I just wrote Andrew Sullivan an email with the subject “My Response to Obama’s Response on Bristol Palin.”

Andrew,

I could not agree more that Sarah Palin’s family deserves privacy and respect. Bristol Palin is a private citizen; using her as some sort of punching bag, while very tempting, is completely inappropriate (see the endless streams of comment on Daily Kos).

I also agree with Obama that today’s news about Bristol has no bearing on Palin’s performance as governor or as a potential vice president.

However, I am concerned that in issuing this statement, the Obama campaign has asked supporters to stop questioning the details of Governor Palin’s most recent delivery.  The Obama statement seems to imply that we should stop talking about Governor Palin’s family altogether. While I am more than willing to stop wondering if Bristol Palin is the mother of Trig Palin, I am not willing to stop thinking about or discussing Sarah Palin’s behavior leading up to Trig’s delivery.

Extreme risk taking is extreme risk taking, no matter where it happens.

The reason I cannot completely comply with Obama’s wishes in this matter are professional as well as personal. You see, when I am asked my profession by the countless people who call and ask for donations, my answer often catches them off guard.

I am a mother.

That’s what the Obama campaign has me down as. That’s what the DNC has me down as. The DNCC. The Texas Democratic Party. Rick Noriega for Senate. When you get money from me, you’re getting it from a mother.

Professionals have ethical codes. Doctors. Lawyers. Librarians. They all have standards of practice that they agree to uphold as members of the profession.

Now, how you raise your children is not the business of other mothers when you are upholding the standards of the profession. And the standards are relatively few and straightforward. Safety is the paramount standard. Children’s safety is the highest good of mothers. It is the greatest sadness when a mother cannot ensure her children’s safety. And it is up to others to step in when these situations arise.

The story of the day of Trig Palin’s birth is beyond belief. It is shocking. It demonstrates a recklessness so outside normal mores that many of us jumped to the far safer fable that perhaps this woman was not really pregnant rather than contemplate it. Perhaps she didn’t really give the speech and get on the plane and get in the car and then finally give birth, all the while risking infection and an airplane birth. The story that Governor Palin might be “covering” for a teenage daughter makes “sense” compared to getting on a plane and going back to the homeland. For your fifth birth. When women give birth more and more quickly with each successive birth.

I don’t doubt that Sarah Palin believed that she was doing the right thing when she got on that plane. But just because she believed it (and nothing truly terrible seems to have happened) doesn’t mean it was.  She was reckless. As a mother, I cannot be silent. There are reasons airlines require doctors’ letters for women who travel late in pregnancy. There are serious risks involved.

I believe that Sarah Palin’s behavior on April 18th should remain on the table.

The aim of the women’s movement was not to take bad mothers off the hook. It was to keep motherhood from being the only option for women, and the only role in which they could be evaluated. Just because we can evaluate Sarah Palin as a governor and a mayor does not mean that we cannot also evaluate her as a mother. I do not believe that the purpose of second wave feminism was to erase the value and importance of motherhood or “private life.” It was simply to say that that was not the only field on which women can play.

Andrew, do not back down. Keep calling for the documents. It’s more important now than it was this morning.

Lize Burr
Austin, TX

So it looks like Sarah is, in fact, the mother of little Trig. And the soon to be grandma of, let’s call him, Media Shitstorm.

Across the valley from Wasilla, the ladies and gentlemen of the Netroots Nation are slogging it out over whether or not the Palin family’s twists, turns, and labor pains are any of our business.

Any of our business!!??!!

Come on. We haven’t had it this good since the days of Tad the Cad. Mom and daughter aren’t sleeping with the same guy this time. No, they’re just back-to-back preggers. They’ll be pumping side by side at the inauguration (if Bristol’s prone to early delivery like Sarah).

Women of 1964: this is our time. This is our moment. One of our own just gave a keynote speech at the DNC. She wore a knock out dress in front of 38 million viewers. Her daughters are hogging the mike and having sleepovers with Joe Biden’s granddaughters.

Meanwhile, another of our brood is juggling the stresses of every working mom. Bridges to nowhere. Troublesome brothers-in-law. The legacy of a remote state hobbled by corruption. Giving major speeches while holding in premature high-risk infants. Her oldest daughter is pregnant but not following the Juno model. Learning what the GOP’s foreign policy actually is and hiding your reaction to it. It’s a lot of work, being Sarah Palin.

Stay tuned.