This morning, our friends over at the liberal Arkansas Times blog joined in on the fun new conspiracy theory circulating around the angry left.
It seems that someone figured out along the way that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s VP pick, had never actually been pregnant with her youngest child, born in April (this is the child with Down’s Syndrome you’ve heard about).
You see, it turns out—follow me here—that it was actually Palin’s 17-year-old daughter who was pregnant, but Palin pretended to be pregnant to shield said daughter from public opprobrium.
The Arkansas Times blog, using slightly hedging language, passed along this fake pregnancy rumor, which I must admit is quite the bombshell…
Ah, but if only it had the added virtue of being true! Last evening, a sensible blogger at the liberal Daily Kos site (I know, I’m as surprised as you are!) adduced photographic evidence to fight the rumor, smartly arguing to his or her brethren that “we look stupid pushing this rumor.”
And today Palin tells reporters that her 17-year-old daughter IS in fact five months pregnant, and that the girl plans to marry the father and keep the baby. Go ahead and do the math to figure out if the daughter could have plausibly given birth in April. I’ll wait here. (To his great credit, Max Brantley at the ArkTimes blog swiftly updated to reflect this new information.)
Why does this story make me so happy? Because I’m delighted to the see the left trafficking in the same kind of deranged conspiracy theories that did so much damage to the right in the 1990s, when all kinds of conservatives cashed in their credibility to pass around insane accusations against the Clintons (Did you know that Hillary had Vince Foster murdered?). It was thoroughly self-defeating, as it meant that, when there were legitimate briefs to be made against the Clintons, those could be dismissed as just more of the crazy-ass right-wing carnival.
And with 64 days to go until Election Day, I’m thrilled to see Democrats and Barack Obama supporters squander time and energy with these conspiracy theory sideshows, all the while creating public sympathy for the GOP VP nominee. The more they push this kind of thing, the less attention they’ll be paid if they should ever come up with legitimate critiques.
More please!
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