Watership downs?

Dan,
How about this:

"She-did-a-rod"?

If you think the pregnancy "scandal" is going to make the swing voters swing to OBama think again.

Obama himself said "ley off" people's familiies.

The more you talk about it the more sympathy you generate for the Palin familty and guess what? Even if the mom were taking credit for a daughter's kid....most people would view that as admirable. They don't analyze this in an intellectual way the way Sloggers do-- if they were so intellectual they'd be for Obama already, right?

Obama said lay off. So lay the fuck off already and start figuring out how Obama can use economics and specifics to actually reach some actual swing voters and actually win the fucking election.

Because when your "lead" consists of 0.3 points in New Hampshire, it's pretty obvious it's handing by a thread, and little things (like a bunch of arrogant coastal hipsters bashing a 17 year old) can swing it the wrong way.

Jeanpierre Pacque Sexieme in Manchester NH isn't going to say "aha--the moral hyposcrisy of advocating abstinence while having a 17 year old who fucks around moves me to vote for Professor Obama." He's going to say the 17 year old prgernancy is a shame, but at least she didn't get an abortion.

Vous lui comprenez? Evidemente non.

Juno, redux

I like 2's. Or, Babygate works for me. Or, Hee-Haw. Or, how about GILF-gate? (G = Granny)

so, if you wanna take down palin how about you follow TPM's lead and discuss substantive shit a la 'troopergate' or her wildly undeveloped views on everything

Dan,

You and a lot of people who should know better are punishing Bristol Palin for the faults of her mother.

Sarah Palin is the public figure with the abstinence-only sex ed agenda, the anti-choice stance, the sanctity-of-straight-marriage views, etc.

Bristol Palin is completely innocent of all those faults. She's just a pregnant kid who has enough to worry about without being made the subject of a controversy for which she herself bears no responsibility.

Take the high road. Back off.

@7 - yes, you're right: she never had sex and is thus completely innocent of her own pregnancy.

Abstinently educated

I think it's rather interesting that the GOP spokesperson quoted in the Reuters story about the pregnancy announcement carefully avoids calling the "whose baby is it?" story a "lie"; it's a "despicable rumor", but NOT a "despicable lie".

Talk about your non-denial denial...

Broken Watergate.

@8 - guess a little clarification is in order for those among us who scored low on reading comprehension:

Pay special attention to how the words "controversy" and "pregnancy" refer to two completely different things.

It is Bristol's fault that she's pregnant. But it is not Bristol's fault that her mother supports abstinence-only sex ed. That is the controversy of which Bristol is innocent.

Propagate
Baby lies

Loving the usual shrill calls to lay off the Republicans or they won't like us anymore.

Loving more everyone ignoring those calls, as usual.

Ah, Republican hypocrisy and lies -- you are the gift that keeps on giving.

AbstainGate
or
Who'sYourBabyMamaGate

I don't know what to call it but I am practically having kittens over here.

When I went to bed last night, Sarah Palin was a terrible mother because she either:

A. Pushed for abstinence only sex education- the kind that creates and perpetuates harmful myths about sex to kids. This put her daughter in a situation where she did knocked Uggs with some high school ne'er do well and came home pregnant.

or

B. Willfully and knowingly endangered the life of her premature baby who has down syndrome by delaying medical treatment of that child for over 8 hours.

And then I wake up and find out that it was

C. Both "A" and "B"

I didn't even know "C" was an option!

Barjaya Love Nest Revealed: AK HQ site of Bristol Brothel!

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/the-obama-campa.html

This weekend a national campaign staffer will head to the northernmost state to look for an office space and hire a few staff members to get the operation in the state up and running.

The new office joins about ten grassroots groups, including "Alaskan Chicks for Obama" that already exists on the ground in the state

To quote a famous speech:

"Ultimately however, marriage is a moral issue that requires cultural consensus, and the use of social sanctions. Bearing babies irresponsibly is, simply, wrong. Failing to support children one has fathered is wrong. We must be unequivocal about this.

It doesn't help matters when prime time TV has Murphy Brown - a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, professional woman - mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another "lifestyle choice."

I know it is not fashionable to talk about moral values, but we need to do it. Even though our cultural leaders in Hollywood; network TV, the national newspapers routinely jeer at them, I think that most of us in , this room know that some things are good, and other things are wrong. Now it's time to make the discussion public.

It's time to talk again about family, hard work, integrity and personal responsibility. We cannot be embarrassed out of our belief that two parents, married to each other, are better in most cases for children than one. That honest work is better than hand-outs - or crime. That we are our brothers' keepers. That it's, worth making an effort, even when 'the rewards aren't immediate. , So I think the time has come to renew our public commitment to our Judeo-Christian values-in our churches and synagogues, our civic organizations and our schools. We are, as our children recite each morning, "one nation under God." That's a useful framework for acknowledging a duty and an authority higher than our own pleasures and personal ambitions." - DQ

And let me add, btw, that it's an interesting turn to see the left heaping judgement on a pregnant teenager.

Well, this certainly gives new meaning to labor day...

@19 You're right -- heaping judgment is something only the Republicans are allowed to do and we're supposed to shut up and take it.

Oh, but we're not criticizing the daughter but rather her lying hypocrite of a mother. But you knew that already, didn't you?

Then again, maybe you didn't. I'm learning today that some people who seem to be trolls really are just dumb as dirt. Horrifying, but that's a quarter-century of Republicans destroying public education in action.

19 and others - I don't think anyone here is judging Bristol. We're pretty much just pointing and laughing at her idiot mother getting her values all screwed over. It's fun when someone like Palin gets proved wrong in such a personal way.

@19:

Once and for all, it's not the pregnant teenager upon whom we're heaping judgement, but her hypocritical, wacko mom.

Man, I just can't shut up about this --

So, another thing is, whatever moral ground the right wing had from which to preach the virtues of abstinence and the sanctity of marriage would have been completely abdicated by all this.

The rest of the election cycle could have been completely free of right-wing sacred-family rhetoric.

That is, if leftist pundits were generally smart enough to shut up when it was the best move.

Instead, the repubs have discovered yet another hazard of premarital sex with which to scare the kids:

The ridicule of leftist bloggers.

(sigh.)

@12 - The point was that if Bristol were not pregnant, there would clearly be no "she's pregnant" controversy. I was not saying that the poor girl doesn't deserve sympathy (she clearly does).

ps I vote for Broken Watergate.

Okay, to the very legit point re. which Palin is being judged here:

You can't criticize Sarah Palin's family-values stance without necessarily criticizing her daughter Bristol.

And since criticizing a kid like Bristol is such a distasteful thing to do, the only smart move is to shut up and let the other side hang itself by going first.

As I said just a moment ago, I'd have enjoyed leaving the repubs tongue-tied on family issues for the duration of the election cycle. Flogging the issue just gives them more ammo.

this crap has nothing to do about supporting Obama

it is the mob yelling for blood in the streets of Paris during the Terror or hunting Witches in New Salem

they will do harm to Obama and not care a whit - they have the need to be mean and self centered - striking out in petulant anger

It really is shocking, big blog site after big blog site - group think to the max

And Obama has to apologize for them, so sad for him to waste his political capital

Laura Bush is now speaking out, warning of sexism from Obama supporters - she is funny to these people - but she has the highest ratings of any First Lady of modern times

These blogger hot heads have made R's the voice of reason - amazing. Kisses of death.

@13a ("Propagate") FTW. It's vague enough to encompass both Sarah Palin's poor judgment about her travel-while-entering-labor, and her daughter's incomplete education. Plus it's funny.

Oh and @16, "knocking Uggs" is a delightful blend of "knocking boots" and "bumping uglies," with a fun little fleece-lined-boots twist thrown in.

Too Bad Mommy is Against Abortion gate or First the boyfriend fucked me and now mom has fucked me gate.

Bastard-gate? ... sorry

Had Bill and Hillary or Obama and Michelle had a child who was knocked up no member of the self-righteous, religious nut job party(AKA:Republican) would have been singing praises at the decision to keep the child.
They would have attacked with all the religious zeal they could muster.

It is poetic justice the first female VP of the Republican party is an over made-up back woods breeder who has a knocked up daughter. This is baby momma/grandmama drama Republican style.

Jerry Springer here they come!

ooooh, I didn't see 13. "Propagate" is pretty damn good. The only flaw I see is that people may not recognize it as a name. Maybe "Propa-gate" or "Palin's Propagate" or something like that.

Baby Mama Drama

Howsabout: Palins' Preggers Progeny Proves Purity Pledges Problematic-gate? or something.

I don't understand why Obama has decided to lay off of this. The republicans are supposed to be the values candidates and Palin's daughter has obviously engaged in premarital sex. The GOP wouldn't lay off of the dems if say obama had a 17 year old knocked up teen daughter.

I realize no Slog reader will agree with me here, but let's lay off Bristol Palin. This link pretty much sums up my feelings on this matter, and the damned rumors about Trig's parentage:

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/09/sarah-palins-ch.html

Can we please get back to real campaign issues? Or, at least morph this discussion into improving resources for teens in Bristol Palin's situation, but who aren't as lucky (in terms of access to medical care and social services) as her?

Into the Labial Morass

Welcome to the Palindrome

@ Eric Arr: The point is the conservatives really want to be involved in our personal lives and want to tell us when we're not living up to their code. So we're just giving them a dose of their own gravy. Let us alone, we never get to be this self-righteous.

I'd call it MacGuffin-gate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin

IMHO, the scandal is not Palin's. She is merely a distraction, a means to steal the Friday am headlines, while McCain and the Rove National Committee stall and regroup after Obama's brilliant success in Denver. (They couldn't count on Gustav to distract all the press the way this Jerry Springer episode has) Palin will withdraw, at a time TBD "to spend more time with her family", her courageous decision to put family first will make her eligible for sainthood, and later she'll be able to run for congress on her moment of fame. Meanwhile the veep understudy will not be as scandal-ridden, and virtually anyone will seem a better choice by comparison. (Remember Harriet Myers for Supreme Court???) However, if McCain takes her all the way to the WH, the scary part is that he could then appoint Cheney...

No, see, here's the problem: every time we make the election about The Gays, or Abortion, or Sex Education, what have you, the Republicans win. This is all a big distraction from the really serious issues that stand a much bigger chance of mattering to you when you wonder why you have no money or home, five years from now.

Democrats need to stay focused. McCain is inheriting the GOP shit sandwich from Bush, but he's acting like everything is just hunky dory. He'd gladly eat that shit sandwich, he says! It just needs some hot sauce! We need to point out that the sandwich is, indeed, made of shit.

it looks that the most suitable name would be "Everythinggate"

it looks like the most suitable name would be "Everythinggate"

it looks like the most suitable name would be "Everythinggate"

The very best one I have seen was on DailyKos: Palindora's Box... McCain has certainly opened a Pandora's Box with his cynical and ill-thought out selection.

This name has the benefit of reflecting the creationist, secessionist, dominionist, book-banning, etc. etc. attitudes of this podunk woman and stays away from the hot-key issue of her blameless pregnant daughter.