So - Palin already toast? Her 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant, and you can point a finger right at Palin's social conservatism somehow convincing advocates that abstinence equals birth control [which makes me think these religious fanatics love teenage pregnancy because it binds youth to the church - try being 17 and raising a baby without some significant support group] - abstinence is not birth control, it's a denial of reality that ends up producing more pregnancies than it inhibits - common sense and statistics both indicate such. Hey, if it's Palin's personal choice to raise her kids that way, fine, I have no problem with that - but if she believes her personal beliefs can or should be imposed as a universal conviction - well, no fucking way. As stated, she can be a big help to McCain amongst undecided, blue collar, middle of the road voters - but not if she's a social conservative ideologue.
But beside this drawing attention to my belief that the repressive ideologies that control the bases in both parties are bankrupting the political process and destroying the country - big question becomes: is this evidence that McCain did not properly vet Palin? Liberals say yes of course, but they're working hard to sell story line that McCain really wanted Ridge or Lieberman but, in a forced sellout to the base, went with Palin at the last moment. McCain camp denies this and say they knew about the baby etc - but fact is if they didn't do their homework it will become very obvious in coming weeks and then both McCain and Palin will be toast.
I'm struck by hard line conservative response to it, as if this is actually a good thing, that it embosses her social conservative credentials etc. That may be true, but anything that helps the base weakens independents and I don't see Rove's strategy of using wedge issues to pry independents over to the right working this year - the GOP brand is too sullied. Not to mention that it now occurs to me that social conservatives welcome unwanted pregnancies because it creates desperate people and desperation leads people to god - I doubt the ignorant rank and file think in these terms, but the suits who control the agenda? Very disturbing - can't believe it took me so long to figure this out.
