talk about poor taste

kuzi16

dutyje

Unless Sarah Palin knocked her up herself, this is not at all relevant. I think Obama has handled this well by also pointing out that his mother was 18 years old at the time of his birth. Obviously, shame on anyone who would dig personal dirt on a political candidate.

kuzi16

dutyje:

I think Obama has handled this well by also pointing out that his mother was 18 years old at the time of his birth.

agreed. obama did do well with this.

urbino

dutyje

But the test for Palin isn't whether or not her daughter gets knocked up in the first place, but how they handle the situation. To drag this into the open as dirt is inexcusable. The relevant piece would be how the family responds to this adversity, and put it in the context of their platform (i.e. she holds very strong pro-life beliefs, so did she hold firm in this when confronted with the issue directly?) I'm very adamantly pro-choice, as I am with most things. I believe Palin is holding true to her own platform, although I disagree with it.

urbino

dutyje

urbino:

I liked the days when kids were off limits.

Were those the days when a girl would mysteriously go live with a relative for 6-9 months, transferring temporarily to another school? I think we've made progress in family values by confronting these issues head-on instead of brushing them under a rug and pretending they never happened. When we're talking about family values, are we talking about how the family looks to outsiders, or are we talking about how successful the family is in teaching its sons and daughters how to take responsibility for their actions?

urbino

Bad Andy

OK...so now that it is out that Palin's daughter IS PREGNENT. What do they do now? Did she not know till after she was selected and this doesn't follow her conservative views. The religious side of the party are not going to like this. I think it's possible that a lot of people will be sitting out of this election on both sides.

dutyje

Good points, Urby.. I hadn't really seen it that way. I guess it's all in what you view as the "starting point" for exposure of the issue.

kuzi16

madurofan

My issue with this is that part of her platform and now part of the McCain/Palin platform is teaching absistence in schools. No Sex Ed, no handing out condoms or even any instruction on how to use them. This is what was taught at the school her daughter went to, worked well eh?

j0z3r

urbino

j0z3r:

I may disagree with you on a number of things, but I'm in complete agreement here. Parents can do the best job in the world of trying to instill values and morals into their children, but children grow into people who make decisions, and whether those decisions reflect the values they were taught or flagrantly disregard them is not the fault of the parent, but the choice of the child.

Sorry, I can't go along. I'm not saying children become 100% what their parents want them to be, obviously, but nobody has more control over what kind of person a child becomes than that child's parents. If the child goes seriously off the rails on what the parents say is the most important thing in the world (and especially when that most important thing is "family values" itself), then barring mental illness, it reflects one of two things: something gone wrong in the parenting, or the parents are mostly just talk when it comes to the thing they say is the most important thing in the world.

kuzi16

urbino

j0z3r

kuzi16

kuzi16

j0z3r

urbino

Bad Andy

17? I have a little trouble with that also. But this is Alaska, its different up there from what I understand. It also says a lot of how they have handled it. Remeber the Bush daughter that was supposedly getting drunk and she apparently had a fake ID. Kids will be kids. They will do dumb stuff but its how they handle the aftermath that I think really counts.

kuzi16

kuzi16

phobicsquirrel

I have never enjoyed the arm of the press. Most things in politics have to do with personal lives and especially issues/problems that most every person family has dealt with or has a friend that has. Really who has a perfect life? ah, no one. If more time was spent looking and questioning political stances and decisions rather than digging up dirt or jaw-jacking over "did you ever smoke weed" "did you have an abortion" "are you into sex that has to do with rubber dolls"? then maybe there might be more checks in who is in office. Honestly what someone did 20 years ago should really have no merit on their current standing, unless it is a continuous problem or something really bad. 17 is no innocent age these days, hell 12 year olds were thongs and see through shirts down my street. Kids have sex at all ages these days that's no surprise, so I really don't see why this is such an issue with her being VP.