“I don’t remember Dobson reacting the same way when Bill Clinton confessed his own imperfections”

I’m not going to defend Dobson here (I despise FOTF), but that’s really unfair. Bristol Palin isn’t a politician, she didn’t put herself out there and you should respect that. Using this as an example of how teaching that abstinence is the only choice doesn’t work is fine, at least then you’re criticizing the right person. If she becomes VP, this would be incredible ammunition against her in the Senate on issues of sex education.

At the very least, you have to give them credit for sticking to their guns and keeping the baby in a situation where a lot of young mothers would get an abortion.

She’s being criticized, and rightly so, b/c while she’s off preaching about “abstinence” she’s not paying attention to her own kids. I bet her daughter was told it’s a “sin” to use birth control. Maybe if she hadn’t been told that, she wouldn’t be pregnant at 17. Sarah Palin’s hypocrisy is astounding.

As for Palin only taking 3 days off after the birth of her last child, my husband is a small business owner and is out of necessity a workaholic and even he took a week off when our 2 3/4 year old was born. And she was perfectly normal and healthy. So it does strike me as odd for a woman to only take 3 days off especially when the child has problems.

Maybe SP was feeling fine, but in my mind it’s more about her child’s needs & that he would’ve benefited from the bonding time. Right now it seems more like maybe she talks out both sides of her mouth. I did the demanding career thing for 15 years and I know how hard it is to give enough attention to both the career and the family. However, I don’t think I know enough details about the Palin family to make any kind of definitive decision on whether she practices what she preaches or if she’s hypocritical.

I do think however that there is a clear double standard in regards to the religious right when dealing with these kinds of things.

And if we would find the behavior sickening and appalling when others do it, shouldn’t we avoid it in ourselves?

My point is that Christians love to pull out the “Forgiven, Not Perfect” card when it suits them.

And if we would find the behavior sickening and appalling when others do it, shouldn’t we avoid it in ourselves?

Yes. Unfortunately, no matter what Obama, Biden and other leading Democrats say on the subject there will be plenty of people in the media and online who will keep up the “feeding frenzy” for awhile. I don’t think everyone should ignore the situation, but the speculation and slurs directed at Bristol and the rumor-mongering are exactly what we’d like to think is limited to the GOP.

And there will be conservatives who’ll gleefully point this out ad nauseam.

There are mean, stupid people out there, and they come in all political flavors.

Do you not think that if mommy had discussed condoms/other contraception with her, instead of offering “just say no” as her ONLY advice, Bristol would have probably NOT gotten pregnant in the first place?

Who knows? 17 year old girls in luuvv aren’t exactly the clearest-thinking people on the planet. She might well have used birth control, or her boyfriend might have, or perhaps they didn’t care if they got pregnant or not. As I said, even teens who have comprehensive sex ed and who have confidential access to BC get pregnant, so I don’t think Bristol’s pregnancy means much here — well, except to poor Bristol, but maybe she’s completely cool with it — you never know.

Teenagers will be teenagers, and there is some truth to the notion that children of extremely rigid, conservative parents are more likely to act out than those from more relaxed homes (I think someone recently published a study in which the results supported this notion). So…is it the abstinence-only, or the uber-religiosity (has anyone actually read/heard some of Sarah Palin’s speeches — oy!), or the hormones, or the loooong winters and the boredom, or all of the above that contributed to Bristol’s situation? Only Bristol and her babydaddy know for sure.

And if we would find the behavior sickening and appalling when others do it, shouldn’t we avoid it in ourselves?

And it’s a public issue not merely because she’s running for office, but because it speaks to the larger issue of the (in)efficacy of abstinence-only programs. She’s been the nominee for five minutes, is already trumpeting her conservative Christian values, and we’re immediately confronted with the image of her pregnant, unwed teenage daughter. Give me a friggin’ break.

conservative religious women are likely to be most critical of working mothers.

I’m no longer a conservative evangelical, but I was really surprised to hear she was back in office 3 days after giving birth. The explanation was something along the lines of “men expand their families while in office, its fine for women too”

I think at some point we have to realistically assess what the expectations are and what we can do. Every woman is different, of course – just because I couldn’t have taken that responsibility on after discharge from the hospital doesn’t mean no woman can…but still. There’s a ton of physiological processes going on in the postpartum period. But then, maybe after the 5th child, you’ve got a handle on that sort of thing. I only had one child, and I was very glad I had 12 weeks before I had to get back to work. (although I admit, at times, I’d rather have faced work frustrations than baby frustrations — at least with work there are professional boundaries you can be fairly certain people won’t cross. No such luck with babies! They have no boundary awareness and its not their problem that you haven’t slept a whole night in 6 weeks…if they need to melt down, then melt down they will – and mommies level of coping power is irrelevant!)

The interesting part of the conversation, IMO, isn’t about the extremist abstinence-only policies SP supports or the Roe v. Wade opposition – it’s the argument that a mother of five (one an infant with a serious medical condition and another who’s getting ready to be a mother at a very young age) should not be adding even more to her already ambitious workload.

I agree. While we keep hearing how “fired up” the religious right is about Palin, and how they’re flocking to McCain and donating because of her, the flip side of that is that conservative religious women are likely to be most critical of working mothers.

Seeing how many posters there were aghast at Palin’s decision to run for VP with a special-needs newborn and a pregnant teen really makes me wonder whether Christian women are going to be so all fired up for McCain/Palin in the long run. I can literally hear them cringing in those posts.

Dr. Dobson, above anyone, has criticized women who take high-powered, all-consuming jobs while their children are young. He has long advocated that women stay home with their children at least part time in the early years, if they can swing it economically.

Anti-abortion Christians frequently get abortions, and justify it by saying that it’s Different for them – they really need to have one because of their Special Circustances, unlike the other women in the clinic, who are just immoral sluts refusing to take any responsibility for their actions.

If you are expecting an end to their hypocrisy anytime soon, I have a bridge to sell you.