Don't put your daughter on a road trip, Sarah Palin:

[HipChick]

http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/2011/06/uk-tragedy-that-awaits-piper-palin.html

The tragedy that awaits Piper Palin
The Guardian

Piper might be a useful human shield for now, but history tells us this jaunt is unlikely to have a happy ending

The lamestream media keep popping up on the trail, and this week Piper was filmed appearing to block a reporter trying to ask her famously media-shy mother a question. Four-foot-something of shades-wearing, gum-chewing, shoulder-blocking star quality – it is an image that instantly renders the fad for 20st bodyguards fantastically passé. There is nothing like watching a child's first foray into running interference for its mother – though of course, this is nothing like Piper's first foray into running interference for her mother.

Indeed, it is hard to resist the conclusion that Piper has long been groomed as politics's most adorable little lightning rod. As her vice-presidential campaign unspooled spectacularly, Palin was already deploying Piper as a human shield, notably when dropping the puck at an ice hockey game. "I've been warned that Flyers fans get so enthused that they boo everybody at the drop of the puck," was Sarah's excuse. "But what I thought I'd do is I'd put Piper in a Flyers jersey, bring her out with me. How dare they boo Piper!"

They booed Piper

Less authorised accounts of the Palin family's adventures from here have Piper becoming quite the diva, eventually declining to sign autographs on the campaign trail unless she is provided with personalised pink-and-lilac pens. Naturally, she gets the pens.

<snip?
This week, Piper was the Palin child selected to accompany her parents for a stretch-limo ride and Manhattan dinner with Donald Trump. Please don't feel profoundly uneasy about any of this, or demean yourself with tedious questions about when she finds time for school. Mommy's job is Piper's school – she is soon to graduate summa cum laude from the University of Mama Grizzly, whose childhood-warping capabilities look more awesome than even the Disney factory's.

How Piper Palin's road trip will end is open to debate. Tatum O'Neal would of course grow up and pen a book excoriating her father, and there will inevitably be speculation that Piper is a future misery memoir author. For what it's worth, Lost in Showbiz suspects she is rather bigger than that, and will leave the Mommie Dearest aspects of second generation Palinhood to Willow – who, on balance, is a Palin for another day

[Brickbat]

1. I liked her spunk during the campaign, but I feel sorry for her now. She's learning a lot and none

of it is good.

[Whisp]

12. I just can't muster up any hate for the kids...

I think they are as best they can be. I'm not saying Sarah and Tawd are the best parents in the world, but they're not the worst either.

[hlthe2b]

14. While for understandable reasons, she has the makings of a real BRAT....

I think Mama Palin will long rue the day she decided to exploit THAT child....

BTW, now that the little fella, Trig, has apparently gotten big enough that he is (perhaps) less cute and more of a "handful," he is no where to be seen. Does the MSM not even find that curious enough to ask about?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. Doesn't she have school?

[monmouth]

3. This "vacation" will be over by Wednesday of next week, I'm sure...n/t

[customerserviceguy]

4. While using your minor children as campaign props is deplorable

It's done by candidates throughout the political spectrum, unfortunately.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. I'm unaware of Democrats who did that. Examples?

[customerserviceguy]

9. John Edwards comes immediately to mind

But given today's news, that seems natural.

I'll give the Clintons' credit, they waited until Chelsea was an adult before taking her out on the campaign trail. But haven't we all seen the election night victory speech where not only the candidate's wife jumps on stage, but the kids do, too?

I want elected leaders whose brains work, not just their genitals.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. I'll give you credit for grudgingly admitting a Democrat did the right thing.

[customerserviceguy]

13. I wasn't trying to be grudging about it

I'm no big fan of the Clintons, and if my attitude towards them made it seem that way, then I apologize for giving you the wrong impression.

[hlthe2b]

16. Elizabeth brought the kids on occasion--not all the time...

and usually when she met up with John after some time away from the kids. I remember very well. The kids were not drug around to every damned campaign stop, but only on occasion.

[jberryhill]

18. Those one-off appearances at nomination, election, events are different from this, though

Yes, that much is normal in a political family and sometimes, as with Trisha Nixon's wedding, family events become something of state events.

But this business of pulling them out of school and carting them around as props everywhere one goes is insanity.

You can go through the Kennedys, Johnsons, Nixons, Carters, Bushes and Clintons, and there is nothing like this kind of exposure of politicians' children.

Even when both Obamas couldn't be in Chicago, the girls were supervised by Michelle's mother. Palin brings the grandparents and ditches Willow (also pulled out of school for other reasons) and Trig with no stability.

The Bush twins, whatever they did as teens (and Chip Carter was no stranger to youthful misadventure) have gone on to pursue their own education and careers on their terms. Same with Amy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, and the Nixon, Johnson and Kennedy kids.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. Butbutbut Democrats do it too!!! They're all the same!!!111!!!

:sarcasm:

[hlthe2b]

15. Not on a continuous basis... Yes, they are presented on special occasions...

But to exploit her kids to the degree that she pulls them out of school and presents them at all hours,(including for a DS baby-- under bright lights and loud noises late at night), has never been done in my memory--even by other RETHUGS...

And, then she has the nerve to accuse the "lamestream" media of harassing her kids. :eyes:

[customerserviceguy]

17. Oh, she's the queen of this, no doubt

But she builds on a tradition that has been long established of trotting your family out when campaigning for office. Trig has been an especially useful campaign prop.

She's clearly the most stupid person ever to run for the presidency who had half a chance of getting any media attention, and that's why we're seeing so very much of the kids.

[jberryhill]

19. No, it may be a difference of degree - but it is a huge quantum of degree

The family portrait at particular times, like official events you mentioned previously, is a political set piece. Not pulling them out of school and socially isolating them from friends, playmates, and their own education.

This is Chastity Bono league exploitation of one's own kids.

[Tempest]

5. Word in Alaska is that Willow hates her mother

And can't wait until she turns 18 to leave home.

Apparently Bristol has already told Willow that she can move in with her in AZ when she leaves home.

[Beaverhausen]

7. I was just thinking that if reporters were smart, they'd be up in Alaska seeing what Willow is up to

with mom and dad gone and all, and her reputation for partying...

[Tempest]

8. Not only partying

But vandalism and illegal drug use.

She's well known in Wasilla and Anchorage (where Wasilla youth go to party) as a party animal.

[JoePhilly]

10. Piper Prop Palin (no text needed).