Dressing Sarah

Sarah moves on.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin insisted in an interview with the Tribune on Thursday that she did not accept $150,000 worth of designer clothes from the Republican Party and "that is not who we are."

"That whole thing is just, bad!" she said. "Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are.

Chris Matthews says he thinks his job his to help the Obama administration 'crackle.' I wonder if he feels the same responsibility to Governor Palin.

"It's kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported," said Palin, saying the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention. Still, she has been wearing pricey clothes at campaign events this fall. She said they will be given back, auctioned off or sent to charity. Most of them, she said, haven't even left the belly of her campaign plane.

Thrust into the national spotlight as John McCain's running mate in late August from relative obscurity as governor of Alaska, Palin has found herself under the microscope ever since, accused of being inexperienced, a drag on the ticket and, most recently, the recipient of racks of expensive clothes.

Less than two weeks before Election Day, she will deliver her first major policy speech Friday, calling for full funding of special education, a subject that has suddenly become extremely personal. And that's not just because of the arrival of Trig, her 6-month-old son with Down syndrome. It's because families with children who have disabilities have been flocking to her campaign stops, looking to Palin and her family for inspiration.

The Stork Factor

What else can he do?

Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown reports: At a press avail in Monroe, Mich., Barack Obama on Palin: "Back off these kinds of stories."

This story - Sarah Palin's daughter being pregnant - so positively reflects on the character of Sarah Palin, and so effectively absorbs people's fascination, that all Barack wants is for it to go away. (For details on Bristol, scroll down to the previous post.)

"I have said before and I will repeat again: People's families are off limits," Obama said. "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 a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. 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 teenage children, that shouldn’t be a topic of our politics."

To appear noble is the best tactic, as Barack doesn't want to add any juice to the Palin candidacy, which has already set the McCain campaign ablaze.

The McCain campaign raised more than $10 million in the two and a half days after Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was named as the vice presidential running mate, bringing the total raised in the month of August to more than $47 million, campaign officials tell ABC News.

Last month, a pretty good month for McCain, the campaign brought in $27 million.

Meanwhile, folks in Wasilla weren't surprised by the pregnancy story.

So his name is Levi. That's about the only thing that I didn't know about Bristol Palin's pregnancy. The rest of the details I picked up almost without trying, while talking about other things with townsfolk — some who know the governor and her family well, some who don't. It was, more or less, an open secret.

Pregnancy Today

Here's the Today Show report on the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter. They have nothing much to say, except more media resentment over the surprise of Palin's nomination. Did Sarah keep it secret?



Do you think the problem is that McCain didn't meet with Sarah enough before selecting her?

Senior McCain campaign officials said the presidential candidate knew of Bristol's pregnancy when he selected Mrs Palin last week and that he decided
that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way. However, sceptics of Mr McCain's choice will raise questions of how thoroughly he vetted Mrs Palin before choosing her.

Mr McCain has already admitted to having met Mrs Palin, who has only been a governor for 20 months, just once.

At the end, though, NBC political director Chuck Todd finally admits that this event reinforces the best aspects of Sarah Palin and a candidate and benefits the McCain campaign. But then he whines one more time.

Hey, Baby

The richness that Sarah Palin brings to our national political dialogue grows today with news that her daughter is pregnant.

Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior aide to Sen. John McCain confirmed to CNN Tuesday.

Republican presidential candidate McCain was aware of Bristol Palin's pregnancy before he chose her mother for his running mate, the aide said.

I know it doesn't measure up to those who worship at the alter of Barack because he went to an Ivy League school and even lead the law review, but there is something inspiring about a conservative woman who can so effectively live the liberal ideal - survive in a man's world without having to wear pants, and dealing with things like teen pregnancy and down syndrome on the home front.

"Senator McCain knew this and felt in no way did it disqualify her from being vice president," said the aide. "Families have difficulties sometimes, and lucky for her she has a supportive family."

The 17-year-old, a senior in high school, is about five months along, in her second trimester, according to the aide.

I wonder if she took sex ed and is in possession of the free condoms and pregnancy counseling that is what passes for social studies in public high schools today.

The aide said it was decided the campaign would reveal this information now because of rampant Internet rumors that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby, who has Down syndrome, was actually Bristol's.

"In the course of correcting that, we needed to get the truth out," said the McCain aide.

Sarah and Todd Palin issued a statement saying they are "proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents."

I know it's only life experience, the kind that would be viewed as heroic if it had happened to Hillary, but what exactly can Barack Obama point to that qualifies him to be President?