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To paraphrase Ricky Riccardo "Sarah you've got some splaining to do..". Still. After yesterday there are actually more things to expalin, not less. As you will see as we go through this post there are so many loose ends on this story that don't fit that once and for all they need to be addressed by McCain's own vetting team.

I want to preface this update once again by saying that the issue we are interested in is Gov. Palin's judgment. Period. Any reference to or use of information as it relates to her daughter is required to get at the facts. This is NOT any type of attempt to use her daughter and where possible we simply will refer to other sources.

We are not going to deal in rumor or innuendo - simply lay out some odd things that have happened and a set of questions that can easily be answered to put them to bed.

 "Just the facts", as Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet is what we want. Lets get them answered completely and then let people draw their own conclusions as to what exactly has gone on around the Governor's pregnancy and her past family behavior, no one else's.

Here is the link to our original posts for your reference:

• Day 1/2 - Sat/Sun
• Day 3 - Monday

One Caveat 

While we will try to be Joe Friday there have been some very bizarre "X-file" type things happening online:

• Web pages disappearing and reappearing changed.
• Pictures removed from the state web site.
• The "bump" photo showing up Thurs/Friday in one context only to miraculously show up Sat. with a 2006 caption on it.
• A MySpace page for another local Wasilla boy that proclaimed his love for Bristol was taken down
• No listing ot the baby's birth on the Mat Su hospital site and more.
• The delivering MD no longer listed on the staff of Mat Su hospital but was on here earlier. Odd for a national award winning family practice MD who sits on the Governors state health committee and who Palin recommended for the national award in 2001.

These were not coincidences and if the real story is what we found out yesterday then why all of the above since all this related to the orignal rumors? Cached web pages show these oddities so they are not some made up conspiracy.

So our detective work will be Joe Friday with a dose of Scully and Mulder when needed.

The McCain Camp's Toilet Bowl Perspective

“We are going to flush the toilet.”This is what McCain spokesman Tucker Eskew said as the campaign used news coverage of Gustav to roll out the various Hurricane Sarah  issues on Monday. 

All this while 12 lawyers and every media outlet descended on Wasilla, AK, population 7000, the city where Gov. Palin got her executive experience as mayor with 50 employees reporting to her.

So what appears to be happening is the McCain camp backpedaling on their thorough vetting and trying to "flush the toilet" on McCain's impulsive pick and as the NYT reports today their poor vetting. An hour on the googles a week ago would have shown them all the issues that have apparently blindsided them. But we know the candidate, and apparently the campaign don't really understand the "googles and the tubes".

In fact Palin's own media person did not know about the pregnancy 2 days ago:

The (Alaska) Daily News (ADN) had asked Palin's press secretary, Bill McAllister, over the weekend to address rumors that Bristol was pregnant. "I don't know. I have no evidence that Bristol's pregnant," he said on Saturday.

McCain's "Three Card Monte" Distraction

The revelation that came out yesterday was stunning. If you think about though it really had nothing to do with the rumors around the Governor's pregnancy except that Bristol was involved. It was intended to distract attention from the original issue. As Time reported the entire town of Wasilla knew this already. No big deal.

Ask yourself, why drop that personal bombshell when a simply picture, like we all have from out kids, of the family gathered around Mom holding the baby in the hospital bed would have sufficed? Or the birth certificate could easily have been released. Case closed. Scully and Mulder go home.

Done this way in a few weeks there could have been a nice rollout of the engagement, the fact that she is expecting, introduce the dad who is a nice looking young man etc. it would have been a surprise but not a torpedo. So the classic a good defense is a great offense was deployed here. By telling us about Bristol the assumption was that the rumors about the Governor being Trig's grandmother are proven wrong and go away. Don't leave yet Scully....come back Mulder...Joe take over again...

Why? Do you really believe McCain knew if her own spokesman did not? Do you really believe he would have picked her if he knew the rumors let alone the reality we just learned? Don't be naive.

Then the camapign throws out the "respect the privacy", leave the kids alone defense out there hoping that the larger issue - the Governor's judgment and behavior in endangering the baby by her trip to Dallas will not get scrutunized by the national media or the other loose ends on that story. In the mounting number of issues around Palin the endangerment of her unborn child would be devastating to the right wingers.

So just like the card game where the shyster quickly moves them in front of you and you guess where your card is the McCain camp has done the same thing here using the hurricane coverage to try and distract us from a set of facts that grow daily. The puzzle still does not fit right but wrapped in the media's not wanting to get into the personal issues of the family may get overlooked.

The McCain Campaign Wizards are pulling the levers from behind the curtain in Straight Talk OZ but the "googles and the tubes" keep revealing new information now that Gov. Palin is being publicly vetted and real national journalists are on the ground.

Open Questions of the Governor's Behavior and Judgment

If you have not already take the Decision Tree test. What would you have done? The read the rest of this section.

The following items all facts laid out in a 4/22/08 article in the ADN that need to be  addressed by Gov. Palin concerning her trip to and from the conference in TX:

• Travelling to Dallas at 36 weeks in the first place
• Not going directly to a Dallas hospital once her water broke which would be standard procedure per a number of posts from doctors and newspaper articles
• Flying home 10-12 hours with fluid leaking risking infection and delivery in transit
• Not telling the Airline
• Bypassing the premier area hospital - Providence
  • 15 minutes from the Anchorage airport  (vs. over an hour to your own w/ no NICU)
  • With a NICU to handle a 36 week preemie w/ the double risk of Downs Syndrome baby
  • That your OB/GYN was on the staff of
• Dr. Johnson, a family practitioner, is an expert in child and adult sexual abuse,
  • What does this mean if anything to the situation?
• Baby delivered in the local hospital by this "expert" even though it was supposedly 4 weeks premature and had Downs Syndrome
• Returning to work after 3 days off after this ordeal

In the least I would ask all of you does this type of risky behavior and poor decision making as it relates to Sarah Palin's own family make you comfortable that she  can be VP let alone a "heartbeat away from the Presidency"? I hope that that is all this turns out to be, but I doubt it will.

Some Experts Weigh In

Obviously decisions are made between a patient and their doctor. However I have NEVER met a doctor that takes any chances like these. We are not trying to Monday morning quarterback

I spoke to my wife's OB GYN and a college roommate who was a pioneer 30 years ago in neonatology and both of them essentially said the same thing - she should have stayed in Dallas. Period. Especially with the double risk of premie and Downs. No question. One said that anything else was a malpractice lawsuit disaster if something had happened.

They also registered some concern based on the attending physicians credentials (family practice) for a case like this.

They would advised against the trip in the first place at 35/36 weeks but if Palin had insisted, esp. as a public figure, they would have had an MD referral established in advance of the trip to a Dallas colleague and an appropriate NICU equipped facility.

What Could She have Been Thinking

I see five scenarios here that explain what would appear to be out of character behavior for Gov. Palin:

1. She was not thinking rationally, had the nesting instinct that women all get and wanted to be home
2. This was the first baby for Bristol, she went into labor early and Palin needed to rush home to be there and the cover up was on by having the baby in the small hospital, with limited number of people involved.
3. There is some other 3rd party involved and a coverup was needed
4. She wanted something to happen to he baby  (Unlikely)
5. She was nuts (Highly unlikely)

New Media Reports About Bristol Palin's School Attendance

Something is not fitting together here and this information is brougnt in solely to support getting to the real bottom of Palin's pregnancy and Trig's birth and Palin's behavior and judgment. They came out of media interviews yesterday in light of the announcement.

You will recall that one major rumor was that  Bristol had been out of school for 4-5 months with a severe case of mono which fueled the pregnancy story. This was never answered either in the 3 card Monte game.

With the attention being paid now I found three conflicting quotes about the daughter's school attendance:

Per an LA Times story - "Bristol is "finishing up her last year in high school," she said. Bristol attended Wasilla High School last year but left, said Principal Dwight Probasco."

Per the Anchorage paper - "Mark Okeson, the assistant principal at Wasilla High School, said Bristol started her junior year there last fall, in the town where Sarah Palin grew up, but Bristol transferred to an Anchorage high school mid-year"

From the NY Daily News - "Mark Okeson, the assistant principal at Wasilla High School, told the Chicago Tribune that Bristol started her junior year last fall, in the town where Sarah Palin grew up."

He said Bristol inexplicably transferred to an Anchorage high school midyear, leaving Levi behind. "I never heard the story why," he said."She was very well respected, very kind to be around. She ran in lots of circles."

Sound a bit odd? These could all simply be a mistake or mis reported or we have from The Christmas Holidays thru the school year that Bristol was at home for her mono or something else.

Remember she had a traffic accident that got reported with another teenager:

Wasilla Police Department (Other Motorist name redacted by me. We have it)
On February 8, 2008, at 1737 hours, Wasilla Police responded to two vehicle collision at Seward Meridian Parkway and Fireweed Drive . Investigation revealed that Bristol Palin, age 17 of Wasilla, was driving a 4-door sedan and attempted to turn into a business when she struck a 2-door sedan driven by XXXXXXXXXXx, age xx, of XXXXX. Palin was issued a citation for Failing to Use Due Care to Avoid a Collision. XXXX was issued a citation for an expired registration and no proof of insurance.

One post from AK I found that provided contact info.for the boy above and said ask him "if the girl driving was pregnant".

Conclusion

The major issue to address here still are the facts around Trig's birth.

All the revelation yesterday told us is a new piece of information. That is all. It is not directly related to the rumors and is craftily designed to deflect attention away from the real issue and unanswered questions.

For the MSM and McCain vetters it is pretty clear what you need to review here:

1. Answers to the judgment questions we raised above so that we can see Palin is capable of the type of thinking and decisionmaking for a VPotus
2. Bristol's school attendance. Where was she in school after 1/1/2008? Was she sick with mono? If so great, if not what else was going on if she wqas out of school?
   
3. Trig's birth certificate or hospital pictures to prove he is Palin's

Once this is done we will know "the facts" and everyone can judge for themselves whether Sarah Palin is qualified, has covered up important information and whether John McCain's rash pick of her and simple vetting now with the latest sleight of hand yesterday reveals his total lack of qualification to be President.

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