Palin By Comparison?

It has been about 72 hours since Sarah Palin has been the VP candidate for the McCain ticket and already there are multitudes of questions (or myths and falsehoods as Media Matters put out)about her and her loved ones:

1) Her 17 year old daughter Bristol is five months pregnant (but is planning to marry the baby's father).
2) Her husband has had a DWI (albeit in 1986 at the age of 22).
3) As mayor of Wassila, she hired the lobbying firm run by the former chief of staff of beleaguered Senator Ted Stevens and supported the "bridge to nowhere" before she was against it (get out your flip-flops people). "We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge, and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative," Palin said in August 2006, according to the Ketchikan Daily News. (see USA Today for more)
4) There are accusations of her firing Alaska public safety commissioner Walt Monegan. Monegan had refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.
5) Someone has tinkered with her Wikipedia page to make her look "better."
6) Rumors are flying that her daughter is the real mother of Trig, their youngest child and that Sarah Palin was covering it up. The Daily Kos thinks it is much ado about nothing.

After reading Stephan Marks' "Confessions of a Political Hitman", I am severely concerned about "oppo research" that is done by all candidates and the toll it takes on the real issues that face the nation. How many of these issues really matter when deciding whether she is a deserving candidate for the office she seeks? Still, until the game changes, what is good for the gander is good for the goose.

To his credit, Barack Obama has publically stated that "our people are not involved in any way on this [rumors about Bristol Palin's pregnancy]." He added that if he discovered any involvement by a member of his campaign "they'd be fired."

According to the Swamp:

Obama used the moment to retiterate his beleif that "people's families are off-limits and children are especially off-limits."This shouldn't be part of our politics, it has no relevance to governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president," he said. "And 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 family deals with issues and teenage children that shouldn't be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that is off limits."