The Rumor about Sarah

by: Dark Wraith

UPDATE — September 1, 2008, 2:20 p.m. EDT: In what might be characterized as a remarkable coincidence, Sarah Palin, GOP nominee John McCain's running mate, has announced that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is five months pregnant. Rumors had been swirling in the Blogosphere that Gov. Palin had faked her last pregnancy to cover for her daughter, who was absent from school for almost five months with what the family claimed was a case of mononucleosis (see the main story below for details). Now, however, with the announcement that the unmarried Bristol was pregnant in April of this year, it would be impossible for Palin's latest child, Trig, who was born April 18, 2008, to have been Bristol's.

The Palin family is not releasing information about the individual who impregnated Bristol, other than that his first name is "Levi," and that he is going to marry Bristol. While the family's discretion in protecting the young man is admirable given that Gov. Palin is now making her daughter a public figure to kill a rumor, the question of his age is a matter of concern, given that Bristol might have been 16 years old at the time he impregnated her.

Nevertheless, the announcement of Bristol's pregnancy, as stunningly convenient as the situation is, should pretty much end any questions about who the mother of Trig really is.

At least for the time being.



The story is now making the rounds fast about John McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The gist of the gossip is that her last child is not hers, but is, instead, her daughter's. The basis of the rumor is that pictures of the Governor when she was supposed to be pregnant show a woman who has no visible evidence of abdominal enlargement, but in the same time frame, her 16-year-old daughter was absent for four months from school with a case of mononucleosis, a condition that, for most teenagers, indicates bed rest for a far shorter period of time.

The case gets more interesting. She was in Texas when she claimed her water broke. Instead of heading straight to a hospital to give birth, she got on a plane back to Alaska; and, once there, instead of going to a hospital in Anchorage, she went to a clinic in her home town. All of this after her water broke. (As commenter Labrys pointed out to me from her personal experience, many women giving birth to a fifth child would not have the luxury of deciding when and where to deliver after the water had broken.)

The rumors about Gov. Palin's pregnancy actually being her daughter’s were swirling before John McCain even heard of her, and no professional vetting group for a national politician would have wanted their man to be within light-years of a person with a rumor like that hanging over her head. This seems to confirm speculation, contrary to the more official story, that Palin was, indeed, a last-minute choice for McCain, a choice made without thorough prior investigation of the potential running mate's background. Regardless of whether or not the rumor about Palin's child had any truth to it, that rumor had legs. In Palin's role as governor, it was more or less a "gentlemen's understanding" that the suspect nature of her story about the child's parenthood would not be used against her except by malcontents, in somewhat the same way the rumors about John Edwards' affair were well known, but better journalists and politicians did not talk about the matter.

That standard has been around for generations among journalists and politicians alike, and it has often served better ends, although in some cases the widely known secrets have allowed venal people to keep doing venal things, as was the case with J. Edgar Hoover and others whose personal lives were at radical odds with their public positions and actions. Palin is, however, no J. Edgar Hoover, nor is she a John Edwards: her secret, if the rumor proves to be true, was arguably to the purpose of "protecting" her daughter, even though a cynic might point out that she was really trying to protect her own credentials among her conservative Republican supporters. Palin would not be the first parent who went to extraordinary lengths to hide a daughter's pregnancy, not for the benefit of the daughter, but instead for the protection of the family name and its reputation in the community.

The rumor about Palin has not, however, been proven beyond reasonable doubt, and it is only right to make that point very clear. First, she has been thrown into a national meat grinder, and a magnifying glass is being turned on her in the worst way possible. She is vulnerable precisely because she is brand new to national politics. That John McCain's team did not fully and properly vet her is an indictment of those so-called professionals, not of her.

Second, concerning that pregnancy, the claims that she did not "look" pregnant at the seventh month are not proof of anything: to describe Sarah Palin (and her husband, for that matter) as athletic is an understatement. Descriptions of her personal lifestyle point to someone with muscles that most flabby Americans would only dream of having, and that kind of body will carry a pregnancy far more tightly for far longer than most. For the typical, less-than-muscular American to use personal experience in assessing what a woman with muscular abs would look like pregnant is like the typical American male, who looks like an idiot sweating and gasping as he jogs the neighborhood, describing the runner's high in a 30-mile mountain marathon.

Finally, yes, teenagers can be down for months with mono. According to the Mayo Clinic, "Most signs and symptoms of mononucleosis ease within a few weeks, but it may be two to three months before you feel completely normal." Four months out of school, as was the case with Palin's daughter, is outside this indication, but the claim that kids get better in a few weeks is far too simplistic.

Unfortunately, the rumor mill is kicking into high gear, and already there are indications that the story of Gov. Palin's child is getting perilously close to the mainstream media, which might end up eating her alive if a few ambitious TV or big newspaper journalists have nothing better to do than grab this story and run with it.

I had no intention whatsoever of writing about this rumor here at Big Brass Blog because it had the taste of nothing other than sleazy prying into personal, family issues; but then something occurred to me that changed my mind, and I need to point this out: if Palin did, indeed, represent her 16-year-old daughter's pregnancy as her own, that's a personal if more than slightly questionable choice; if, however, the baby were represented in public filings (specifically, the application for a birth certificate) as hers when it was actually her daughter's, we are talking about a criminal act.

If that birth certificate was the evidence for acquiring a Social Security Number for the child, then a federal crime may have been committed, as well.

If the child is not Gov. Palin's, but she represented it as hers in seeking coverage under her health insurance plan, then she has committed insurance fraud, too.

In summary, once a lie like that starts, it becomes a cascade of lies that transforms almost seamlessly into a pattern of wrongdoing. Once the line between prevarication and criminal activity has been crossed, what was, upon casual consideration, a personal matter becomes something entirely different.

I am not sure this matter is going to get the vultures in the mainstream media interested right away, but it has explosive potential, and it could force McCain to change his mind and get her off the ticket. It could get ugly: circling media hounds; initial denials; then the tearful confession. In the aftermath, McCain—a man whose violent temper is legendary—will have the Tantrum to End All Tantrums in private meetings with his inner circle of advisers, and a wholesale shake-up of his inner cirlce will ensue, sort of like the centrifugal force experienced by the swirling material in a flushing toilet.

At the same time, the hapless public will be inundated with clueless media "consultants" talking about the "underlying issues" of teen pregnancy and parental support while assiduously avoiding the whole issue of a woman's right to choose. In the end, not one mainstream media personality will dare to mention the obvious: for Palin, an anti-abortion stalwart, "pro-life" meant "pro-lie."

No, John McCain's people certainly did not investigate Gov. Sarah Palin the way they should have. If they had, they would have been visited by an unmistakably clear vision of McCain's Straight Talk Express going straight over a cliff. Now, McCain and his team could very well experience that exciting ride in real time.


The Dark Wraith encourages everyone to step aside as the McCain Express flies by on its way to paydirt.

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