Getting to Know Her

The American public already knew John McCain and Barack Obama pretty well. And Joe Biden's story has been in and out of the news over the years.

But nobody knew much about Sarah Palin until last Friday.

Seems like we're getting a lot of information in a short period of time.

Of course, both sides have been putting out their own spins that are often half-truths.

The Republican spin is that Palin was thoroughly vetted, although that doesn't necessarily appear to be the case.

The Democrats' spin on Joe Biden, to play into Obama's message of "change," is that he's just "Joltin' Joe" from Pennsylvania — even though he's been representing Delaware in the Senate for nearly four decades.

Well, it's been 24 years since Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman to run on a major party's national ticket.

Back in those days, I thought we had dealt with all the issues that went along with nominating a woman for national office. But it seems I was wrong.

I guess the media got a little obsessed, in late summer of 1984, with its inquiries into the financial status of Ferraro's husband. Even though Ferraro had one daughter in her early 20s and another in her late teens when she ran for vice president, I don't recall any public discussions about what Ferraro would do or advise if one of her daughters became pregnant.

But that's the situation that Palin faces right now.

Actually, Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post thinks Bristol Palin's pregnancy is the "ultimate teachable moment."

Marcus observes that "[t]he unwed mother — or at least, the not-yet-wed mother — has become a more common (this is bad) and less shameful (this is good) phenomenon in 21st-century America."

Bristol Palin, apparently, has decided against having an abortion, and she plans on marrying the father of her baby.

That is the outcome that pro-lifers should want when a young woman has an unplanned pregnancy. And Sarah Palin has shown, by giving birth to a child she knew to have Down syndrome, that she is against abortion in her personal life.

She has, in fact, been outspoken in her opposition to abortion. And, it appears, her beliefs about abortion have been passed along to her daughter.

Sarah Palin now has the opportunity to be a national advocate for those who are pro-life. She can encourage women who are carrying babies with a chromosomal disorder, like Down syndrome.

And she can speak from experience about advising an unmarried daughter who becomes pregnant. That's an experience with which many American parents can relate.

The development with her daughter essentially does not change my initial impression of Gov. Palin.

When she was announced as McCain's presumptive running mate, the thing that struck me as remarkable about Palin was how unremarkable she is. (Well, except for the fact that she's a strikingly beautiful woman.)

She never seemed particularly quirky to me. I used to watch the "Northern Exposure" TV series, and she seemed pretty normal, especially when compared to the mostly eccentric residents of the fictional Alaska town of Cicely.

Then I found out that Palin's hometown of Wasilla is quite similar to Cicely. (That may or may not be a good thing, depending upon your opinion of the folks from that make-believe community.)

But many of the things about her would fit in nicely in the real places where I've lived. And with the real people I have known.

When I was a small child, for example, my hometown in Arkansas was about the size of Palin's hometown.

When I was growing up, many of the adults in my life owned guns (as Palin does). Few, if any, of them ever went hunting for moose, but they all took part in the start of deer season.

Palin's favorite dish, I've been told, is moose stew. Many of the people I knew when I was growing up were partial to venison steaks.

Recent inquiries have also uncovered the revelation that Palin's husband was charged with DUI when he was in his early 20s. That apparently is information that Palin voluntarily shared with McCain's vetting team. There is no indication of any ongoing alcohol problem, which probably means Todd Palin was a lot like many of the guys I grew up with. He drank some when he was young, had a brush with the law because of it and learned his lesson.

Abortion was rarely spoken of in my circle of friends, but I knew girls in high school who, like Bristol Palin, had to make a very personal decision. And I'm sure their decisions were influenced, at least to a degree, by any advice they received from their mothers.

Sarah Palin has taken the position that young people need to abstain from sexual activity. As I pointed out earlier, Bristol Palin seems to have embraced much of her mother's personal philosophy. But she doesn't appear to have embraced the part about not embracing.

I was a teenager once, and I agree with Marcus: "[T]alking about abstinence turns out to be easier than abstaining."

Now is Palin's opportunity to explain to the public why she believes abstinence is the best approach. But, given the recent developments, she should be aware that it isn't always a successful strategy.

That really shouldn't surprise anyone. Whether you're a parent or not, you know that parental advice was not always taken when you were a teenager. Has human nature changed since you were Bristol Palin's age?

The fact that Birstol didn't follow her mother's advice does not mean the advice itself wasn't sound — particularly in the modern age, when sexual activity can lead not only to pregnancy but also to an ever-expanding list of diseases — or that the messenger was ineffective.

But there are people who believe that it is naïve to tell young people to abstain. They want to know why Palin believes that is a strategy that can work.

"Being a teenager means taking stupid risks," writes Marcus. "The best, most attentive parenting and the best, most comprehensive sex education won't stop teenagers from doing dumb things. The most we as parents can hope for is to insulate our children, as best we can, from the consequences of their own stupidity."

Sometimes, it's hard to insulate adults, too. That's a question the Republican Party needs to resolve in this matter.

But it's not the only issue the Republicans need to resolve.

Elisabeth Bumiller suggests, in the New York Times, that the Republican vetting process — despite having about a three-month head start on Obama's team — settled on Palin too hastily.

Until only a few days before unveiling Palin as his running mate, Bumiller writes, McCain "was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend," like Sen. Joe Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, or former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.

But their pro-choice views precluded their selection. The probability of a revolt within the party was simply too great.

"With time running out," Bumiller writes, McCain "had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later."

This week is Palin's opportunity to demonstrate that McCain made a wise choice.