Internet Scofflaw

A lot of people are wondering what political impact Sarah Palin’s daughter’s pregancy will have. For example, Charles Johnson asks:

This comes right after James Dobson and other far-right Christian conservatives enthusiastically endorsed McCain’s choice. It will be very interesting to see the reaction from that quarter.

I don’t take offense at the question. Despite being generally friendly to evangelicals, Johnson doesn’t really understand us, and unlike the Kos Kidz, he’s not licking his chops at the prospect of evangelicals eating Palin alive. But the question is easy to answer: this will not hurt Palin with them at all. If it has any impact, it will be the opposite. Anyone who thinks that this would hurt Palin with evangelicals has gotten their impression from Hollywood, not reality.

However, I predict that this will hurt Palin with far-left feminists. (Not that McCain-Palin had any realistic chance with them anyway.) They will whisper that Palin pressured her daughter to keep the baby, and that will be seen as terrible. Palin’s supporters will give two equally correct responses: (1) her critics have no evidence at all, and (2) there’s nothing wrong with talking someone out of an abortion anyway. Point 1 will be ignored, but the fact that point 2 is being made will taken as proof. How the argument will play out in the center is anyone’s guess, but I think that people will see that one side is behaving well and the other badly.

You heard it here first.

UPDATE: Like I said. (Via LGF.) Now waiting on prediction #2.

UPDATE: Haven’t seen prediction #2 fulfilled just yet, but Time’s Nathan Thornburgh is making the same prediction:

As for the idea — sure to be floated—that the avowedly anti-abortion Palin may have pressured her poor daughter to ruin her life by carrying an unwanted baby to term, I wouldn’t bet on it. The Palin family seems to share the same pro-life values going back at least as far back as anyone here can remember, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Bristol wore those values, however imperfectly, as her own. At least, that’s what the town thinks. And Wasilla, above all, is pretty sensible.

(Via Hot Air.)

The article’s lede, by the way, is that the Wasilla press knew about this already, but considered it a family matter and left it alone.

UPDATE: Case closed on Palin and evangelicals.

LAST UPDATE: I had prediction 2 precisely backwards.  Apparently I simply do not know how to think as a leftist.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.