Sarah Petty and the Heartbreakers

By Contributor Archive

Filed Under Media Clips and Issues, Race for White House 2012 on Jun 18 

Remember how inspired we were when McCain announced Palin as his running mate? Such is the novelty of new love. It’s just heartbreaking that every time Sarah Palin stomps her foot, she firmly roots her growing reputation as petty and emotional. I thought women were stronger than this.

Forcing a formal apology from Letterman is the equivalent of demanding that Americans show respect for pre-marital “knock-ups”.

The fact that certain groups are rallying against Letterman only manages to make all women appear easily misled. (His joke was aimed at the older unwed mother, no one else.)

When did we get to the point where our nation’s future presidential candidate openly celebrates her unwed daughter’s pregnancy/parenthood?

I don’t think it’s appropriate to diminish teen pregnancy as a common mistake that should garner understanding and empathy since it can “happen to anyone”.

Unwed pregnancy doesn’t just happen to anyone. It happens to those who are careless, promiscuous and uneducated on the realities of sexual side effects. It’s also a direct reflection on a person’s upbringing. If I were Sarah Palin, I’d stay out of the public end of her daughter’s business and start focusing on the private side of real parenting.

I have said before that Sarah Palin exploits her daughter to stay in the public’s awareness. Her opportunistic behavior once again, proves my point.

Palin is rapidly losing credibility with her misdirected temper tantrums toward the entertainment industry. Directing national attention to Letterman’s joke and his apology makes Palin look small minded. I seriously doubt her daughter Bristol (at whom, as anyone would understand the jibe was directed) was all that offended by Letterman’s joke. After all, she herself said, “Abstinence is unrealistic.”

Kids say the darndest things.

Comments

  • Ken R.

    Now this is the kind of open discussion that a) I love and find intellectually stimulating and b) is healthy for a democratic society. BrianH, I am fully expecting some puerile prattle from you, since you are one of those who apparently find bravery in online anonymity and forgets that civility and manners are never optional.
    As for my final thoughts on this whole dead horse, I don’t think the issue is or has ever been whether David Letterman was justified or not, but rather (at least for me) her seemingly opportunistic managing of the entire affair.

  • East of Eden

    “Unwed pregnancy doesn’t just happen to anyone. It happens to those who are careless, promiscuous and uneducated on the realities of sexual side effects. It’s also a direct reflection on a person’s upbringing”

    Kind of judgemental on your party Kristen Berry. You don’t know what the Palin’s have or have not taught their kids.

    However, in the end the individual makes nis or her own choices, no matter the upbringing. As parents we can only hope that our children will do the right things after we have taught them.

    As for Sarah and her children, she is a public figure and the kids will get swept up into the limelight too, however this is no excuse for them to be the brunt of tacky and very tasteless jokes. The press/media seem to be able to leave the Obama kids alone, why not the Palin kids? Is it just because their mother is a republican? Does that somehow make it ok? I doubt the media would get the same kind of pass if this had been a Sasha or Melia joke.

    If you saw the Bristol Palin interview on Greta VanSustren back in Feb of this year, you will know that Bristol arranged for the interview herself as well as the People Mag shoot. Sarah even said, in the intervew, she set all of this up herself, and only told me yesterday. Which goes back to my original point, you can teach your childen but you cannot control everything they do.

  • Red State Eddio

    Ken – I can appreciate your perspective. I sure hope we’re not beyond a good debate on a variety of topics.

    That being said, my only thought is that she do it in a manner that either sincerely reflects where she’s coming from or be up front about playing devil’s advocate.

    Pretending to sound “outraged” by Palin’s actions just looks plastic, especially when everyone else (including Palin & Letterman) have already arrived at the same page. Feigning the opposite view to prompt discussion just seems false and silly.

    • RickyD

      A double Amen! :)

  • RickyD

    Flame thrower. This writer is so inconsistent it’s obvious this us all about generating debate. It’s childish.

    • Ken R.

      RickyD,

      I don’t understand why you think generating debate is childish. Throughout history, way back with the Greeks in the first true democracies, debate has been part and parcel of effective governance. Our founding fathers also realized this as evidenced by their hours and days long debates as they were establishing our country. Even today, debate is an irreplaceable tool when we are analyzing policy and even evaluating different situations. Regardless of the author’s own personal point of view, by stimulating discussion and debate on different topics, she is establishing a forum for other citizens like ourselves to engage actively in this millenia-old democratic tradition.

      • Brian H

        Nicely worded babble, Ken.

        I agree with Ricky, 100%. Why debate someone whose entire purpose of the debate is the debate? I appreciate a good give and take as I have participated in quite a few since joining this community, but, to debate and argue with someone who consistantly displays themselves as someone who doesn’t believe their own rhetoric is pointless.

        Kristen Berry throws out the bait and like fish in pond we take it hook, line, and sinker.

        No longer from me. There are too many people who have sincere opinions about important issues. I appreciate and respect their positions and exchanges.

      • Kristen Berry

        Ken R., I couldn’t have said it better myself.

        I can’t effectively write what I don’t believe,
        and I won’t make apologies for my point of view.
        I suppose we shall all have to debate that one too.

  • Brian H

    “Unwed pregnancy doesn’t just happen to anyone. It happens to those who are careless, promiscuous and uneducated on the realities of sexual side effects. It’s also a direct reflection on a person’s upbringing”

    Glad you feel so strongly about this, Kristen Berry.

    I am sure with such strong sentiments you will be as strobly against aborting babies that are a result of carelessness, promiscuousy and the uneducated

  • Lizzy

    This is wrong. Whoever wrote this is extremely out of touch with what actually happened here.

    • john martin

      Lizzy:

      Just what DID happen here???

  • john martin

    For anyone who has made choices:

    Sarah Palin and her daughter both made choices–and must deal with the consequences–good and bad. Sarah had her fifth child late in life and the child has Downe’s Syndrome because of it. Sarah’s daughter had her child as a teenager while still in high school and as a result,the child was brought into the world bearing the stigma (for some) of being born to an unwed teenage mother.

    Making the best of both situations is all they can do — and are doing. What is done is done and we all make mistakes. In deference to the births of two human beings let’s keep the criticisms to ourselves and welcome the children for who they are. It won’t help them to cast blame on their parents.

    Having said that, birth control could have spared the anquish.

  • http://www.sotr.us Cordeiro

    Kristen, though I normally find myself saying “amen” to your work, I’m going to have to disagree with you here – albeit very respectfully.

    Stiletto Sarah was right in standing up to defend her daughters against Letterman’s cheap shot. Regardless of Bristol’s choice in becoming an unwed mother or Willow’s choice in attending the Yankees game with her mother, Sarah’s children are her family and should be defended. You’ll note that Stiletto Sarah only called on Letterman to apologize for cheapshots leveled at her daughters and didn’t mention his “slutty flight attendant” quip. She’s the public figure, her daughters are not.

    I have but one daughter, and if Letterman were to have taken the same cheap shot at her (regardless of her age at the time) the father in me would have a great desire to make Letterman visit his dentist for reconstructive surgery.

    Methinks he got off much to easy.

  • Red State Eddio

    So much wrong with this articel, so little time.

    Have you tried out a new invention called the internet?

    Is someone paying you to sound upset and outraged?

    Wow, what a waste of electrons on this post.

    • Gary Russell

      A very hearty “Amen”, RSE.

      • Red State Eddio

        *Fist bump*

  • Gil Rice

    KB, what rock have you been under. Sure hope you don’t live in a glass house. Letterman didn’t care which daughter was at the ball game that night, just proving the late night comedians do not check facts. To them, a laugh is a laugh. SP did the right thing by calling him out and then dropped it when she finally got the apology she was after, or as close to one as DL was capable of giving.

  • kristen

    I also don’t think she openly celebrates her daughter’s out-of-wedlock child. It’s an unfortunate event and they’re trying to make the best of it. I don’t condone teen pregnancy one bit; but I think Brisol’s case shows that it really can happen to anyone…..even those who grew up in a Christian home with strong values. Parents can teach and lead by example all they might (as they should), but every child is different, and every child has his/her agency to make choices. I know of many families with strong and stellar parents; some unfortunately have wayward children.

  • http://scottslant.blogspot.com/ Scott A. Robinson

    This doesn’t seem to be the Kristen B. I know.

  • kristen

    I have a completely different take on this. I think Sarah did the right thing by standing up for her daughter(s) and letting Dave know that making perverted jokes about them is WRONG. Imagine if he’d made jokes about Michelle Obama or one of her daughters….

    Sure, liberals made fun of Palin and called her sensitive. But Palin didn’t back down. The GOP could learn a thing or two about sticking to your guns and not letting the libs paint you as stiff and stuffy. It’s high time they fought back. And Dave’s ‘joke’ was in poor taste; he needed to be informed.

    And where were the women’s groups on this one? Oh that’s right, they only stick up for their liberal friends.