Do you know what the time frame is between the first, second and third photos?

I must say, it is awfully suspicious. Wheres the National Enquirer when you need it.

Yeah, can't you people see how they'd spin that one? Protecting an innocent girl who made a mistake from ruining her life, yada, yada, yada. Spin is what they do really well.

WTF? Who gives a flying. This is starting to sound like Fox news

WTF? Who gives a flying. This is starting to sound like Fox news

Newspaper article from Alaska with quotes from her Dr.

This appears to be a non-story...

http://www.adn.com/front/story/382864.html

This is bullshit tabloid speculation. I get that we all speculate, but to be honest, I find it degrading to find such speculation on a reputable site like TPM, even if it is by one of the users and not an editor or moderator.

And those pictures? Lots of girls her age have a belly like that. It's perfectly normal and typical.

As for not showing signs of her pregnancy, it wouldn't be the first time that a woman didn't have extremely obvious signs of pregnancy. Plenty of celebrities in Hollywood do things to conceal their pregnancies from the media and press.

Sorry, but I find this a little low. I'm not fan of Sarah Palin, but even I have a difficult time believing this tripe.

How about the fact that, if this story is true, what she did by not going to a hospital, boarding a long flight, etc, show *extremely* poor judgement on her part in regards to her baby?

I see this as important, because she is claiming that it was her decision to keep the downs baby. She's made great political hay off of this baby, so it's now fair game.

If this story is true, Gov Palin should be ashamed of herself for ever making it a political issue. She should have just said, "The process has been a difficult one for our family and I ask you to respect our privacy on this matter."

One could read any number of things into this story. It reminds me of the Dan Rather matter and Bush's military records, and is added to by Limbaugh's remarks relative to Palin's pregnancy. Yes, these idiots would try something like this.

Some issues seem odd, but no more odd than moose burgers, and Palin's reported assertive personality which is likely not unusual for citizens of Alaska. Good or bad, right or wrong, this type of stuff is toxic, and best left alone. Let Palin sink by herself, McCain will still be McCain.

1) I'm embarrassed this has 10 recs.

2) This is the worse form of FNC-methods I've seen in a TPM blog.

3) The child had Down's Syndrome. This is likely to happen when a 44 year old gives birth. Shall we stick to Occams' razor?

Well, just from a medical point of view a Downs Syndrome baby is much likelier to come from a 44 year-old than a teenager.

I say leave this alone. She has plenty of room for criticism just on what we all know to be true. She is hopelessly unqualified for this position, and McThusela has shown an appaling lack of judgement here. Let's fight on the merits; there are many.

If this is a family skeleton, I say leave it in the closet.

Alaska is remote and there aren't many people there. One with friends and in a position of power could hide a lot of things in such a place (see Ted Stevens). With Palin's far-right positions on choice, this is a very fair story to investigate. It certainly has as much veracity as the swift-boat campaign.

Okay, I should have waited to post until I'd slept so that I could better frame my concerns. I don't really care about the tabloid aspects. I don't really care about the gossip. To me, the "Palin covered for her daughter" line seems crazy, but not outside the realm of possibility. I grew up amongst evangelicals, as a member of a Southern Baptist family. I've seen similar situations first-hand. It does happen, and while it's hard to imagine that a national political figure would engage in such a cover-up, well... come on. It's relatively benign, comparably.

The alternative explanation - via "Occam's Razor," as clearthinker notes - is that the published accounts of Palin's pregnancy and delivery are accurate. She kept her pregnancy hidden, and then proceeded to make several risky choices during a higher risk pregnancy. Flying after 7 months is risky, period. For any older mom, "normal" risks are riskier. For someone who knows that they're carrying a baby who's "going to have special needs," I can't imagine the thinking that allows you to risk additional complications. And there is no way that flying for 8 hours, plus layover and check through time (roughly 12 hours for the whole trip) after her water broke can be considered a "safe practice" for any delivering mother. It's bad obstetric science. The fact that she had a good outcome does not justify the risk taking in retrospect. It's like saying Iraq was a good idea because the surge worked. You claim that your will and your sense of your own best knowledge is an acceptable substitute for the reason and advice of a consensus of studied professionals.

And if Palin were running on, say, her foreign policy creditials, or her health care plan, or her plan to reform education, then this could perhaps be relegated to "private life" issue. But there are basically two qualifications that have been put forth as justification for her selection, two reasons we should trust her to run the country should McCain prove unable: her energy policy (which I don't like), and her cred as a pro-life "hockey mom." So this does become important - and it cannot remain "private" in the same way - because it speaks to her judgment in the latter case.

In the same way that we scrutinize Biden's foreign policy statements more carefully than we would, say, Sebelius's (had she been picked), or we scrutinize Sebelius on education more carefully than we might Biden, then we can scrutinize Palin more carefully on pro-life, family values issues. If that's what she brings to the ticket, then we need to know what that means for a potential McCain/Palin administration.

We absolutely should not pursue this. However, it's interesting that she finds the need to cover up a teenage pregnancy, in the remote event that is true. That is, if she understands that it's not socially acceptable, that would help her understand why abortion MUST remain legal.

I thought it was interesting, but now I think it's not true. There's a picture of her after the baby was born. She looks like she's just had a baby. http://fr.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080830/img/pot-veepstakes-palin-5bff38-7b78334d8d36.html

Very few voters are not influenced by their evaluation of personal character of the candidates. Why else have the biography introductions at the conventions, why have spouses play such a significant role? My own reaction to Cindy McCain has been largely to give her a pass, based on the adoption story (now diminished by the Mother Teresa lie). My respect for Barack O'Bama includes being affected by his mother's story - how could this woman raise a son who doesn't truly care about people? Other voters are obviously very taken with McCain's POW history. And the story of Sarah Palin's pregnancy and Downs' syndrome baby, her role as a working mother, will affect people's perceptions of her capabilities, either positively or negatively.

As a candidate chosen in large part due to her sex and stance on women's issues, Palin's views on this deserve serious scrutiny, and that includes how she would respond to an incident of underaged pregnancy within her own family. I have no wish to harm the mother, daughter, or family, but do intend to protect my own daughter and family from potential government intrusion.

The story as told by the Palin family raises questions. She showed no outward signs of pregnancy, apparently up to and including her flight home. Prenatal testing should have determined gestational age and eliminated the chance of a month-early surprise. The actions of the parents just before the birth is unusual, including risky travel and persistance in returning to a specific location. Coupled with the daughter's extended absence, there are reasons to be curious and even suspicious. I have experience with pregnancy and motherhood, and I know what my husband would do to protect me and our child, particularly regarding the risk of a premature birth. Their actions do not appear reasonable to me.

Character does matter, and honesty is a part of that. I understand that people may lie to protect their families, but if such a lie becomes necessary, I feel these people should recuse themselves from public roles. And I deeply disagree with the continual postings on this board telling others what they should and shouldn't discuss. I am not suggesting that this is a line of attack that should be utilized by the campaign, but as a voter myself, and one who has tried to influence the opinions of others, I will be following this story.

Its an interesting story and I would say that I'm 90% convinced the daughter is the mother. It is not credible that an 8 month's pregnant woman would get on an airplane with her amniotic fluid leaking. In truth, its a crazy story. You have to be very gullible to believe it.

One thing I haven't seen anyone address is the story that the mother was pregnant all the while the daughter had this very serious case of mononucleosis. I put "Is mononucleosis contagious" into a search and the answer was "Yes." Another aspect is the fraud by the doctor and hospital is probably actionable. Wheres the insurance company in this?

Yes it is a baby budge. It is important because Pelin lied to cover it up. If the matter had been admitted to, most people would not have blamed Palin for her daughter's mistake at 17 years old...unfortunately it happens. The so call children of the corn bible carriers are the ones that have the most teen age births.

Here in Alaska - Palin's surprise pregnancy was the biggest shock we thought we'd get from her.

A LOT of women were commenting on how irresponsible it was for her to ALLOW herself to get pregnant after making all these huge campaign promises and being so very very new to the governor's office.

It pales in comparison to the shock over the VP thing.

I noticed something.

daughter's ring finger

Please let me know what you think.

Even before waking to the blogosphere rumor regarding Sarah being the mother of 4 and grandmother of 1, I had questions/concerns about this selection. When I tried to find out more about Gov. Palin via a google search about her platform when running for governor, I was shocked to find that each and every Palin for Governor link went direcly to the McCain for President site. Why? It is as if you can learn nothing about her activities prior to becoming governor. I find that very odd and disconcerting.

And all this talk that McCain met her only 1 or 2 times and that she was not fully vetted is all too strange if not unbelievable. McCain and crew may not have vetted her, but someone of significant power within the Republican power circle certainly did. This whole thing is much too strange and I am quite sure that something is very rotten here.

Now, the pregnancy thing is not all that far fetched. This kind of thing happens all the time. But, it would appear to me that Palin would do all in her power to cover-up Bristol's "pooching" stomach in the pictures if in fact she were pregnant. But then you have the water breaking at 4A, delivering a speech, and then an 11-12 hour flight back to Alaska to deliver. Now that just doesn't add up.

Even when delivering a child without special needs, once the water breaks you're suppose to go to the hospital. Its possible - and even problem - that she could have gotten threw a 30 minute speech while in the first stages of labor - but there just ain't no way she could have endured being in labor for an additional 11 or 12 hours with no one knowing. And all this knowing that she was going to deliver a special needs child and at 44. No, this just does not add up. A mother as devoted as Palin is made out to be would have stayed right there in Dallas to deliver and not taken the chance on anything going wrong. No something just ain't right about this whole thing.

By the way -

Palin's child she just had? She knew it was a Downs Syndrome baby at 4 months. So now your pathetic stories of her "risky delivery" are proved bunk too.

Keep it up, all this is going to fly back on O'Bama and I feel bad for him that it will. He's a good man and doesn't deserve supportors like you who are going to ruin his chances at becoming President. He would have made one of the GREAT ones, but all of you guarantee he'll never get the office.

Look around at normal sites that discuss issues and you'll see how much real damage you are doing to his campaign. But perhaps that's what you want. . .