MONROE, Mich. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday the pregnancy of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter was not relevant to the campaign and reporters should back off of it.
Obama also said he was offended by a suggestion from an unidentified McCain aide that his campaign might have had a hand in spreading rumors about Palin and her family.
“People’s families are off-limits and people’s children are especially off-limits,” Obama told reporters following a campaign event in Monroe, Michigan. “This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as a governor or potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories,” he added.
There was no evidence Obama’s campaign had any role in stoking a rumor that Bristol Palin was actually the mother of Palin’s four-month-old. Reporters traveling with the campaign had been fascinated by the talk for days. Obama’s press aides even told reporters the rumors seemed far-fetched and they would have nothing to say about them.
Palin has been the subject of a rumor mill among liberal bloggers who have speculated that Palin faked her own pregnancy in order to cover up for her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. These bloggers speculated that Sarah Palin’s fifth child, born in April with Down’s syndrome, was actually Bristol Palin’s child and that Sarah Palin was the grandmother. To rebut those rumors, Palin and her husband released a statement, first reported by Reuters, saying that Bristol was five months pregnant.
A senior McCain campaign aide was quoted in the Reuters story as suggesting that Obama’s campaign was linked to the bloggers who were spreading the rumors.
“I am offended by that statement,” Obama said when asked about it by a reporter. “There is no evidence at all that any of this involved us. Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be,” he added. “And if I ever thought there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they’d be fired.”
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Photo credit: Reuters/Matt Sullivan
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The liberal left is all up in arms over a pregnant 17 year old young lady. Isn’t this the very result of your pushing the woman’s movement, lower wages from an expanded workforce compelling both parents to work in order to afford a home in which to live? All of a sudden, you liberals are conservative? Get off the drugs and clean up your act. Woodstock is over.
- Posted by peteSarah Palin:
-> Has never been abroad and no-one knows her.
-> Has governed less than 10,000 people in the least populated state in the union for less than 2 years.
-> Knows nothing of national security.
-> Would probably flunk a rigorous exam on foreign policy and affairs.
-> Beleives creationism is equivalent to evolution (can’t stop laughing at that one).
-> Believes that abstnence is the only birth control choice for anyone who is not married and that sex education should not be taught in schools, but yet is dealing with the very “private matter” of the teenage pregnancy of her daughter. So much for that form of birth control for her daughter.
-> Thinks it was fair to go after Bill Clinton about his sex life and her party tried to impeach him, but it is ok for us to leave her family alone when dealing with the pregnancy thing. I guess Bill Clinton should not have had privacy with his personal business. Such double standards.
-> Is not a substitute for Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton knows Congress and is on the right side of women’s rights and issues.
I do not want a gun toting NRA fanatical, shove down one’s throat opinion to be prolife, creatonism fool, beauty queen sports anchor wanna be to be a heartbeat away from leading this country. How can she hold any conversation about foreign affairs and know who she is speaking to?
- Posted by JPT-> I don’t doubt she is a good woman to a lot of people, but that does not inherently make her qualified for the position of vice president.
-> It matters not how you ultra conservatives out there spin it (like some of the idiot republican analysts on tv); the question of her readiness for this office will be discussed no matter how vigorously defended. She should do her family and and the country a big favor and drop out of this race. Go take care of your four healthy children, your down syndrome child, and your once drunk driving husband. Leave the country to be run in the hands of people who can and who are much, much, much, much, much, much, more qualified!
Bible thumpers… if you believe in pro life, how come you believe in the death penalty? And don’t tell me it’s different… a human life is a human life. Care to answer without quoting the bible???
- Posted by elleOh puhleez….. God Bless Geraldine Ferraro????? God Bless the world. God Bless Hillary Clinton for showing such class and a prime example of good parenting. Chelsea is a class act — educated and refined; polished in the midst of a republican lynch hunt against her parents. When Ms. Pallin accepted the VP slot, she was fair game. If you can’t govern your home, do you think you can govern the nation? By the way, what does soon-to-be grandpa have to say about all this???? What a joke!!! Oops… McC is a joke and is insulting our intelligence.
- Posted by elleHaven’t we all learned that in todays mass media climate when you run for political office, nothing is private any longer? NOTHING! This is not news.
- Posted by CathActually Sarah Palin is the person who chose to accept the VP job, knowing that the media will learn of all her secrets. She put her political career before her daughter.
- Posted by Cath“A senior McCain campaign aide” accused Obama’s campaign of spreading the rumors about Palin.
Why am I not surprised? It is so typical of McCain and his people to try to capitalize on this sad, ugly affair by faulting Obama. Shame on you all!
Barack Obama takes the high road in declaring this stuff to be off limits, and should be commended. I am impressed by this man and his high character. And I look forward to voting for him in November to be the next president of our great nation.
Still, Sarah should go home and care for her family in this time of need. Her place is not on the campaign trail. Her daughter needs her.
- Posted by SuaveDaveFine if she and her daughter did not opt for an abortion. Unfortunately, adoption would have been a terrific example to young girls across the country.
- Posted by Beermeister[...] Credit where Credit is due: Obama reaction to Palin story [...]
- Posted by Bristol Palin: Punished with a Baby? « The Dude’s Blog[...] Bristol Palin, is pregnant. Consistent with what I said this morning, I’m going to go with Sen. Obama on this one and say that Democratic pundits and the media should leave the Palin family alone. The private life [...]
- Posted by Bristol Palin and Abstinence Only Education « Blue Dawg BlogI agree with Obama’s statement about Bristol being dragged into the frenzy. However, I question Palin’s motive and judgement to pursue this position, and McCain’s judgement for tackling Palin dispite these issues.
In my opinion, Palin has serious family issues to resolve including long term care and welfare for her special needs newborn, and now a teenage pregnancy to contend with. To think she will be off and married will end the stressors would be foolish. She has 5 children to raise, and as VP, she will be forced to decide on family needs, and flying accross the world at a moment’s notice. VP spot is crucial, especially in the case if the President becomes incapacitated for whatever reason.
I dont think either candidate has thought these issues out serious.
- Posted by bobI fully agree that a candidate’s private family life should stay private, especially the children’s. As a parent and a grandparent of a loving Downs child my heart goes out to the Palin family. Sarah Palin’s politics on social issues, however, are open to discussion and this has made her vulnerable. Ms. Palin would if she could use her office to define each American family’s options about birth control, pregnancy, choice, and religious instruction. Creationism, for instance, is a conservative religious belief based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. It has no basis in science, yet Ms. Palin wants it taught in every child’s science class. The Palin family’s decisions about deeply personal choices should be theirs alone, not that of the Supreme Court, the Religious Right or the party in power. And so should yours.
- Posted by BBoxSubmitted by Mark Rosenkranz on September 1, 2008 - 6:26pm. News
- Posted by Mark Rosenkranz“John McCain and Sarah Palin support the human rights and the sanctity of unborn children. Unborn children don’t have a voice. Everyone reading this, was born because of the grace of God. Pro-choice is not pro-choice. It is pro-murder. In our judicial system if someone murders a pregnant woman, that person will be convicted for two lives. The moment of conception, life begins.”
Finally theres something I can agree with Mr Obama on! I can say I admire him for his statement. He is a smart man, with 2 daughters of his own, who will come of age during the peak of his political years.
- Posted by hunnyCongratulations to Sarah Palin’s daughter and congratulations to the soon to be grandma. I wish you the very best. Palin has really taken the country by storm. Any time you have the media trying so hard to discredit you, you must be quite a threat to someone. Somehow, I don’t think a self sufficient lady like Palin will suffer from this new found muckraking. A hearty, frontier lady governor who can survive in the toughest of elements will be just fine on her own. I love it. And God bless Geraldine Ferraro. She led the way in a very biased world and paved the way for the Palin’s amongst us.
- Posted by CarDCOkay, so I went and looked at the loony-left website where they have some pictures of Sarah looking not-pregnant at a time when she should have.
Looks like she simply forgot to wear her fake-pregnancy prosthetic for these very public, some were even official-looking, pictures. Just didn’t plan ahead, happens all the time.
My guess is she really WAS pregnant and very unconcerned that she didn’t “show”. Probably even delighted, if I know womankind.
- Posted by MSZWhy have pictures of Sara Palin been removed from the State of Alaska website???
- Posted by Shelly[...] 1, 2008 Source: Reuters MONROE, Mich. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday the pregnancy of [...]
- Posted by Media should back off Bristol Palin, Obama says « The Palin ReportThe Sarah Palin story is beginning to look more and more like the stories of so many poor families who live in trailer parks across the nation. Her sister tells some kind of marital horror-story (it takes two to tango). Palin uses her power as governor to try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired because of her sisters sorry marital problems. Now, it turns out that Palin has no control over her daughter who does not even follow one of her mother’s principle directives, sexual abstinence. I bet a lot or Republicans actually think her daughter had sex only once and had only the one partner. Whatever! Do we really think that this person is qualified to be heartbeat away (a weak and elderly heartbeat at that) from being the leader of the free-world. Please!!!
- Posted by JimmyHow sad for a 17 year old to be thrust into the national media concerning a very private and personal matter. Sadder still that an ambitious mother of a pregnant 17 year old decides to expose her daughter to the media blitzgrig so that she can run for vice president. If she did, indeed, know prior to today’s announcement, if she indeed, knew while she was getting vetted, she should have passed, simply stating that her place was with her family now !
- Posted by Gee Whiz in Georgia