“Let me be a clear as possible: I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor, or her potential performance as a vice president.

“And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18, and how a family deals with issues and, you know, teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that's off limits.”

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/09/...

Eighty percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned. Considering that abstinence-only education has gotten laughed off by liberals and most schools don't teach it, can't it be said that traditional sex ed (”I know you're going to have sex so here' s condom.”) is also a massive failure?

You're glossing over reality.

It comes down to several things, all of which fit together:

First, Palin is and has been a staunch, public advocate of abstinence-only, so if that's not what she's teaching at home, then she's a hypocrite at best. I'm betting it is (I think she holds such positions genuinely) and that Bristol had a good bit of “wait 'til you're married” at home.

Second, her school district has a specifically abstinence-only curriculum. The district's health standards (page 5, standard ACS-B1:h) lay out the standard statement of abstinence-only sex-ed.

Third, the idea that this is somehow the media's fault instead of her parents for not allowing her to have a decent idea of how not to get pregnant is fairly silly, especially when there's the usual “shock and horror” at celebrity teen pregnancy.

Fact is, abstinence-only is a proven failure, we have the statistics and even the NY Times noticed the problem some time ago. Yet, because it fits their own conservative social agenda, the far right-wing keeps pushing it. So basically, they're prepared to send kids out into the world with no real knowledge of how to protect themselves from disease or pregnancy and can't even show that their program delays the onset of teen sexual activity, it's avowed purpose and the reason they claim no other measures are necessary.

This is not just the normal tribulations of an American family, it's a perfect example of “hoist on your own petard.” Palin pushed this radical social idea at home and in her public capacity, and now it's come back to bite her.

Your pointless speculation is a waste of cyberspace.

The difference between the Palins and gutless bloggers is that the Palins appreciate the truth and own up to their misgivings. They don't hide behind political blogs and fictitious names.

Bristol Palin has more balls than you, Primus!

I feel sorry for her daughter, too, because of the morons in the press who will jump all over this because they're too lazy to get out and do real work.

Why doesn't somebody at Iowa Independent follow up on story buried in Bret Hayworth's blog about the two kids who were elected to be youth delegates to the national DNC but didn't get to go?