love. I think I’ll take love. Warm Regards,UPDATE II: John Mark Reynolds tutors the ignorant:
UPDATE III: The Anchoress continues her excellent discussion on the politics of the uterus:None of this should matter much to the campaign, but the Republican writer at Politico, Jonathan Martin, insulted social conservatives when he wrote:
Social conservatives, who are extraordinarly enthused by the selection of Palin, won’t be happy about the news. But their unease will likely be mitigated by the word that the teenager will give birth and marry the father.I suppose this is true in the sense that nobody is happy about bad news in the families of people we admire. What does Mr. Martin mean by “unease?” I suspect he thinks an appreciable number of us will “judge” Governor Palin for her daughter’s bad behavior, but let her off the hook because Palin’s daughter “did the right thing.” This is insulting and pretty stupid. Any group with millions of members has bad actors, but in forty-five years of church attendance and work inside the “social conservative” movement, I have personally known nobody I think would feel “unease” about the governor as a vice-presidential candidate based on this “news” about her daughter. Why would they? What did the governor do? Bluntly, this “news” is not politically relevant. What Christian thinks having the truth means we live it out perfectly? What parent believes they have total control over their nearly-grown up children? This kind of writing by Mr. Martin represents either ignorance of the demographic he is writing about (which given their percentage of the party is inexcusable), the soft bigotry of much of mainstream culture against social conservatives (we are judgmental blue noses), or a major blunder in phrasing. I assume the more charitable of the three, but it would be helpful if Mr. Martin clarified. We pray for Governor Palin who has been faced with scurrilous and ugly false accusations about her family. She also has been facing a difficult situation in her private life (related to becoming a grandmother) and has handled it well. Let’s let the family go on with their private lives! Here is hoping Martin learns a bit more about social conservatives before writing about them.
Do consider this: The Palins could have quietly gotten their daughter an abortion, and no one would ever have known about it. Instead, they choose to be who they are, and deal with it, knowing how the world is. It’s not cowardly, whatever else you want to say about it. Quite the opposite; it’s authentic. These people have guts to spare. My one prediction: the left - who really don’t understand Christians as well as they think they do - will gleefully announce that this will “kill” Palin with the socials cons. She will probably lose a few of the extreme sorts, but over-all, you’re going to see the Evangelicals support her. You’ll immediately hear some wag (left or right) say “Palin needs to be home taking care of her family…” Which will not endear that wag to the millions of working mothers who do everything they can and more for their family, but still manage to have teenagers who do things teenagers do. It’s a statement that does no one any good; avoid it! It is going to be incredibly interesting to watch the shredding of caricatures, here. We’re going to watch the “tolerant” left, champions of sexually active teenagers, who believe that teenagers should be able to have an abortion without parental notification, and who routinely refer to Christians as “uptight, sex-hating judgmental, moralizing prudes” go all medieval denunciation on Bristol and her family. I’ve already read a comment about “the whore governor and her tramp daughter.” We’re going to watch the “intolerant” right, who champion chastity because they know all too well the situation the Palin family faces, and how the road is, rally behind Bristol.Again, read it all.