So let's compare. Sarah Palin has a 17 year old daughter who is pregnant. Does this mean that Sarah Palin is a hypocrite for championing family values? Does this make her a bad parent? Here is what Palin has to say about the matter: "We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart...Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of love and adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional support."
This to me is the true humble and Christian response. No one is perfect. And there are consequences for actions which people have to live with. Even so, parents can admire the young girl's decision not to take the easy way out and have an abortion. They love their daughter unconditionally, and accept the grandchild unreservedly. I predict that this will strengthen Palin's support both with evangelical Christians and with the American people.
Now let's contrast Palin's behavior with that of Barack Obama. Here is Obama, from his speech at the Democratic National Convention. "It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it." Obama faulted McCain for his cruel and insensitive philosophy, which he defined this way: "Out of work? Tough luck. No health care. The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your boot straps, even if you don't have boots. You're on your own."
Obama rejected the bootstraps philosophy in favor of a Christian alternative. In his interview with pastor Rick Warren, Obama said his favorite passage in the Bible is the one where Jesus says: whatever you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto me. Obama has actually used biblical language to make the point that we are our brothers' keeper. Obama insisted that these are the ideals that have guided his life and the ones that he would bring to the Oval Office.
Now how can Obama's self-description be reconciled with news reports that Obama's younger half-brother lives in a hut in a shanty town on the outskirts of Nairobi? Vanity Fair caught up with twenty six year old George Hussein Onyango Obama, and what he had to say is as shocking as it is pathetic. "No one knows who I am. I live here on less than a dollar a month." George's shack measures 6 feet by 10 feet, and yet he says that Barack Obama has done nothing to reach out to him or to help him. "I live like a recluse. If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed." The two Obamas only met twice, once when George was five and then again in 2006 when Senator Obama visited Nairobi. "It was very brief," George says. "We spoke for just a few minutes. It was like meeting a complete stranger."
So far what has Obama said about his half-brother? Absolutely nothing. Yet the Obama campaign has not denied the story. And Obama's supporters, attempting to cover up for their man, have basically said that young George Obama is trying to benefit from Barack Obama's success. Their argument is that Obama owes his sibling nothing. So the Obama camp has a message for George: "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, even if you don't have boots. You're on your own." Obama's accusation against McCain turns out to be an accurate description of his own practical philosophy.
Could there be a more striking contrast between Palin's loving approach to her family and Obama's stern rejection of his own half-brother? The media seems to be implying that Palin is hypocritical because she stands for "family values" while her daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. But parents don't have full control over their teenagers' actions. Moreover, isn't Obama an even bigger hypocrite for championing aid to the down-and-out while his own sibling lives in an African hut on pennies a day? By the way the Obamas made several million dollars last year! They are certainly in a position to relieve George's condition if they cared enough.
The major newspapers and networks know about George, and they seem to recognize how damaging this story is for their favorite presidential candidate. So they are not reporting it, even though it is one of the most revealing stories about the candidate's character. And thus, with the GOP convention under way, we have the ridiculous spectacle of Obama getting credit for talking about compassion while Palin gets criticized for practicing it.
A slightly different version of this article appears in the online edition of National Review.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 46)
1. Obama has proven himself and the people voted him in and he gave the country time to accept him, hear him and vote for him. That has not happen with Palin and she lines up with the Republican party normal behavior of bullying America, setting standards that they can not meet themselves.
concerned at 9:25AM on Sep 2nd 2008
2.
I don't like the Palin pick and I am a woman. With all the controversy and the stance that she takes on the issues are not in line with my beliefs and I am a Christian. I am tired of people demanding high standards and limited information to Americans that they do not live up to and the bully mentality that follow the Republican Party.
concerned at 9:32AM on Sep 2nd 2008
3. Dinesh,
Are you nuts?
His father had many children with many Women. It's Barack Obama's responsibility to take care and financially support every single sibling he may or may not have ever met? How can you even use this as an argument.
Secondly, he hasn't even been financially stable himself until recently. He has never been well off. His books didn't start making any kind of money until people heard of him on a national stage.
Thirdly, don't come here and say Palin's daughter has made those decisions. She's 17. You can bet your ass, that her parents told her what to do or were highly influential in what she's deciding. Plus she's getting married at 17. When you were 17, can you say that you were ready to be a Father and Husband? I think not.
Fourthly, this shows how incredibly selfish Mrs. Palin is. She knew about her daughters situation, and still went ahead with the VP, knowing that her daughter would be smeared all over the place. Seems to me, that Mrs. Palin puts her own ambition over family and everything else. And that is certainly not the Christian thing to do.
Definition: Hypocrite
Botts at 9:48AM on Sep 2nd 2008
4. oh spare me dinesh! if obama had a 17 year old daughter who was preggers you would be all over it. talking about how he obviously set a bad example and should have taught her to abstain from sex.
when i was pregnant at the age of 18 the conservative assholes in the town i lived in (and they were plentiful, i lived in wyoming) didn't come up and congradulate me on being a responsible young woman. instead i got glares in the check out lanes while i pulled out my food stamps card.
i guess being proud of a teenager having a child only applies if your father works for an oil company so you don't need to rely on assistance programs.
and i have to agree with botts that it wasn't very fair to mrs. palin's family that she took this offer knowing her daughter's situation would be the center of attention. this isn't an ideal world and anyone with so much as a shred of intelligence knows that her daughter's privacy would not be a concern to the media. pretty selfish.
Richelle at 10:11AM on Sep 2nd 2008
5. This will be a gruelling campaign and I hope the Palins are up to it. Hopefully true Christians everywhere will be praying for the family and for Sarah who, undoubtedly must be following God's leading to even stand for the nomination. The Bible is actually a record of men & women failing miserably in their own strength, (try King David for instance) but able to accomplish the impossible by depending on Him alone. I'm encouraged that Obama, when asked his thoughts on the teenager's pregnancy said, "it's a family matter for them alone". Good advice! Now let's get back to concentrating on the candidates and leave their kids and spouses out of it.
fanman at 10:16AM on Sep 2nd 2008
6. The issue is not Palin. I could care less if her daughter is pregnant. Although this does speak volumes to the ineffectiveness of abstinence education in favor of contraception...
... but my real point is the the issue is not Palin, the issue is John McCain's tendency to make rash decisions without getting all the facts.
Ryan Anderson at 10:32AM on Sep 2nd 2008
7. From a CNN article dated 8/23/08:
" Unlike his grandmother in Kogela, in Western Kenya, George Obama had received little attention from the media.
But reports surfaced in the past few days, springing from an Italian Vanity Fair article saying George Obama is living in a shack and "earning less than a dollar a day."
The reports left him angry.
"I was brought up well. I live well even now," he said. "The magazines, they have exaggerated everything.
"I think I kind of like it here. There are some challenges, but maybe it is just like where you come from, there are the same challenges," Obama said.
Obama, who is in his mid-20s, is learning to become a mechanic and is active in youth groups in Huruma. He said he tries to help the community as much as he can. "
But George Obama will have none of it. He draws inspiration from his famous half-brother. He acknowledges that he is biased but said he knows that his half-brother will be the next president.
Alyssa at 10:37AM on Sep 2nd 2008
8. before Palin, the 'sexy pentecostal' started using the republicn party she was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party which seeks to challenge the legality of alaskan statehood and secceed from the united states of america.
john mccain introduced Palin to us by having her lie on national television about the bridge to nowhere when she knew that hundreds of thousands of people would know that she was lying.
when the republican party first branded john mccain a traitor for lying for the vietcong while a POW, I forgave him as I had an uncle who had been in a japanese prison camp and knew he had endured the horror of voluntarily drawing straws to see who would be sacrificed for the others to stay fed and alive.
I felt sorry for mccain and realized what the republican party was all about.
but now john mccain is having Palin lie to us to save his political life.
this on the heels of those rumours about saddam, 9-11 and wmd's.
the servicemen who've sacrificed for our country dont deserve this.
Louis IX KingofFrance at 10:41AM on Sep 2nd 2008
9. Here's a link to that website: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/22/bts.obama.brother/
Alyssa at 10:41AM on Sep 2nd 2008
10. Why should he throw money at his half brother? The people who accuse Obama of being a Socialist are now whining that he isn't being socialist. George has no claim on Barack's money, and Barack doesn't have a moral obligation to throw money at every stranger his father sires into the world. What do you even know about life in Nairobi?
Mokele Mbembe at 10:58AM on Sep 2nd 2008
11. Incidentally, I also had a father that was not a part of my life (never even met him). And he may very well have other children in this world that would technically be my half brothers or sisters. But I would feel no connection to them, as I feel no connection to my father, and I have no desire to see if any half-sibling in fact do exist. Perhaps you can't really understand this if you haven't be separated from one half of your lineage as Barack and I have.
It's not a lack of sympathy, it's merely a lack of recognition of this person as your family. They might as well be a stranger on the street for all the worth they have to you. I don't blame Barack for his limited interaction with George in the slightest. He does not owe George anything. Barack does, however, provide for his half-sister (on his mother's side) who he grew up with and cared for.
Moreover, it's quite different than interacting with your child, in Palin's case. I'm quite positive that if Barack's daughters experienced the same problems, he'd be equally there for them as Palin has been for her daughter. You're trying to compare completely different things, and it's something that you clearly don't comprehend.
Alyssa at 10:58AM on Sep 2nd 2008
12. thanks alyssa for providing that info. i was sure dinesh was being absurd. that's just his style.
Richelle at 10:58AM on Sep 2nd 2008
13.
Anagram Time!
Sarah Palin:
Sharia Plan
I A Rash Plan
Las Piranha
Sal Piranha
Alpha Rains
Lanai Harps
A Snail Harp
A Hair's Plan
A Sharp Nail
Has Rain Lap
Hi Nasal Rap
Liar, Ah Snap
Ah, Rail Naps
San Lap Hair
His Anal Rap
Har, Anal Sip
Anal Rash Pi
I Sharp Anal
Anal Parish
Ah, Anal Rips!
Ran, Slip, Aha!
Spinal Raah!
Raaah! Nipls!
Analysis: She plans to implement Sharia law, and has a myriad of proctological health issues. "Ran, Slip, Aha!" is prophetic of her political bid.
Acronym Time!
Alumni lap-harass Sarah Palin, mula!
Mini lap-harass, Sarah Palin I'm.
Mokele Mbembe at 11:12AM on Sep 2nd 2008
14. DD is the one grasping at straws. Using an obscure family member from the Obamas to draw comparison to Palins daughter? Give me a break, there is no comparison.
Obama is a grown man living in africa
Palins kid is a 17 year old girl in Alaska.
Obama met the guy twice
Palin had her daughter for 17years so far
Obama doesnt plaster the guy in the press
Palin went to the media herself.
HHMMMMMM.......
Pope Cack IV at 11:13AM on Sep 2nd 2008
15. Dinesh,
I think that Sarah Palin and her family are showing the country the RIGHT way to handle this situation: Do not murder the baby in an abortion, and, the REAL shocker for liberals these days, the soon-to-be mother and father are actually going to get MARRIED and become responsible adults! No wonder the lefty liberals want to pile-on to persecute this teen pregnancy, they did not murder the baby in an abortion--the most convenient way "out"--and they are not acting like the father has no responsibility for raising and supporting his own child and soon-to-be wife and mother of his child.
We don't have complete control of our children, and the older they get, the less control can be exerted by the parents.
The baby of this teen mother is not a mistake, the teen parents made the big mistake of having sex before they were married, something that the liberals expect of most teens, to have sex as young as possible. They say, "we know you're gonna do it anyway, so we'll train you how."
This in no way reflects poorly on the righteousness of Sarah Palin. I think it makes her even more relate-able to many in the population.
Even in the Bible, the righteous priest Eli, who raised the prophet Samuel, could only make Samuel his successor because his own sons turned out to be poorly behaved.
B.O. himself has pointed out that his own mother was only 18 when he was born. It is the media that is persecuting this teen mother more than B.O., but he is benefiting from the sleazy reporting.
Just say no to B.O., vote McCain/Palin!
Rev 3:16 at 11:24AM on Sep 2nd 2008