Earlier this week the DailyKOS pushed a rumor that Sarah Palin didn’t give birth to her 5th child, instead, they claimed her daughter did and there was a major coverup. What evidence was this all based on? I’ll let the KOS explain:
Well, Sarah, I’m calling you a liar. And not even a good one. Trig Paxson Van Palin is not your son. He is your grandson. The sooner you come forward with this revelation to the public, the better.
Funny quote on her having no desire for the Vice-Presidency aside, the article is direly clear. No one knew she was pregnant, not even her own staff. Quite a feat. Why the secrecy? Sarah has never given an answer, and upon further reading, no one has bothered to ask.
Checking with the Anchorage High School that Bristol Palin attended, reporters were given word that her family had taken Bristol out of school due to contracting infectious mononucleosis. The amount of time Bristol was absent shifts from five to eight months.
Bristol is pregnant in these pictures. She is not carrying belly fat, which grows outwardly wide, and does not become dome-shaped. That’s because fat is generally evenly distributed around the abdomen and a fetus is not. Bristol’s chest is sticking out, a normal body reaction when sucking in stomach muscles.
So there you have it… according to the DailyKOS, their facts, summed up, are:
- Sarah Palin didn’t look fat in the select pictures they found.
- Bristol Palin isn’t a skinny supermodel.
- Sarah Palin wanted her baby to be born in AK.
- Bristol Palin was sick and missed school.
That’s their shocking evidence. Since the DailyKOS picked it up, websites from Neowin to SomethingAwful to Fark to Snopes to nearly 5000 blogs started talking about this “story”. Each one spent time studing this poor 17 year old girl and talking about her belly fat. Did the daughter ask for this? No. Was there ever any proof? No. With just a little digging, last night I was able to find both statements from Sarah Palin’s doctor and a picture of her looking pregnant:
Palin kept in close contact with Baldwin-Johnson. The contractions slowed to one or two an hour, “which is not active labor,” the doctor said.
“Things were already settling down when she talked to me,” Baldwin-Johnson said. Palin did not ask for a medical OK to fly, the doctor said.
“I don’t think it was unreasonable for her to continue to travel back,” Baldwin-Johnson said.So the Palins flew on Alaska Airlines from Dallas to Anchorage, stopping in Seattle and checking with the doctor along the way.
“I am not a glutton for pain and punishment. I would have never wanted to travel had I been fully engaged in labor,” Palin said. After four kids, the governor said, she knew what labor felt like, and she wasn’t in labor.
Still, a Sacramento, Calif., obstetrician who is active in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said when a pregnant woman’s water breaks, she should go right to the hospital because of the risk of infection. That’s true even if the amniotic fluid simply leaks out, said Dr. Laurie Gregg.
“To us, leaking and broken, we are talking the same thing. We are talking doctor-speak,” Gregg said.
Some airlines have policies against pregnant women onboard during the last four weeks of pregnancy, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advises against flying after 36 weeks.
This was going to be Palin’s last flight anyway, her doctor said.
Alaska Airlines has no such rule and leaves the decision to the woman and her doctor, said spokeswoman Caroline Boren. Palin was very pleasant to the gate agents and flight attendants, as always, Boren said.
“The stage of her pregnancy was not apparent by observation. She did not show any signs of distress,” Boren said.
Palin never got big with this pregnancy. She said she didn’t try to hide it but didn’t feel a need to alert the airline, either.
Did the DailyKOS just wish this to be true so much they just selected “evidence” to support their theory? Apparently today they had to bow to the stupidity of the rumor they started so they released this entry:
OK, there is a visibly-pregnant Sarah Palin talking with a CBS 11 (
DallasJuneau) reporter at theGovernor’s meeting in Texasend of the Alaska legislative session. She clearly appears to be pregnant.Unless someone has counter evidence, we can drop this crap now. Yes, there are still some interesting questions, such as why she flew to Dallas and back when she was this pregnant, and why the Alaska Airlines crewmembers insisted that she was not visibly pregnant on the flight. Nevertheless, until this photo is debunked, we look stupid pushing this rumor.
That is all.
And the picture that proved it?
So there you have it. All over. So now I need to ask all the people out there that helped spread this story:
Are you proud of yourselves?
A simple question, I know, but the fact is with no evidence to back anything up, people all over the internet were willing to spread false rumors not only about Gov. Palin, but her daughter who did absolutely nothing wrong. Why don’t you all put yourself in her shoes? Could you imagine being a 17 year old girl who isn’t as skinny as everyone else? Now imagine there are giant blown up images of your stomach circulating the internet with people saying your little brother is your child. I bet that does wonders for someone’s self-esteem.
I think that children of candidates should be off-limits to stuff like this. They didn’t ask for their family to be in the spotlight, and I’m sure it’s hard enough as it is for them. I just hope everyone who spread this rumor takes a long look in the mirror and asks themselves what made them not go looking themselves and to instead blindly follow the “facts” presented by one blog. I used to think this type of thing was what the “right-wing” did to the poor “liberals,” but now I see that both sides can give as well as take. How sad.
Robin Hood : 01 September 2008 at 10:52 am
Personally, I don’t give a trig. On the one hand, if Sarah is the mother, her story shows that she does not possess the requisite sober judgment to inhabit the Oval Office, as she put both herself and her child at grave risk in flying back to Anchorage after her water broke (yes, even partially) and contractions started, as (1) the risk of infection is quite grave, and (2) the risk of her giving birth on the flight is substantial. Try delivering a baby in the middle of in-flight turbulence, three hundred miles from the nearest airport of substance.
On the other hand, if Bristol was the mother of Trig, it could turn out to be an enormous political opportunity — but only if Palin comes clean, and now. Imagine her giving a modern-day “Checkers” speech, and asking the audience whether she should step down from the position. Want to bet on how that would turn out?
Robin : 01 September 2008 at 10:59 am
“Alaska Airlines has no such rule and leaves the decision to the woman and her doctor, said spokeswoman Caroline Boren. Palin was very pleasant to the gate agents and flight attendants, as always, Boren said.”
Woops, I called Alaska Airlines on Friday. On April 17 Alaska had NO flight to Anchorage out of DFW. Rather they partnered with American Airlines. The flight Sarah Palin flew on (which completely corresponds with her OWN statement of arrival time) was American Airlines 1291 which departed at 3:45 pm, arrived Anchorage 7:40 pm, a 6hr 55 minute flight. American Airlines DOES require a doctor’s permission to fly at 36 weeks.
By Sarah’s admission she stated:
“Sarah said that while she did not tell the pilot or flight attendants that she was 36 weeks along, she did not hide her condition either” http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2008/04/alaskan-governo.html
Above you chose to highlight that the doctor stated, ““I don’t think it was unreasonable for her to continue to travel back,” Baldwin-Johnson said.”
You chose NOT to highlight the fact that Sarah never asked for her doctor’s medical ok to fly. Then can you explain to me what the nature of their conversations were that supposedly took place after her water began leaking? Doesn’t any NORMAL pregnant woman in such an instance (especially since she was in supposed close contact with her physician ask for PERMISSION to engage in any activity?) When a woman leaks amniotic fluid then she is to go STRAIGHT to a doctor to be checked. The amniotic leaking fluid is checked for proteins. Then the woman is put on BED REST. This was a high risk pregnancy of a Down Syndrome fetus in a 44 year old woman. It is important to carry a fetus as close to term as possible, but in the case of DS fetuses this is even more important. Lung development is critical at eight months. Obviously you are not aware of the multitude of medical problems facing a Down Syndrome child which have nothing to do with the mental capacities of the child being born which can turn out to be either high-functioning or low-functioning Down Syndrome. This birth was supposedly INDUCED which meant there was a REASON-that the child was in distress in the womb more so than being born. Her amniotic fluid had NOT been checked up until she presented herself at the hospital where she gave birth. This was a SEVEN HOUR flight.
HER OWN DOCTOR states she didn’t ask for permission to fly. This is the absolute craziest story of a pregnant woman I have ever heard in my life.
Here is a picture taken this last Friday of Bristol holding baby Trig. Is that a picture of a girl who is recovering from mono supposedly?
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=117egpk&s=4
Weight LOSS is a result of mono, not weight GAIN.
Sorry, but your report here is not factually based whatsoever. Also, it has been taken down, but the medical center where Trig was supposedly born DID have a list of births for that day. There is NO listing of this child being born there on April 18th. I know so because I saw it with my own eyes before it was taken down.
Jess : 01 September 2008 at 11:14 am
You guys are idiots. The Dailykos has already come out and stated they started a rumor based on crap information and yet you choose to continue this bullshit and state it’s true? THEY JUST STATED THEY WERE WRONG!
I hope both of you feel really good about yourselves for picking on a 17 year old CHILD simply based off of her weight.
Robin : 01 September 2008 at 12:37 pm
WOOPS, now it’s been announced that Bristol Palin is five months pregnant NOW.
Let’s wait for the “miscarriage” due to all the stress of the scrutiny put on this entirely implausible story.
Don’t try putting words in my mouth, NO I would not wish a miscarriage to occur to anyone, but I entirely predict that to happen. If Bristol is five months pregnant she will be due in January sometime.
Wow, do the math, she was out of school supposedly for mono, but she managed to get pregnant in April! I guess she wasn’t too sick to engage in a little hanky panky while her parents supposedly had her home ILL.
But the pro-life mom (Sarah) who put her “OWN” infant at severe risk while flying NOT asking her physician’s OK to do so has “embraced” her daughter’s pregnancy and her so called pending marriage at age SEVENTEEN.
As Ralph Land of the SBC said, “Sarah Palin is straight out of central casting.”
Toss the theory aside everyone, McCain did NOT go for the women’s vote, he went for the ANTI-ABORTION/Evangelical vote and has come up with one HECK of a “miracle story”!
glenncz : 05 September 2008 at 7:57 pm
because this story is so implausible, think about this. Sarah has worked and lived in Juneau since entering office in Jan07, at the Governors house. She states she was 7 weeks pregnant on 3/16/08. She gave birth in Wasila by her home town doctor on 4/18/08. Didn’t she live in Juneau from the summer of 07 until the birth on 4/18. Didn’t she likely see an Obstet in Juneau for her “high-risk” pregnancy, being 44 years old and giving bird to a Down’s Syndrome baby. Do you know that mapquest.com says it is 20 hrs to drive from Juneau to Wasilla? How often were her visits? DId she take an entire day off to fly then drive to make her visits to Wasilla? If not, why would she want this high risk delivery done by her hometown FP. Just more to think about and check ot.