Should a presidential candidate be judged by their family?

Janelle Green

While debating on whom to elect to run our country, I believe that background information, personal facts, and family life should be open to the voters. It’s difficult to pick the right person for the job if these pieces of information aren’t given to the public. If a candidate can’t handle their own family, how can Americans trust them to handle a country?

Presidential candidate John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, knowing that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant.

The pregnancy was only one of the many mistakes in the Palin family. The 18-year-old father of the unborn child, Levi Johnson, dated Bristol for one year before getting her pregnant. Ignoring America’s right to know, the family kept the accidental pregnancy a secret until a rumor surfaced that Governor Palin’s infant son Trig, who has Down syndrome, was actually Bristol’s child.

Nobody cares if Bristol is a great art student or has a brilliant personality. The fact of the matter is that she’s knocked up and her mother is running for vice president.

Children form their morals based on what they are taught, and Sarah Palin did not guide her daughter in the right direction. Maybe she was too busy being a governor to focus on being a mother, but she failed to balance her priorities.

The Alaskan Government has expressed it’s desire to remove sex education from schools if Palin is voted into office. Without classes informing teens about safety precautions, the percentage of unplanned pregnancies will definitely increase. My guess is that Bristol was deprived from the privilege of taking such a class. How is the world supposed to believe in a vice president who can’t even control her own daughter?

I’m not saying that Sarah Palin doesn’t deserve to be in the White House because of her pregnant teenage daughter. I’m saying that as a mother hoping to become vice president of the United States, she is clearly unfit. If she is elected vice president, she will be sending a message to high school students that says having a baby before receiving your diploma is OK.

The qualities we want in a political candidate include honesty, great family values, and the ability to handle business under pressure and to stand strong in difficult situations. We don’t need a lying, sneaking, ignorant mother who doesn’t have a clue about her surroundings. Sarah Palin does not belong in the White House based on her poor judgment.

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