I can’t say how totally pleased I’ve been since Saturday hearing that McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. She’s an absolutely fabulous pick, and I think it’s just hysterical how much the Democrats don’t get that. Heck, there were Republicans who didn’t get it, apparently, judging from the pressure McCain was getting from his own team to nominate Joe Lieberman, for goodness sake. (Um, doesn’t the Republican nominee for vice-president have to be, y’know, Republican? I guess not.)

So now the latest news of the day is that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant. She’s going to keep the baby and marry the father, but that probably won’t stop the Screechy Left (who, unfortunately, can claim partial responsibility for this being brought to light) from using their favorite word — “HYPOCRITE!” — and showing once again that they haven’t the faintest idea what ‘values voters’ are all about. Well, I’m one of those, so I suppose I can parse through it a little.

Yes, I think that fornication is a sin, and I think that it’s an unfortunate thing that Bristol didn’t use better judgment (as I would say in the case of any unwanted teenage pregnancy). But since I don’t know of an Orthodox church right now that hasn’t had to deal with what happens when teenagers get pregnant, I can hardly be thunderstruck. Conservatives get accused of wanting to live in the 1950’s. Orthodox Christians could probably get accused of wanting to live in the 350’s or 950’s or 1150’s. But at no time is it THAT much of a shock when parents become grandparents earlier than anyone intended. It’s what you do about it that matters.

And I don’t, for example, think that this revelation matters in the way that John Edward’s or Bill Clinton’s adultery mattered. Three reasons:

1. Connection: We’re being asked to vote for Palin, not her daughter. And Palin is the only the bottom of the ticket. Similarly, if Chelsea Clinton or Elizabeth Edwards had been the ones fooling around, it might have been fodder for gossip columnists, but nothing of political significance.
2. The “offense”: It shows youthful indiscretion to get pregnant at 17. It shows something completely different for a grown man to have an affair (and possibly a child) with another woman while his wife is undergoing the cancer treatments that he made such a big deal about. And in Bill Clinton’s case, there was a lifetime habit of manipulating people and using women — even abusing them, in the case of Juanita Broaddrick — that would’ve been reason enough, IMHO, to remove him from a position of power. I know it was just sex, but that’s like saying that Watergate was just eavesdropping.
3. Handling: What do you do when you’ve got a secret? How energized should decent and reasonable people get about covering things up, especially when that turns out to be impossible? Maybe Sarah should have already revealed her daughter’s pregnancy, since people have known that she’s a possible VP for all of 48 hours. But at least she didn’t hide out in a restroom (smooth move, Edwards!), lie point-blank to the American people or need an special prosecutor’s investigation before she told the truth. She didn’t get her husband to appear on television and blame a vast, left-wing conspiracy either. Obviously, Alaskans just aren’t smart enough to get this stuff right.

Maybe that’s just me. Then again, maybe not.