The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Having Met Todd Palin …

Posted on | April 14, 2011 | 130 Comments

. . . I would advise anyone to avoid ever insulting the man. He is not particularly tall, nor ostensibly stocky, an easygoing, modest and quiet man by nature. Mr. Palin reminds me very much, however, of certain fellows I grew up around and, if I judge the man rightly, you’d never want to make him angry.

When such a man decides you’re in need of a good old-fashioned ass-whupping, he’s unlikely to deem you worthy of advanced warning. Which was why I posed a question to Mr. Palin’s wife via Twitter:

Dr. Bradford Scharlott is an associate professor of communications at the University of Northern Kentucky, who has called attention to himself by publishing a 29-page “academic” treatise, the essence of which is an allegation that Todd Palin is a liar:

The theory is that Sarah Palin is actually the grandmother of her purported son Trig, not the mother, and that she staged a gigantic hoax during the campaign to cover up this fact. . . .
Scharlott’s article walks through all the evidence supporting the theory, including the photos of Palin in what is said to have been a late-stage pregnancy, the leisurely 20-hour trip home that Palin took after she supposedly went into labor in Texas, the refusal of the hospital where Trig was supposedly born to even confirm that he was born there (let alone who was the mother), strange statements from Palin’s doctor and the McCain campaign, and so on.

As I say, I have met Todd Palin, seen Trig scamper around the living room of the Palin family’s lakefront home in Wasilla, and watched Todd read a storybook to the adorable little tyke. Todd just rolled his eyes in disgust at my cautiously indirect mention of the “Trig Truther” nonsense, but I’d double-dog dare any of those fools to try presenting the so-called “evidence” for their lunatic theory while Todd Palin was in the room.

Yet I didn’t need to meet Todd and Trig to recognize Trig-Trutherism as lunacy. In August 2009, while dealing with vicious anti-Palin blogger “Audrey,” I wrote: 

[T]he moonbats are insinuating that Bristol is actually Trig’s mother, and Sarah his grandmother . . . Such insinuations collapse at first contact with reality:

What the Trig Truthers are trying to insinuate is that Bristol gave birth in April, conceived again almost immediately after Trig’s delivery and then, barely eight months after the birth of her first child, delivered her second child — healthy and apparently full-term — shortly after Christmas.
To the extent that this is not a medical impossibility, it certainly seems both unlikely and unnatural to say nothing of what we bloggers sometimes call “nucking futs.”

So if Palin’s pregnancy was a “hoax,” if she faked a pregnancy to disguise the fact that Trig was in fact Bristol’s child, this would seem to require that mere days after giving birth to Trig — scarcely permitting time to heal from that experience — Bristol became pregnant again so as to give birth to full-term baby Tripp exactly 255 days after giving birth to Trig.

Normal gestation period is 40 weeks (280 days). There have been instances where, impatient with the normal post-partum healing period (six weeks is usually recommended), ardent couples have conceived again within a month or two of giving birth.

Such are the circumstances of the phenomenon commonly called “Irish twins,” two babies born to the same couple less than a year apart. But it is ludicrous to suggest that this could explain Trig and Tripp as both being Bristol’s babies: At a bare minimum, allowing just two weeks after an April 18 childbirth before she again ovulated, this would put the second conception date no earlier than May 2. A second baby born Dec. 29 would make the gestation period for Tripp just 241 days — more than a month premature.

How many 34-week babies weigh 7-and-half pounds?

As if this were not in itself ironclad disproof of the Trig-Truther theory, there is still the matter of Trig being born with Down Syndrome and, as I first pointed out on Sept. 1, 2008, this is a condition closely correlated with advanced maternal age. At age 44, the odds of Sarah Palin giving birth to a child with Down Syndrome were 1-in-140, compared to 1-in-1,400 for a woman under age 25. Given that Gov. Palin was thus ten times more likely than Bristol to give birth to a Down Syndrome child, and in light of the more-or-less impossible odds against Bristol giving birth to a 7-and-a-half-pound baby after a 34-week gestation . . .

Well, what part of “nucking futz” is so hard to understand?

It’s crazy, is what it is, and the craziest part of it is that these fools are calling Todd Palin a liar. By my calculations, the campus of Northern Kentucky University is just about a 15-minute drive from the airport in Florence, and if Professor Scharlott gets the ass-whuppin’ he deserves, don’t say I didn’t try to warn him.

UPDATE: Jesse “Gryphen” Griffin claims that he corresponded with Scharlott for two months, and that Scharlott shared an advance draft of this paper with him. This indicates that Scharlott is knee-deep into the festering swamp of Palin Derangement Syndrome.

UPDATE II: Kudos to former Palin spokesman Bill McAllister who, upon receiving a copy of Scharlott’s paper, called the professor “despicable” and a “scoundrel.” McAllister declared: “If we ever meet, I’ll slap you. . . . In a different era, I’d challenge you to a duel.”

McAllister wrote an op-ed column for the Alaska Dispatch, explaining how Scharlott’s paper tries to connect dots that aren’t actually connected. But this is what conspiracy theorists always do, and why any reputable university would employ such a despicable scoundrel is beyond me.

UPDATE III: Justin Elliott of Salon notes that the Scharlott paper is being “shopped” by a publicist named Jennifer Campana, who may be the same Jennifer Campana described in a 2009 Los Angeles Times story about layoffs in California. (Disprove it!) And Elliott’s article also reminds us of Dave Weigel’s rebuke to Trig Truthers:

Trig Palin is Sarah Palin’s son and it’s irresponsible to suggest otherwise. . . .
Were Sarah Palin to become president and everything the Trig Truthers believed to be proven right, it wouldn’t matter at all. But they won’t be proven right. All of the evidence indicates that Trig Palin is Sarah’s son, and none of it suggests otherwise.

Let anyone go read Scharlott’s paper:

  • On Page 2, he says there was “insufficient evidence for the press to conclude that Palin was telling the truth about Trig.” So, according to Scharlott, anyone can accuse someone else of lying and the burden of proof is on the accused.
  • On Page 3, Scharlott uses the tendentious phrase “purported birth,” the kind of dirty trick that would never get past the copy desk at any reputable newspaper.
  • On Page 4, Scharlott cited the long-since-deleted Daily Kos poster “ArcXIX,” and then an Anchorage Daily News reporter who cited the “ArcXIX” post as the basis for treating the Trig-Truther story as a legitimate topic.
  • On Page 5, Scharlott writes that the John McCain presidential campaign “chose to reveal on September 1 that Bristol was pregnant, alleging that she was in her fifth month — and thus, the logic went, she could not be the mother of Trig, who was allegedly born on April 18.”

Now, amidst all this “allegedly alleging” stuff, you see how Scharlott engages in insinuation, seeking to play on the suspicions of readers predisposed to doubt any word a Republican says, especially when it involves a pre-demonized personality like Sarah Palin.

As for it being “alleged” that Bristol Palin was five months pregnant on Sept. 1, she gave birth on Dec. 29 — a fact not in dispute — almost exactly four months later. (Last time I checked, 5+4=9.) And if it is merely “alleged” that Trig was born on April 18, on what basis does Scharlott suppose otherwise?

Does Scharlott mean to insinuate (just taking a wild stab in the dark here) that Trig was actually born to Bristol before April 18, which would for the purposes of the Trig-Truther theory provide additional time for Bristol to get pregnant again and have a full-term baby (allegedly!) in late December?

OK, fine: Where is there any evidence that Trig Palin was born before April 18? There is none. And so all Scharlott’s “allegedly alleging” insinuation is irrelevent nonsense.

I’ve just skimmed through Scharloff’s paper and highlighted problems from the first five pages. Let anyone else go take a look at the whole 29-page paper and see for themselves: As Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, there’s no “there” there.

UPDATE IV: Tom Maguire at Just One Minute linked Sully, who continues to express outrage at “the strange – and, frankly, incredible – stories Sarah Palin has told about her fifth pregnancy.”

But let’s face it: Sully would find any story involving a vagina ”strange”and “ncredible.” Also strange and incredible: Nothing from Ace about this?

Damn. That boy’s slipping in his old age.

UPDATE V: Linked by Josh Painter at Texas for Palin — thanks!

UPDATE VI: The Lonely Conservative points out medical studies showing that women pregnant with Down Syndrome babies tend to gain less weight during pregnancy, which goes toward rebutting the whole “but-she-didn’t-look-pregnant” meme of Trig Trutherism.

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Category: Sarah Palin

Comments

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  • http://www.thepiratescove.us/ William_Teach

    It’s simply another opportunity to show that the Left is bat sh*t insane. They’re concerned with a private citizens baby’s parentage, but, dare one ask for the long form birth certificate or any other background material on Obama, say, his college papers, medical records, well, that is apparently out of bounds! (reminds me of that scene from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life about the school Comoran.)

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    I thought I smelled a Gryphen. That guy is so deranged almost all of the people who comment on his blog as SUPPORTERS are ashamed to use an identifiable screen name.

  • TW

    “Great, so I think you’d agree that it would make sense to release a birth certificate and put this “conspiracy theory” to bed, right? ” It won’t put it to bed. It will only feed further stupid speculation because somehow it won’t be Kosher either.

  • TW

    No, you’re just a “libertarian guy” with no libertarian tendencies what so ever who wants to dig around in other people’s private information.

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike

    Dammit, you beat me to it…I was gonna say by looking at the doofus’s picture, that he looked like a “Chester the Molester” type pedophile.

  • TW

    Why then insist on seeing Trig’s birth certificate? It will be completely irrelevant and continue feeding the left-wing blogosphere.

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike

    We could ask the same question about “your” President, but we won’t go there because…well…you know, it’s been firmly established that “O” was born in Hawaii even though no one has seen a copy of his “real” birth certificate. And I’m not a “birther.”

    Since Palin’s son isn’t running for political office, I don’t see the importance of seeing a copy of his birth certificate, anyway. In otherwords, it’s “Nonya.”*
    * Nonya- None of your damn business.

  • LibertarianGuy

    No, I am a Libertarian who wishes that adults would return to the GOP so that I could vote for them. Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are reality TV stars, not presidential candidates.

  • LibertarianGuy

    I’m not. I just find it ironic that Palin has spent so much time railing on Obama’s birth certificate but she refuses to show her son’s. She’s made herself a media figure and now the media is asking a question she refuses to answer. Why does she always refuse to answer? I want the Sarah Palin experiment to end. That emporor has no clothes.

  • LibertarianGuy

    Except both these requests for information were made when both were candidates for national office. Obama has provided his birth certificate, while Palin refuses.

    Why is the left “bat sh*t insane”? It’s just a question that has yet to be answered. As soon as some sees a birth certificate the questions will go away.

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike

    Lets see what we have here…On the one hand, we have a guy who ran for President who refuses to release any public information about himself, even though it’s pretty much a prerequisite for running for political office and on the other hand, a young toddler who is a private citizen and isn’t running for public office…Hmmm…I’d say it’s none of yours or our damn business, unless of course, you’re the type of person who just gets their jollies by prying into other folks affairs.

  • LibertarianGuy

    And I say that as a Libertarian, which means I am politically to the right of anyone who would vote for Sarah Palin.

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike

    If there’s nothing to this, let’s just see the medical documents and move on. There are many many more people questioning Obama’s birth certificate, including the current GOP Presidential frontrunner, even though the evidence has been made clear.

    I’ll bet Sarah will make you a deal…she’ll show you Trig’s if Obama shows His “real” notarized birth certificate and not some lame ass “certificate of live birth.”

    And it’s still ” nonya.”

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike

    The press was certainly on top of Obama’s personal records, weren’t they? /snarc

  • JeffS

    And still no denial.

    A troll, folks. And an especially stupid one.

  • JeffS

    And still no denial.

  • JeffS

    And still no denial.

  • Anonymous

    This is why Obama’s birth certificate is fair game. The Left has no shame and will use any tactic to destroy their opponents. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but we shouldn’t bring a knife to a gunfight.

    We are better, smarter and faster than them. We can beat them using their tactics if necessary. Remember, they still own the board and until we take it back from them, why not beat them at their own game?

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  • http://www.ace.mu.nu ol_dirty_/b/tard

    “I’m not. I just find it ironic that Palin has spent so much time railing on Obama’s birth certificate but she refuses to show her son’s.”

    She’s never railed on his birth certificate. Not once. She’s said on at least three occasions that he was born in Hawaii. She simply defended the rights of others to do so, which I’m assuming you approve of as a Libertarian.

  • Anonymous

    Except, of course, you are not a libertarian.

    No libertarian that I know of gives a rat’s ass about the Republican Party, or about Sarah Palin. You’re a jackalope lefty Trig Truther, probably Gryphen or some other troll, posing as a libertarian. Libertarians spend their time trying to bring back the Gold Standard or abolish the Fed.

    I have never, ever, EVER, not here, not over at Reason Magazine, seen a genuine, bona fide, Libertarian peddle Trig Truth.

    And, my friend, you operate under the assumption that Sarah Palin owes you an explanation for the birth of her son.

    This is a free country. She doesn’t. You need to get present with that.

    You never will, of course. Paranoiacs never do.

    We are attacking the Messenger because we NEED to attack the Messenger. You are peddling a deranged Message that has no content except your own, angry paranoid hate of a mother of five.

    Now stop whining about being attacked, you metrosexual little scrunt.
    It’s not manly. By God, at one time in this country, people like you got run out of town on a rail.

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  • Anonymous

    Except, of course, you just lied. She hasn’t railed on Obama’s birth certificate. She’s ignored it.

    Secondly, the only media that are asking this question are lefties prompted by Gryphen and the Trig Truthers over at Palingates. No one in the MSM looks at this with any level of seriousness; as Weigel pointed out, there’s no there there.

    Lastly, who the f#ck cares what you want? You’re not even a libertarian. You’re a lying sack of sh*t. Why should anyone care what you think?

  • Anonymous

    Except, of course, you’re a lying sack of sh*t. You’re not a libertarian and you never have been.

    I don’t know the first member of the LP who either dabbles in or peddles Trig Truth. You’re just a lefty poseur.

    Come on, Gryphen. You’re still mad at Stacy for kicking your ass back in 2009, is that it?

  • http://912member.blogspot.com just a conservative girl

    Hey LG you want her medical records? Here is the release of her general health by her doctor. They were released in 08. This doctor delivered Trig and was the one who told her he had downs.

    This release was the same type of release that Obama gave.

    http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/Pailin_records110308.pdf

    Is this good enough for you? Or would pictures really be all that would do?

    And most people believe that Obama was born in Hawaii.

  • LibertarianGuy

    LOL at the fact that no one seems to be able to engage in respectful discourse. I am a Libertarian and I read blogs on both sides of issues because I like to understand all sides of an issue before I make decisions. When you classify an entire group as “lefties” as if there’s two teams that can be described as “right” or “left” and I must be in one of them it shows the limits of your view.

    At no point have I said that Sarah Palin “owes” me anything. I just find this curious. Believe me, I don’t spend as much time thinking about Sarah Palin as you think.

    Again, respectful discourse is important to the future of this country, OUR country. When you say “people like me need to be run out of town on a rail” you are completely overstepping your bounds. Are you under the impression that if I disagree with you I shouldn’t be allowed in this country? Are you aware that those were the exact principles on which this country was founded?

    Grow up. I’m just trying to understand the issue and people’s perspectives on it. Signed, your fellow countryman.

  • LibertarianGuy

    “I think that he was born in Hawaii, because there was the birth announcement put in the newspaper. But obviously there is something there that the president doesn’t want people to see on that birth certificate, that he sees going to great lengths to make sure it isn’t shown. And that’s perplexing for a lot of people.”- Palin.

    Ok, great. If no one in the MSM looks at this with any level of truth because there’s no there there, why has the MSM spent lots of time covering Obama’s birth certificate when there’s no there there either? This is the fundamental question. Why is everyone so upset that journalists want to ask easy to answer questions?

    Lastly, yes again so nice respectfully chatting with you. I find it amusing that you think no one should care what “I” think yet not realizing that this is the Internet and a blog made for opinions and discussion without assuming that “your” opinion is somehow more relevant than mine.

  • LibertarianGuy

    Right. Exactly as I support journalists and communications professors asking questions about Palin giving birth.

  • LibertarianGuy

    “We” “The Left” “We can beat them”. You, sir, should seriously review your American history. You sound like you are talking about terrorists.

  • Anonymous

    “Why is the left “bat sh*t insane”?
    Now there’s a question for the ages. We haven’t even finished counting the ways the left is Batsh*t insane. Now as to how, well for instance my favorite theory is that leftism is very similar to syphilis only not a sexually transmitted disease. The documented neurological progression is where the similarities lay. On the other hand some say it’s early stages are like acne in that many young people suffer from it but out grow it as they reach adulthood. Now when leftism strikes someone in adulthood it’s similar to chicken pox in that the effects are much more severe than when children contract it. Alas we still don’t know the why though, which makes a lie of all O’Sputnik’s claims that federal funds spent on science is an investment. After all what could be more conducive to effective governance than finding a cure for leftism. Now I recommend you return to your Masters and demand an answer to that.

  • LibertarianGuy

    Uh, yeah. That’s a personal letter from her personal physician of over 20 years. That’s hardly an official source and hardly an unbiased source. If the truth is straightforward, why will no official documents be made public or commentary from the hospital.

    And no I don’t want to see pictures and no most Republicans do not believe Obama was born in Hawaii http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2011/02/16/poll-birthers-now-make-up-a-majority-of-gop-primary-voters

  • David R. Graham

    Good grief.

    Who asks the questions controls the situation.

    Face and eyes tell all. Scharlottan.

  • David R. Graham

    Who’s your father?

  • LibertarianGuy

    Did it ever occur to you that I can be interested in this story out of sheer curiosity without having a political bent to it?

    My interest in this story is in any way related to my belief in a free market economy. And yes, from my perspective that would make Sarah Palin a “socialist” for “spreading the wealth” of Alaska’s oil revenue.

  • David R. Graham

    What name did your parents give you?

  • David R. Graham

    In which country(s) do you hold citizenship?

  • David R. Graham

    Have you sired any offspring?

  • David R. Graham

    What standing do you have?

  • David R. Graham

    Documentation for those assertions, one at a time?

  • David R. Graham

    What experiment? By whom? You have seen her without clothes?

  • David R. Graham

    Who declared her emperor?

  • Anonymous

    You know when the two armies started training in the beginning of the War for Southern Independence the Drill Instructors of the day noticed that many of their recruits didn’t know their left from their right, a knowledge of that minor distinction is crucial to learning how to march. They solved that problem by tying hay to the left and straw to the right feet of these farm boys a distinction they understood.

    FYI being in favor of legalizing pot isn’t the only thing Libertarians believe in, and I don’t recall ever hearing one describe themselves as more right than a noted conservative.

  • David R. Graham

    Did your father admit paternity of you?

  • David R. Graham

    Where were you born, and when?

  • Anonymous

    If Bristol had been Trig’s mom, Bristol’s yappy ex-boyfriend/sperm donor would have broadcast on every channel that Bristol also had Trig.

  • David R. Graham

    Whose problem is your problem?

  • Anonymous

    One more time: Trig wasn’t running for office. His origin is IRRELEVANT. If Palin runs in 2012, Trig’s origin is STILL IRRELEVANT.

    On the other hand, the law states a candidate for President must be born in the United States. Obama was a candidate. His origin is RELEVANT.

  • David R. Graham

    Why should one believe what you say, or take it seriously? What are your bona fides? And how is one to know that any you advance are yours?

  • LibertarianGuy

    That’s because the current “conservative” movement isn’t conservative at all. Big growth in government and spending, pre-emptive wars, gov’t intervention in the bedroom….none of those work under true “conservative” beliefs.

  • LibertarianGuy

    Did I just read through and you’ve added nothing of substance other than asking a handful of personal questions? That’s creepy.

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