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Published Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008 | 6:43 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 | 10:15 a.m.
Winning the West - RNC
(A team of Sun reporters is at the Republican National Convention this week in St. Paul.)
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Nevada Sen. John Ensign surfaced at the Republican National Convention this afternoon and one of the first questions we asked was about his 1997 comment that “out of wedlock births need to be somewhat stigmatized.”
What about Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin’s daughter, a 17-year-old who is pregnant — should that child be given a social stigma?
No, Ensign said. The difference is that the Alaska governor’s teen daughter plans to marry the child’s father.
“She’s not going to have an out-of-wedlock birth,” he said. “She made a mistake. She’s taking the responsibility.”
Ensign said his earlier remarks were meant to “encourage people to have children in a way that is best for the child. That is with two parents.”
He spoke of his own father who left his mom and him. “That kind of behavior should not be encouraged. It should be criticized.” (Ensign’s mom later married Las Vegas casino mogul Mike Ensign.)
Ensign has spent the past two days in town meeting and greeting donors to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has the elusive goal of trying to elect Republicans to the Senate.
He also arrived for his stay at the W. Hotel with his bike in tow, and tried to hit the state’s famed riding trails today — only to get benched by a flat tire. It’s not a metaphor for political fortunes.
In fact Republicans are buoyed, he said, by the announcement of Palin as Arizona Sen. John McCain’s running mate. “A sea change in the mood, in everything.”
“It is nothing but positive,” he said. “I cannot even describe to you what this has done to our prospects of winning the White House.”
But then he added this perhaps unintentionally ominous thought: “If she turns out as good as her potential, it’s a tremendous choice.”
Ensign's logic escapes me. He'd rather see a shot gun wedding of minor children than to encourage the child to give up her baby for adoption or to remain a single mother until she finds the right provider for her family.
Ensign should take this prime example of why abstinence only education doesn't work and turn this into a positive thing by introducing legislation abolishing abstinence only education in public schools.
I love Obama. He's so far above this non-issue. Who cares what Ensign said in 97 and what he says now about this non-issue?
Ensign needs to keep his mouth shut re: teen-pregnancy. I am one democrat who voted for him the last time around. More comments like this, and I'll be cheering for Dina Titus for US Senate in 2012.
Miss Palin DID NOT make a "mistake" in getting pregnant. One has to assume her mother and father fully educated her to the obvious pitfalls in being a teen-age mother. I am one democrat who is "anti-choice" but McCain's proposed direction in US foreign policy is much more important than the abortion issue - which is really a decision to be made by the birth mother, period!
My only problem with this whole brew-haha is that McCain did not expose and use this situation to his advantage. Celebrating that young Bristol is about to be married and become a mother is wonderful. He could have kicked-in the fact that young Gov. Palin would soon be a grandmother - an area he knows well. Instead he kept this quiet and such tactics make me and many others wonder what else is under the rug.
Americans all accross the political spectrum can share the value of the Palin family making the choice to have this baby.
Where we part is VERY fundemental.
When we elect leaders who hold the purse-strings and educators are told it is "My way or the highway" (abstinance only) or you won't get funding for your sex education programs, then people like the Palins should accept life's realities (as I'm sure they are right now) and leave the rest of us to have school kids educated with ALL the information available to lead healthy lives.
Stuart & Robert Wyman-Cahall
Las Vegas, NV 89142
Maybe Ensign should stop and think that perhaps just getting married 'for the baby's sake' will only result in yet another father leaving the wife/child in the lurch somewhere down the road- much the way his own father did. Adoption is the ONLY right solution.
And please can the 'they're in love' nonsense - she's 17 yrs. old - they ALL think they're in love at that age.