How personal is too personal?

Students are still abuzz about the lady of the hour on the Republican ticket, Gov. Sarah Palin and the recent news of her daughter’s pregnancy.

In a statement released hours before the Republican National Convention opened, Palin and her husband, Todd, did not say when their daughter Bristol, 17, told them of her pregnancy. Bristol, who is five months into her pregnancy, intends to marry the father and raise the child.

The subject of personal lives of family members has, in recent years, been a question of right or wrong. In recent years, family members’ personal lives have taken a front seat position, which in previous elections were kept fairly classified.

A current situation involves Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter who is openly gay. The media quickly pointed out the alleged hypocrisy of his views in contrast with his own daughter’s lifestyle.

GCSU students are closely following the presidential election. Now, with the recent gossip swirling around the John McCain Presidential campaign, interest has heightened significantly.
When asked about whether the issue of Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy should be an issue, students at GCSU had strong opinions.

Jason White, a senior, who serves as the College Republicans chairman, believes family members’ personal lives are off-limits.
“Let’s look at Sarah Palin’s record and judge her on that, not on choices that her family makes,” White said. Marlee McCampbell, a sophomore disagrees.

“In a way I know it shouldn’t matter, but I also think it’s just another example of Neo-Con hypocrisy,” McCampbell said. “No, it shouldn’t be an issue, sort of. It’s pretty juicy, though.”
While the choice to nominate Palin as McCain’s running mate has conservatives enthusiastic, not all the members are breaking out champagne. Mary Ford, a senior information studies major said. She hopes a Republican wins, but she’s not sold on Palin.
“I really liked her in the beginning. But the more I learn about her, the less I like. She’s overly conservative and underqualified in my opinion.” Ford said.

However, Ford agrees family members are not fair game in elections.

“(They) should be kept out of debates and the media,” Ford said.
Junior Joel Graham is happy with the choice to add Palin to the Republican ticket, hoping it may attract some feminist voters.

“Many pundits have also said that she represents the realization of many of the goals of the feminist movement: success, independence and influence in society for women,” Graham said. “This could bring many women to the party who ordinarily wouldn’t think of voting Republican.”

McCampbell believes the choice of Palin is a desperate move.
“I think that McCain’s choice of VP is obviously a desperate attempt to grab some of the women voters,” McCampbell said. “But maybe this will encourage more people to get out and vote for Obama.”

Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama echoed the words of fellow GCSU students. In a statement to the press in Michigan, Obama, whose own mother was 18 when he was born, agreed family members should be off-limits in campaigns.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 12 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry