The Family and the Public Eye

Close on the heels of the Democratic National Convention, the furor surrounding the Republican National Convention kicking off this week got two jolts which were both expected but couldn't be farther apart if they tried. The first was the fact that Hurricane Gustav was barrelling down on Louisiana and the Gulf States, close enough to the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to make many people very nervous considering the debacle which surrounded the area the last time a hurricane hit. The other was slightly smaller scale though no less important and that was the announcement that Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.

Now ordinarily I am the last person who would discuss something like this with any amount of interest but in this case I think it brings up an interesting topic that many will be thinking about in the run up to the elections in November, just a few short weeks from now. The fact that Bristol Palin is 17 and unmarried is not as significant as the fact that she is the daughter of the Republican nominee for Vice President. Any time a person is up for nomination, their entire family is under intense scrutiny. Nevermind that they have little or nothing to do with the actual office and power that their relative is seeking to occupy and yield but still, there are often cases of guilt by association in our society.

Remember Al Gore back in 2000? He ran for president and he lost for many reasons but one of which was definitely the fact that he was the vice president of Bill Clinton. He undoubtedly had nothing to do with the dalliances of President Clinton but his opposition played up the fact that Gore had occupied the same White House and so even he was capable of such dalliances. Guilt by association. Similarly, the case with Bristol Palin could come back to bite John McCain despite the fact that it really doesn't have anything to do with how John McCain or Sarah Palin could do in performing the duties of the offices for which they are running. It doesn't have anything to do with anything... or does it?

I don't think families of nominees should come under as intense scrutiny as they do these days. I think the Obamas have done a wonderful job of shielding their two daughters from the media spotlight as much as possible because although they are part of his family and would also be in the White House, they need not be scrutinized to the point of mentally traumatizing them. Unfortunately for Sarah and Bristol Palin, the fact that she is unmarried and pregnant will play into the hands of their opposition who will use this as a platform to point out the fact that despite being proponents of pro-life and pro-family stances, they apparently haven't fought to instill these values into their kids. This may not be true at all, but this will certainly be the spin that people put on it.

It isn't fair to subject someone to this sort of media scrutiny and though the cat is out of the bag, I would hope that the media would take a softer stance on the issue and understandably ease up with the rhetoric against Bristol Palin. She's a kid who is having to grow up quite fast and though it may be fair to ask Palin about the matter, it isn't fair to treat Bristol Palin as a scapegoat to make Sarah Palin look like a failure in terms of being a fighter for the pro-life or pro-family movement. If one has to raise issue with a candidate, be they Republican, Democrat or Independent, the issue should be on the candidate themselves and not their families. After all, who are we really electing?