Why I don't really care about Bristol Palin

Lots of people, especially those in the media, are all excited about Bristol Palin, the daughter of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska and presumptive Republican nominee for Vice President, being pregnant.

There are one or two reasons for this excitement that are sensible enough.  First, Mrs. Palin has gone on the record as opposing teaching anything other than abstinence in sex ed, and, well, that kinda didn't work out in Bristol's case.  And a few people have glommed onto Mrs. Palin's statement that Bristol "chose" to keep the baby, in light of Mrs. Palin's stated position that abortion should be illegal in all cases except those where the mother's life is at risk.

But other commentators and pundits have pointed out that basically everyone in America has either gotten pregnant out of wedlock, or knows someone who has.  And I don't think that's far off the mark.  Heck, Barack Obama's parents got married after he was conceived, and Sarah Palin herself eloped with her husband (ostensibly "because they couldn't afford a big wedding") a month pregnant with her first son, Track.

In fact, between the two tickets (presuming McCain-Palin is the ticket), let's see... Biden's first wife and daughter were killed in a car crash and he was a single dad for a while; McCain's first wife was maimed in a car crash and he went off philandering and wound up with a beer heiress; Obama's dad ran off when he was a tot and only saw him again once in his whole life; Palin's got the abstinence-for-everyone-but-us vibe and a Down's baby; Obama was raised by his single mom and his grandmom; the McCains adopted a girl from Bangladesh or somewhere who hardly ever shows up in their family pictures...

Yeah, I get the feeling that the whole "family" issue isn't going to be a very valid way to compare these candidates.  Unless "compare" involves standing slack-jawed, pointing at the performers in a carnival side-show. :)

So yeah, I don't much care.  The only thing I've learned from all this is that I'm clearly unqualified to seek higher office, since my daughter didn't arrive until I'd been married for nearly three years.