sound and fury, signifying... something?

On the face of it, the story about Bristol Palin's pregnancy has little real mileage in it. It's great political soap opera and a fantastic reversal, as our scriptwriting friends would have it, but beyond that... what is there to say? Sarah Palin hasn't been caught out lying (as she would have been if the original rumour, that Trig Palin was her grandson rather than son, turned out to be true) though she might be wondering about the efficacy of the abstinence-only sex education she supports (and presumably teaches at home). Obama has already made it clear that he believes candidates' kids are out of bounds in the campaign. 

But then, as Ben Smith at Politico points out, there's this:

I can't remember the last introduction to the national scene this rocky, and it gets worse every hour - and even before the investigative reporters have settled in to Anchorage.

Over at Slate, John Dickerson expands on this theme: 

Each new fact we learn about Sarah Palin - her reversal on the bridge to nowhere, her disagreements with McCain on issues from windfall profits to global warming, emerging facts about troopergate - contribute to the feeling that this whole Palin thing is being made up as we go along. 

Are there any more little surprises to come? The McCain campaign is insisting that Palin was properly vetted before joining the team - though a Democrat researcher charged with sifting through the archives of Palin's home town newspaper found he was the first person to ask to see the paper's back issues, and they're not online. 

"No one else had requested access before," said the source. "It's unbelievable. We were the only people to do that, which means the McCain camp didn't."

It's not that any of the stories that have already emerged are catastrophic in themselves... just that the longer they carry on bubbling up the greater the danger that the McCain campaign is going to end up confirming suspicions that they made a rash and poorly-researched decision for the sake of political expediency. Hardly an impression to cultivate. 

• posted by Claudia Jean

Comments

[Rob Hyndman]

On Palin as a supporter of abstinence-only sex education, there may be more to this than meets the press' eye:

http://jezebel.com/5044027/bristol-palin-is-pregnant-let-the-opprobrium-begin

[Claudia Jean]

Thanks Rob - Jezebel is, as pretty much ever, quite right. Good link!

CJ