The question of whether Sarah Palin’s family should be off limits has been bandied about a lot over the last few days. Most people have said that, yes, families should be off limits in the political discourse. I’m going out on a limb here and saying that is total bullshit.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that people calling Bristol Palin a slut (which so far no one has done…out loud…in public) or calling Chelsea Clinton ugly (which Rush Limbaugh and his ilk loved to do, and still occasionally do) is appropriate or right. However, candidates’ spouses and their children are a direct reflection on the candidates themselves, who they are, the values they hold, and the company they keep. An objective examination of candidates’ spouses and childrens’ behavior is completely valid in the citizenry’s examination of candidates viability as president.

The Bush twins getting busted for under-age drinking and using fake IDs were a pretty accurate foreshadowing of their fathers’ general philosophy that the rules don’t apply to him or his cronies. The fact that Cindy McCain’s half-sisters and their children can’t stand her is a pretty telling indication of the type of person she is, and as an extension an insight into the type of person who would marry her. Add to that the less subjective observation that there are some serious questions as to the legality of some of Cindy McCain’s maneuvering in regards to her father’s will, which resulted in a man who had always been extremely generous with all his children bizarrely leaving Cindy the vast bulk of his estate (worth hundreds of millions of dollars) while he left his other daughters only $10,000 each. It’s not a pretty picture. And this is who John McCain loves (despite calling her a c**t).

If there had been any truth to the Michelle Obama “Whitey” tape, you and I both know that despite whatever protests coming from the Obama camp, that Michelle’s opinion do not necessarily reflect Barack’s, would not in any way temper the damage. It’s enough that he’s married to someone with those opinions. It must reflect on who he is.

And Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, besides being a glaring example of why abstinence-only sex education doesn’t work, and ignoring the fact that while everyone is congratulating her on “choosing” to keep the baby, her own mother’s policies would remove all other women’s right to make their own “choice”, it is a clear indication that Sarah Palin (as a mother and as a politician) ascribes to what should be the GOP’s official motto “Do as I say, not as I do.”

In short, calling Bristol Palin a red-neck skank is wrong and completely beyond the bounds of decency. Mentioning her pregnancy and commenting on how that reflects on her mother’s own possible hypocrisy, completely valid. And finally, if a candidate’s children should be off the table, then it should also be out of bounds for Sarah Palin to use the fact that her son Track is about to ship off to Iraq as some kind of evidence of either her own patriotism or her foreign policy experience.

Related Posts:

1. Is Levi Johnston Guilty of Statutory Rape?
2. Cindy McCain Affair II
3. Sarah Palin as Tina Fey?
4. A Few Notes on the Meltdown
5. McCain Loves to Dance the Sidestep