Sarah and Bristol Palin on abstinence--in context
No, neither Sarah Palin nor her daughter Bristol called abstinence naive or unrealistic. Here's Bristol's exact words...
VAN SUSTEREN: Does he have any sort of -- does he feel the same way you feel about teen pregnancy and have some sort of -- Well, maybe a good idea to wait usually, unless things happen?
BRISTOL: Yes. He feels the same way I do. We both just -- kids should just wait. It's -- I don't know. It's not glamorous at all.
VAN SUSTEREN: I don't want to pry to personally, but I mean, actually, contraception is an issue here. Is that something that you were just lazy about or not interested, or do you have a philosophical or religious opposition to it or...
BRISTOL: No. I don't want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is, like -- like, the -- I don't know how to put it -- like, the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all.
Remember this is an 18 year-old girl, so she talks like many 18 year-olds (and older) shifting directions constantly. In that final sentence she changed directions at least 5 times. She started out not wanting to give details, then began a different thought, then another, then started to crystallize on the concept of abstinence being the primary effort and that everyone should be abstinent, then finally throws in the bit about it not being realistic. But was she talking about abstinence in general or was she talking about what she just said, that it's unrealistic to think everyone will be abstinent? Obviously she meant the idea that everyone could be abstinent.
Let's look at what Sarah Palin said, that's being misquoted...
VAN SUSTEREN: So it's not just an issue of abstinence. That's one issue. But once we get beyond that -- you know, because when you have the discussion of abstinence, it's almost -- I always sort of feel badly because there's a wonderful child here and talking abstinence sounds -- I mean, it sounds...
SARAH PALIN: (INAUDIBLE) naive (INAUDIBLE)
For one thing we have an inaudible comment, repeated by Van Susteren, but it really doesn't fit the question. Van Susteran was talking about the seeming impropriety of discussing abstinence while adoring the product of the lack of abstinence. Palin did not say abstinence is naive, she was offering (if that's even what she said) a description of the discussion in that setting.
Meanwhile Liberals across the MSM and the blogosphere are claiming both Sarah Palin and her daughter have said abstinence is naive. These would be the same Liberals who advocate as a solution to smoking: Abstinence; as a solution to gun ownership: Abstinence; as a solution to public expression of religious faith: Abstinence; expressing any opposition to anything they believe is correct: Abstinence. Funny how that works.
Posted by Danny Carlton at February 18, 2009 8:18 AM