i’m not terribly political but this has been an interesting election season so far. hilary was poised to be the first woman candidate for president but she was overtaken by a half-black guy. both events are noteworthy because of the usual white males clogging up the national political landscape.

so, john mccain just picked sarah palin for his running mate and this was also a surprising move. on one hand, she seems like an ideal candidate because maybe she can pick up some of that woman vote now that hilary is out, although not too likely. she’s also a social conservative, is part of the nra, is strongly in favor of teaching creationism in schools and is against abortion (even in matters of incest or rape). splendid.

anyway, the talk shows are gaga over this pick because there’s so much to talk about. for example, does her lack of experience hurt her? can republicans still attack obama for not having any experience? also, what if mccain passes away (he’s already 72)? is sarah palin suitable to be one heartbeat away from the presidency? she’s been governor of alaska for 2 years only and before that was a mayor of a town in alaska that had a population of less than 7,000. keep in mind that the ENTIRE population of alaska is LESS than that of the great city of san francisco.

the most interesting nugget so far has been the speculation that sarah palin’s last child, a 4-month-old boy born with down’s syndrome is actually her daughter’s child that she has secretly taken as her own. it sounds so far-fetched but there’s some tantalizingly juicy details and supporting observations. obviously, far left news websites have pounced on this, but seemlingly more moderate sites like dailykos have put in some reporting on the topic. key facts include a picture taken of sarah palin at supposedly 7 months pregnant that shows no bulge on her stomach.

her 17-year-old daughter standing next to her seems like she has the belly.

school records show her daughter was out of school for 5-8 months around the time of the pregnancy and the official reason is “mono”. for 5-8 months? anyway, you be the judge – if you’re bored or interested in this kind of stuff.

if this is true, my personal feeling is that sarah palin should be exposed and embarrassed for her coverup and deception. if she’s doing this shizz as governor of alaska, who knows what sort of coverups and lies she’ll spit out as vp of the us. dick and bush already do enough of that to us.

there’s more to read at [dailykos]

someone posted this flowchart of the supposed timing of the baby [imageshack]

i’ve never seen this site before, so i can’t vouch for the quality of reporting, but they have some quoted sources [ireport]

UPDATE: the palin camp put out a press release on sep 1 to say that her daughter is, in fact, 5 months pregnant right now. this would seem to soften some of the above accusations although some conspiracy theorists are still making the numbers fit. even this particular event brings up a good talking point about sarah palin in that she does not believe in teaching sex education at schools and we should rely on abstinence instead. yeah…that worked out really well.

obama told the bloggers to lay off the private lives of candidates, but i think it’s a good indication of their character and how they might like to steer the us if they were to be in power. remember, mccain is 72 and sarah palin could be our president.