Laura Novak
  • Welcome
  • About
  • NYTs
  • Scribd
  • Murder
  • Clarity
  • Contact

Sarah Palin and the Professor: A Conversation, Part II

4/15/2011

 
Picture
Prof. Brad Scharlott
Wow, it’s getting hot in here. Is anyone else warm or is it just me?

If you’re just joining me, and I doubt you are for no reason in particular, I am continuing what I have decided to call “a story about a story about a story.”

I’m speaking again with Bradford W. Scharlott, Ph.D., a tenured professor a Northern Kentucky University. Several days ago, he released an academic paper entitled “Palin, the Press and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor:  Did a Spiral of Silence Shut down the Story?”

For now, I’ve decided to pursue a format I’ve used on my Blog to interview authors, and as I did with Dr. Scharlott the other day. I'll ask Brad two questions, then he can ask me two. Like I said, I don’t have any editors managing this product. So if at some point that doesn’t work, we’ll change it. It’s all good here in the Bay Area.

LN:  Brad, I want to begin going through your paper chronologically. You say, in the second sentence no less, that the premise of all of this media coverage/lack of media coverage is that Mrs. Palin “faked the birth of her fifth child, Trig, in 2008 to cover for her daughter, Bristol.” Does this story inevitably have to link to Bristol Palin? Where does that come from? Why go down that path?

BS:  There at the start I was merely paraphrasing what the MediaMatters columnist had written – I did not foresee that people would take that as my theory of who Trig’s mother must be – but I understand why it seems that way. So I will revise that part and take Bristol’s name out. Indeed, I will make the point more than once in that paper that I am not pushing Bristol as Trig’s likely mother. I do spend a good deal of time in the paper on Bristol’s delivery of Tripp, but not because I think she must be Trig’s mother, rather because Palin’s people were jerking the press around concerning the exact place and/or date of delivery. That in itself suggests something odd was afoot – but I don’t know what.

Let me stress that this is not a finished paper ready to be published. I have submitted it for presentation at a conference, where professors generally get feedback on how to get a paper ready for publication in a journal. So, I’m now getting feedback from people all over the world – that’s nice, even if some of them call me a “scumbag … in the service of evil.”

LN:  On page two you break your thesis down into three parts.  1) “…there was insufficient evidence for the press to conclude that Palin was telling the truth about Trig.” 2) The press gave “Palin more deference than she was due.”  3) “…spiral of silence theory casts light on press performance relative to the Trig hoax  rumor and, relatedly, the Obama fake birth-certificate rumor.”  My question is this:  you see these as inter-related obviously. Why? How did you come back to these three main points after researching this story?

BS:  Well, as to #1, what evidence did Palin provide that she was Trig’s mother after the rumors spread over the Internet that she wasn’t? She merely waved a shiny object in the air and distracted the oh-so-easily-distracted press. The shiny object was her daughter, Bristol, and while waving her in the air she said, “Just look at that baby bump. Obviously, I’m Trig’s mother.” And that is the sum total of her new evidence since she was selected as McCain’s VP candidate.

What I just said about #1 also answers #2 about giving Palin more deference than she was due. In my paper I point out how some journalists in a private chat group speculated that maybe it would be in the best interest of the Palin family for any hoax to remain hidden, and thus journalists should ignore the hoax if there was one. Since when does the hypothetical best interest of a candidate’s family outweigh the right of the public to know about the trustworthiness or even mental health of that candidate?

As to #3, I’m interested in why the press came to avoid the Palin hoax story like kryptonite, but at the same time gave the Obama hoax story great play, both back in 2008 and, as we see, up to the present day. And as I argue in the paper, the reason in part has to do with how easily the press is manipulated by politicos on the right who want the Palin story buried, while at the same time folks on the left don’t know how to keep crazy-like-a-fox birthers from planting doubts about whether Obama meets the constitutional requirements to be president.

BS: Laura, here’s a question for you: Can you conceive of a circumstance under which you might wait 20 hours after your water broke to go to a medical facility? How about if you had an important speech to give eight hours later? What if you were in Texas and, in a fit of state pride, decided you would gird your loins and make it back to California because “Whoever heard of a surfer born in Texas?”

LN:  Dude. (May I call you Dude?) My personal story is illustrative of what a high-risk, very complicated pregnancy can be. That’s all. But it’s food for thought for those who have no exposure to that world. My son’s birth defect was discovered in utero at 20 weeks. By 29 weeks, he wanted to come into the world. I stopped working out and went on bed rest and a rough regime of drugs to keep him inside me. I had massive amounts of amniotic fluid building up in me. In fact, I lost hearing in one ear from it. Had my water broken, it could have been very dangerous. As it was, it took four people to break it in the operating room. So, I am the last person to ask about leaking fluid and long plane rides. You might as well ask me how the food is on Mars.

To prepare my son to come into the world as healthy as possible, my obstetrician ordered me to be injected with betamethazone, a steroid that would boost his lung development. I got the shots twice a week, 24 hours apart, for 5 weeks. On that fifth week, when I was 35 weeks along, the doctor did an amniocentesis in the hospital to test the baby’s lung development. This is the same amnio that is done early in a pregnancy for genetic testing. At that late stage, it was very painful…and very risky. It could have started labor at 35 weeks and she did not want that!

This is a triple marker test and two of the markers came back positive, meaning good, that the baby was ready. The third was graded on a bell curve. The doctor wanted to see a level 2.0. Mine was 1.8.  She sent me home again. Those were not fun days.  The following week, she did another amniocentesis in the hospital, under radiology. The three markers indicated that the baby had enough surfactant and his lungs were ready for him to be born.

Short of that kind of testing, I don’t know how a doctor can determine if a baby’s lungs are ready for birth. But at 35 and 36 weeks, my OB decided against delivery until she had medical proof that it was safe. I should point out that she is a member of FACOG as were the two perinatologists (high risk OB’s) who I also saw. She was also a surgeon. And in those days, their malpractice insurance was in the 6-figures. I don’t know how doctors manage risk when it comes to a complicated baby with other issues who wants to enter the world at 35 weeks. But my OB was a cracker jack. Nothing got by her. She took no chances.

BS:  Palin maintains she chose to give birth to a premature Down syndrome baby with a heart condition at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, which lacks a neonatal intensive-care unit, and en route bypassed several hospitals that have neonatal ICU's. As someone who had a premature baby yourself, does this ring true?

LN:  It was long known that our baby would be transported as soon as he was born to the Children’s Hospital a mile away even though our birth hospital had a Level II nursery (it does not handle surgical patients). We had already met our pediatric surgeon. They had a bed ready for our son that night. And by bed, I mean a space in the Level Three Intensive Care Nursery. This is a major, regional trauma center and pediatric facility with dozens of pediatric sub-specialties. One of those subspecialties is pediatric cardiology.

I delivered in an adult hospital in a major city. A neonatologist, or high-risk pediatrician, from the team that serves the neonatal nursery in that hospital as well as at the children’s hospital down the street, was present at the birth. She was present at the birth. We have a picture of her in scrubs, with her gloved hand on the top of our son’s head on the warming table in the corner of the operating room with 4 other people around the baby.

During my pregnancy, we had a fetal echo-cardiogram to rule out heart problems. This was done at the children’s hospital, even though I was a pregnant lady, not a child. Two pediatric cardiologists did the scan and interpreted what they were seeing. The results were not good. A serious defect was suspected. The case got more complicated and my OB, the perinatologist who ordered the test, and our pediatric surgeon all talked to us about it. So, as soon as our son was transported to the NICU at Children’s that night (yes, night, he was born at night!) they ordered up another echo-cardiogram on him. The results were blessedly clear.

If you have a baby in a smaller regional hospital, without even a Level II nursery, I don’t know how heart defects are ruled out or confirmed, especially those that were suspected in utero. Does an adult radiologist or cardiologist do the test and interpret what they are seeing? Pediatric subspecialties require years of extra training. Would a pediatric cardiologist interpret or diagnose an adult’s echo-cardiogram? I would guess not. Does an adult doctor do that easily for a newborn? They probably can, but again, with all the changes the fetal/newborn heart goes through, I would think they wouldn’t. Did a pediatric cardiologist visit the smaller hospital where Trig Palin was reportedly born and do the scan there? Was there some other way to determine that his heart was okay and he was ready for discharge?

I offer no answers. But I wonder if there were answers, would people feel differently about this entire controversy?  I simply say that my own exposure to that world of medicine has left me with very specific questions about this story. I received an extraordinarily high level of care, as Mrs. Palin must have. And I was not a 44-year-old, multipara sitting governor or celebrity. I was a 34-year-old primo-gravida TV reporter with excellent insurance, top-notch hospitals near my house and an incredibly cautious team of board-certified doctors who took care to manage my health as well as their own liability and risk. Again…just medicine for thought.

When we come back, I would like to talk to you about the press coverage, both in terms of the birth and the purported hoax. I’m looking at page 5 of your paper and there’s some good stuff there to discuss.


crystalwolfakacaligrl
4/15/2011 11:01:33 am

Mat-Su Regional DOES not have a NICU and TriG could not of been born there! CJB isn't even a OBGYN!
Palin landed in Anchorage and bypassed a hospital with a NICU!
She slipped up recently and said TriG was born in Anchorage.
I think he was. But not on April 18! Probably like end of Jan.
I do think Bristol is the mother.
I call TriG T1. TriG was Tripp before he was TriG. It is my belief that Bristol had T1 then named Tripp probably in late Jan, and then sarah hatched her plan to adopt him after it was confirmed he was DS and after she was "Tapped". Sarah always a "great scrabble" player changed his name to TriG which was a clever (in her mind) way to name him after his condition Trisomy-G. Which is Monstrous & sick but we are talking about SARAH PALIN here!
MerckManual: http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/sec23/ch266/ch266b.html
"Down syndrome (trisomy 21, trisomy G) is a chromosomal disorder resulting in mental retardation and physical abnormalities."
She then hatched her Fake Pregnancy hoax and we see her Padded with layers of clothes until her Empathy belly comes.
That Empathy belt/padding was seen on Bristol at the RNC, but not as she got off the plane.
Julia O'malley of the ADN has a pic which clearly shows a overweight Palin and lots of padding.
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/156624
Crunchwrap supremes from tacobell will do that...Just sayin'
Remember No Flight attendants noticed she was pregnant.
Remember Levi in his Vanity fair article talked about her wanting to adopt Bristol's baby...and of her saying about T2 aka Tripp "Bring me the baby not the retarded one"
After she stole Bristol's child and changed the name Bristol got pregnant on purpose. Mercede Johnson has written that Bristol and Levi were Trying to conceive. This resulted in T2 which was named Tripp.
And DS runs in the Palin Family.
I think the hand-off was arranged & staged at Mat-Su regional.
She at one point had so many friends there that when she was Mayor of Wasilla she banned abortion.
Was later stuck down by a court of law since abortion IS LEGAL in the USA.
I'm sure she still has many friend on the Board of Directors one being Linda Menard- Curtis Jr. Mother.
We believe Curtis is Track's bio father.
See Palingates.blogspot.com
When you start unraveling all this Palin stuff, you go deep down the rabbit hole...
One day Psychiatrists will be talking about Sarah Palin for a long,long time.

daisydem
4/15/2011 11:22:09 am

I would like to say this is an excellent post; a great dialogue between a researcher/author and another author with personal experience of delivering a premature special needs baby. I would like to add (maybe unrelated) but I don't think Bristol had Tripp when it has been indicated that she did. I don't know for sure what happened there either, but something was up or they would not have had to "hide" her again for the duration of the campaign. And they did.

Bobcat Logic
4/15/2011 11:36:06 am

If Bristol, or some other Palin family member, were the mother of Trig, that would constitute a true miracle for Palin and her long-time GOP patrons.

For Palin to have "Trig" -- the most important "fact" and prop of Palin's political career, -- a Down Syndrome child --conveniently provided at the exact moment that Palin was needed to get out the base.

McCain had just been chosen the day before Sarah announced her "pregnancy".

That Bristol was Trig's mother given all the political background seems highly unlikely!

That doesn't mean Bristol wasn't pregnant (or at least in mysterious hiding) at some point during this entire drama.

But the whole "Bristol" theory seems to have been a cover to divert attention from the major political con-job by GOP/Fundie operatives, who had been busily at work on Palin's campaign strategies since at least 2007.

Please see Jane Mayer's New Yorker article from October 27, 2008 -- "The Insiders: How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin." It is easily available on the Internet.

This is a far bigger story than just the Palin family soap opera they want you to think it was.

JR
4/15/2011 11:36:48 am

Excellent discussion. The “Wild Ride” story and Dr. Baldwin-Johnson’s supposed communications with the Palins while they were in Texas has never made sense to me, mostly because of the incredible liability issues the doctor would face if something had gone wrong. I can’t believe for a second that 1) an amnio was done at 13 weeks, as Sarah Palin claims 2) that a family physician (GP?) would agree to deliver a known high-risk delivery 3) that such a delivery would take place at a small community hospital 4) that any doctor would suggest it was okay to give a speech and travel for ten hours after the rupture, and 5) that a jaundiced, premature baby with a suspected hole in his heart was released from the hospital and showed up at the workplace 3 days later. It’s not plausible for a medical professional or a facility to allow the risks of any of these scenarios, let alone all of them.
This is the red flag that was ignored by the media. Forget the photos (& the photo scrubbing!) and the Bristol speculation. To blatantly ignore the wild ride story recorded in Sarah and Todd’s own words is completely absurd. I think it was David Gregory on Meet the Press who exclaimed what a tough and brave thing Sarah had done! It takes a pretty ill-informed person to even consider that Sarah did this recklessly, all on her very own, as there is no logical way that the professionals would have allowed this on their watch, or their insurance policy.
When one understands the impossibility of this scenario, one begins to look for the real story, right? When the main character of the story is up for the second highest position in the land honesty, integrity and credibility become extremely important character traits, right? I would have hoped it would have been worthy of some investigative journalism.
Well, I did look into the Trig story – it wasn’t that difficult – and the information that has been compiled by part-time bloggers & commenters blew me away. Palins Deceptions (archived) Immoral Minority, Palingates, Politicalgates, Litbrit (archived) – the details are ready for the transcribers.

JR
4/15/2011 11:38:34 am

Excellent discussion. The “Wild Ride” story and Dr. Baldwin-Johnson’s supposed communications with the Palins while they were in Texas has never made sense to me, mostly because of the incredible liability issues the doctor would face if something had gone wrong. I can’t believe for a second that 1) an amnio was done at 13 weeks, as Sarah Palin claims 2) that a family physician (GP?) would agree to deliver a known high-risk delivery 3) that such a delivery would take place at a small community hospital 4) that any doctor would suggest it was okay to give a speech and travel for ten hours after the rupture, and 5) that a jaundiced, premature baby with a suspected hole in his heart was released from the hospital and showed up at the workplace 3 days later. It’s not plausible for a medical professional or a facility to allow the risks of any of these scenarios, let alone all of them.
This is the red flag that was ignored by the media. Forget the photos (& the photo scrubbing!) and the Bristol speculation. To blatantly ignore the wild ride story recorded in Sarah and Todd’s own words is completely absurd. I think it was David Gregory on Meet the Press who exclaimed what a tough and brave thing Sarah had done! It takes a pretty ill-informed person to even consider that Sarah did this recklessly, all on her very own, as there is no logical way that the professionals would have allowed this on their watch, or their insurance policy.
When one understands the impossibility of this scenario, one begins to look for the real story, right? When the main character of the story is up for the second highest position in the land honesty, integrity and credibility become extremely important character traits, right? I would have hoped it would have been worthy of some investigative journalism.
Well, I did look into the Trig story – it wasn’t that difficult – and the information that has been compiled by part-time bloggers & commenters blew me away. Palins Deceptions (archived) Immoral Minority, Palingates, Politicalgates, Litbrit (archived) – the details are ready for the transcribers.

JR
4/15/2011 11:40:24 am

Excellent discussion. Liability - I can’t believe for a second that 1) an amnio was done at 13 weeks, as Sarah Palin claims 2) that a family physician (GP?) would agree to deliver a known high-risk delivery 3) that such a delivery would take place at a small community hospital 4) that any doctor would suggest it was okay to give a speech and travel for ten hours after the rupture, and 5) that a jaundiced, premature baby with a suspected hole in his heart was released from the hospital and showed up at the workplace 3 days later. It’s not plausible for a medical professional or a facility to allow the risks of any of these scenarios, let alone all of them.
This is the red flag that was ignored by the media. Forget the photos (& the photo scrubbing!) and the Bristol speculation. To blatantly ignore the wild ride story recorded in Sarah and Todd’s own words is completely absurd. I think it was David Gregory on Meet the Press who exclaimed what a tough and brave thing Sarah had done! It takes a pretty ill-informed person to even consider that Sarah did this recklessly, all on her very own, as there is no logical way that the professionals would have allowed this on their watch, or their insurance policy.
When one understands the impossibility of this scenario, one begins to look for the real story, right? When the main character of the story is up for the second highest position in the land honesty, integrity and credibility become extremely important character traits, right? I would have hoped it would have been worthy of some investigative journalism.
Well, I did look into the Trig story – it wasn’t that difficult – and the information that has been compiled by part-time bloggers & commenters blew me away. Palins Deceptions (archived) Immoral Minority, Palingates, Politicalgates, Litbrit (archived) – the details are ready for the transcribers.

anongal
4/15/2011 11:45:54 am

crystalwolfakacaligrl
The problem with your scenario is that it doesn't address the two (or more?) babies photographed as "Trig". This is when I started paying attention- the baby with the "ruffled" ear is clearly not the chunky Trig baby of other photos. What happened to him?

Floyd M. Orr link
4/15/2011 11:46:44 am

Bobcat Logic is exactly right, especially in the part about the whole thing being a lot more complex story than just a family cover-up. That is why I had to write a book about it. We may not yet know all the correct details, but from whatever fire was present back in 2008, there was a lot of smoke!

http://www.amazon.com/Paradigm-Shift-Matrix-Progressive-Strikes/dp/1456409328/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302918318&sr=1-2

Floyd M. Orr link
4/15/2011 11:47:07 am

Bobcat Logic is exactly right, especially in the part about the whole thing being a lot more complex story than just a family cover-up. That is why I had to write a book about it. We may not yet know all the correct details, but from whatever fire was present back in 2008, there was a lot of smoke!

http://www.amazon.com/Paradigm-Shift-Matrix-Progressive-Strikes/dp/1456409328/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302918318&sr=1-2

betsy smith
4/15/2011 11:54:41 am

Bristol is not the mother of Trig. Bristol is/was the mother of "Ruffles", held in Levi's lap (he is wearing a hospital bracelet) in SP's kitchen. "Ruffles" is/was most likely a FAS syndrome baby, and would not be acceptable as a sympathetic "Pro-Life" specimen.
I believe Dr Baldwin-Johnson located an adoptable and attractive DS baby of an appropriate age to be adopted by SP. The full-size, chubby-cheeked infant photographed "in the hall" with Sarah's parents is a plant. Look at her mother's hostile face.

Holly
4/15/2011 12:33:56 pm

What needs to be emphasized in any coverage of this story is that it *IS* still relevant because lack of media scrutiny and a major political party's poor job vetting almost led to an supremely unqualified candidate being second in command of our country. We don't want that happening again.

If the pregnancy was a hoax, a person devoid of morality was selected as McCain's running mate. If the Wild Ride story, as told by Palin herself, really happened, we have a person with incredibly poor judgement as running mate, or a rabid pro-life candidate who was actively trying to terminate her own pregnancy.

In any of these three cases, we have a person who should not be leading our country. The media and the McCain campaign should have spent more time and effort learning about her prior to the 2008 election.

Holly
4/15/2011 12:35:21 pm

And I'd like to add to my thanks to Dr. Scharlott, for bringing this back into the public eye.

FrostyAK
4/15/2011 12:38:43 pm

This is not a hoax perpetrated just on Alaskans or on Americans. It is a hoax perpetrated on the entire world, since $P was going to be nominated for the second highest office in the "most powerful country in the world". I believe that was decided by the puppeteers before her announcement of the fake pregnancy. A nominee with an unwed pregnant or postpartum teenager might not be well accepted by the public. Bristol fooled 'em all and got prego again ASAP. Then was outed at the RNC as a preemptive strike.

IMO, the hoax was not orchestrated just by $P, but instead with the help of those who pulled/pull her strings. It can now be unraveled because she is of no further use to them.

The fate of "Ruffles" (the baby with the deformed ear seen in some pictures) continues to concern me. When was he/she born, where, and what happened to him/her.

FrostyAK
4/15/2011 12:39:34 pm

This is not a hoax perpetrated just on Alaskans or on Americans. It is a hoax perpetrated on the entire world, since $P was going to be nominated for the second highest office in the "most powerful country in the world". I believe that was decided by the puppeteers before her announcement of the fake pregnancy. A nominee with an unwed pregnant or postpartum teenager might not be well accepted by the public. Bristol fooled 'em all and got prego again ASAP. Then was outed at the RNC as a preemptive strike.

IMO, the hoax was not orchestrated just by $P, but instead with the help of those who pulled/pull her strings. It can now be unraveled because she is of no further use to them.

The fate of "Ruffles" (the baby with the deformed ear seen in some pictures) continues to concern me. When was he/she born, where, and what happened to him/her.

FrostyAK
4/15/2011 12:42:08 pm

Ummm, your comment software is not working right...

Bobcat Logic
4/15/2011 01:12:29 pm

Floyd, Holly, Betsy, and Frosty have it right. (Hope I haven't left anyone out)

Frosty, I'm with you, this is International and should receive the international coverage it deserves (interesting that the press in the UK is so far ahead of the US MSM). I could name names and other countries, but....

And yes, everyone should get Floyd's book. Details to be negotiated later.

And, I'm also wondering what harm Palin could cause to her former patrons and how they will deal with that reality?

And, yes the comment software here is a bit flaky,,,but keep posting, everyone, and don't worry if your post doesn't seem to go through on the first round. Be patient.

And, yes, again, whatever happened to "Ruffles"?

Bobcat Logic
4/15/2011 01:18:43 pm

Holly, Anongal, and JR are right as well!

KarenJ link
4/15/2011 02:11:01 pm

I agree with most of your comment, betsy, (@Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:54:41) but for one thing. Jesse Griffin of "Immoral Minority" blog noted in his "Tale of Two Babies" commentary that the ears of the "Two Trigs" were not similar.

I noticed that the most-often-seen Trig had an ear configuration shared by Sarah Palin, but also by Chuck Heath and Bristol Palin.

If this a familial trait also shared by Track Palin, Chuck Heath Jr., Heather Bruce, Molly McCann, and some of the offspring of the latter three, Trig could be the birth child of any one of them.

But not Sarah Palin. All the other players in this drama remained in the background (gestating), but brash and narcissistic Sarah was front and center, blatantly daring anyone to challenge her flat stomach "pregnancy" tale both before and after the "birth".

Belle
4/15/2011 10:46:41 pm

Thank you for sharing your birth story, Laura Novak.
I don't believe Palin's birth story, it goes against everything I know about pregnancy and I'm a mother of a five-year-old and an eight-year-old. My last pregnancy was when I was 35
so, I understand the extra precautions, extra tests and extra appointments an older pregnant woman is subject to.

I'd like to hear Palin's doctor's full explanation of:
the amnio at 13 weeks,
the flying at 8 months pregnant,
the flying while leaking,
bypassing hospitals with NICUs,
the baby's care immediately after birth,
and, Matsu Regional's policies about high-risk pregnancies in 2008.


Next Chapter link
4/15/2011 11:34:07 pm

Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson had ACTIVE STAFF PRIVILEGES at Providence Alaska Medical Center. This is the hospital in Anchorage Alaska with the NICU. With that in place, What possible excuse could Sarah Palin have to travel an extra hour to a hospital that is unequipped to deal with high-risk pregnancies?

lilly lily
4/16/2011 12:04:23 am

This is really one of the best of the best.

Late, by two and half years, but very,very important to the investigation by bloggers of the Hoax of Hoaxes.

I googled into the Biggest Hoax in American Politics Sarah Palin, the it said 1,040,000 hits, then 1,060,000 hits at a later hour. Of course that means nothing.

What it does mean is this much. The interest in this bizarre fraud is there, even though you have palinbots hounding the messengers.

Books will be written on this subject alone.

A princeling smuggled into a Queens bed via a warming pan? No.

A greedy, unprincipled and ambitious woman who is said to have had her tubes tied years before, decides late in the day to fake a pregnancy. While she doesn't even bother to do it properly, using scarves, square pillows etc.

Her contempt for men is obvious. They won't ask. Squeemish aren't they?

It is mostly women who do question this fraud.

I especially question that last snowy drive from Anchorage to Mat Su..

It is ridiculous.

The wild ride is ridiculous.

The whole Trig saga is ridiculous.

Most of all, in all her dealings, Sarah Palin has proved her stupidity.

But she has been aided and abetted by the Right Wing bloggers and press, Faux News via Murdoch, and mainstream media outlets.

Plus Huffington Post.(An entire page devoted to the woman, for all its history on the net). Talk about support.

Laura Novak link
4/16/2011 01:07:24 am

Thank you all for reading and commenting. I've contacted Weebly to determine what might be wrong with the commenting system. So bear with me! But I'm pleased to be doing this story on the story about the story. More to come. Thanks for stopping by.

lilly lily
4/16/2011 04:18:35 am

I googled Laura Novak blog and got one citing on Google. Through Gryphen.

I came in through Joe McGinniss's Rogue blog and your link.

Something seems amiss here.

You shoud be getting loads of comments.

Laura Novak link
4/16/2011 04:58:17 am

Weebly has tested the comments and says they are coming through fine after a problem was trouble shooted Fri/am. I hope the comments keep coming b/c that way I can gage where to take the convo next. Thank you for letting me know. My Google presence was good before this so not sure why vague now. Thank you, Lily Lily!

lilly lily
4/16/2011 05:01:43 am

The google is back to normal now, and shows your blog.

Who knows, these glitches can be frustrating.

When your hot, it is best to keep an eye open.

Page
4/16/2011 05:20:26 am

Laura,
This was an excellent post and your personal experience certainly lends credence to how unlikely it was that Sarah's version of her own delivery of a child with disabilities could possibly be true.

I'm reposting my comment that I left on Henry's write up regarding Brad's paper.

Whether you like Sarah Palin or not there are many facts (spewed by her own mouth) that don't add up and anyone with common sense will reach the same conclusion. Sarah lied to voters to garner sympathy for her Pro-Life stance.

As a medical professional several things jumped out at me in regards to Sarah not giving birth to Trig. And trust me I didn't want to believe it either.

As a woman who claims she was leaking amniotic fluid while in Texas there is NO way she would have risked her life or her unborn child's by neglecting to go get checked out at the large medical facility just minutes from her hotel in Dallas. She would also not be able to go through a 10 flight and another hour car ride, where by the way she passed another large hospital in Anchorage with a NICU. (The airline has also gone on record stating they would not have allowed her on the flight if they had known her condition.) Her pregnancy wasn't obvious to one person during two flights with layovers.

The small rural hospital where she chose to 'give birth' doesn't perform high risk deliveries so theres no way they would have not sent her back to Anchorage to deliver where there was a Neonatologist and a NICU available. She was the Governor of AK at the time so I would imagine even if Sarah is an idiot, Mat-Su hospital would not have risked the health of her child.

She said herself that she had an amniocentesis so she knew her unborn child had DS! She also knew her due date so surely she would have known after giving birth to 4 other children that this was a CRITICAL situation. Unless the doctor she claims delivered Trig is also an idiot she would have sent Pailin to an OB.GYN for her prenatal care considering her age and the diagnosis of DS.

Pregnant women are NOT able to appear pregnant one day then appear not to be pregnant just 2 days later. Anyone who thinks thats possible has never been pregnant or around a pregnant woman.

After Sarah was chosen as McCain's running mate all photos of her in different states of 'pregnancy' were scrubbed! from the internet I can't think of any logical reason for doing that unless they KNEW it would be a problem. Luckily a few photo's were salvaged. I would like to know just how much McCain and his camp knew because there were plenty of rumors floating around AK before she hit the political stage.

She told her security team who always traveled with her that she wouldn't be needing them on her trip to Dallas right before her 'birth' and that she would be fine with just Todd accompanying her. I would think that this would be the time that you would want your security detail with you. You're in the late stages of your pregnancy so why risk being trampled, pushed etc. She did not want anyone with her that last night before the strange delivery. She also let the Governors office know that she wanted all of her state email forwarded to her private Google account right before the Dallas trip. An odd request unless you know there are things you don't want exposed if your state emails are ever subpoenaed.

Thank you Brad for taking some heat in order for us to have a civil discussion about something that has bothered a lot of us for a very long time. This is not the type of person I want running for President or any public office. Her actions are negligent and not the actions of a sane individual. She's used her misguided followers for financial gain long enough. Children should never be used as props, especially innocent children with disabilities.

Everything I've mentioned either Palin said herself in Going Rogue or in speeches after Trig's birth. The emails I've mentioned are also well documented and available for viewing by anyone who cares to read them

Thanks for giving this your time Laura.

Page
4/16/2011 05:24:27 am

Laura,
This was an excellent post and your personal experience certainly lends credence to how unlikely it was that Sarah's version of her own delivery of a child with disabilities could possibly be true.

I'm reposting my comment that I left on Henry's write up regarding Brad's paper.

Whether you like Sarah Palin or not there are many facts (spewed by her own mouth) that don't add up and anyone with common sense will reach the same conclusion. Sarah lied to voters to garner sympathy for her Pro-Life stance.

As a medical professional several things jumped out at me in regards to Sarah not giving birth to Trig. And trust me I didn't want to believe it either.

As a woman who claims she was leaking amniotic fluid while in Texas there is NO way she would have risked her life or her unborn child's by neglecting to go get checked out at the large medical facility just minutes from her hotel in Dallas. She would also not be able to go through a 10 flight and another hour car ride, where by the way she passed another large hospital in Anchorage with a NICU. (The airline has also gone on record stating they would not have allowed her on the flight if they had known her condition.) Her pregnancy wasn't obvious to one person during two flights with layovers.

The small rural hospital where she chose to 'give birth' doesn't perform high risk deliveries so theres no way they would have not sent her back to Anchorage to deliver where there was a Neonatologist and a NICU available. She was the Governor of AK at the time so I would imagine even if Sarah is an idiot, Mat-Su hospital would not have risked the health of her child.

She said herself that she had an amniocentesis so she knew her unborn child had DS! She also knew her due date so surely she would have known after giving birth to 4 other children that this was a CRITICAL situation. Unless the doctor she claims delivered Trig is also an idiot she would have sent Pailin to an OB.GYN for her prenatal care considering her age and the diagnosis of DS.

Pregnant women are NOT able to appear pregnant one day then appear not to be pregnant just 2 days later. Anyone who thinks thats possible has never been pregnant or around a pregnant woman.

After Sarah was chosen as McCain's running mate all photos of her in different states of 'pregnancy' were scrubbed! from the internet I can't think of any logical reason for doing that unless they KNEW it would be a problem. Luckily a few photo's were salvaged. I would like to know just how much McCain and his camp knew because there were plenty of rumors floating around AK before she hit the political stage.

She told her security team who always traveled with her that she wouldn't be needing them on her trip to Dallas right before her 'birth' and that she would be fine with just Todd accompanying her. I would think that this would be the time that you would want your security detail with you. You're in the late stages of your pregnancy so why risk being trampled, pushed etc. She did not want anyone with her that last night before the strange delivery. She also let the Governors office know that she wanted all of her state email forwarded to her private Google account right before the Dallas trip. An odd request unless you know there are things you don't want exposed if your state emails are ever subpoenaed.

Thank you Brad for taking some heat in order for us to have a civil discussion about something that has bothered a lot of us for a very long time. This is not the type of person I want running for President or any public office. Her actions are negligent and not the actions of a sane individual. She's used her misguided followers for financial gain long enough. Children should never be used as props, especially innocent children with disabilities.

Everything I've mentioned either Palin said herself in Going Rogue or in speeches after Trig's birth. The emails I've mentioned are also well documented and available for viewing by anyone who cares to read them

Thanks for giving this your time Laura.

Berkeley Mom
4/16/2011 05:52:13 am

Thanks Laura and Brad for another insightful interview.

Laura, I now know we have two hospitals in common: our birth hospital and the nearby large regional center, and may even share the same OB, or at least the same practice.

I have had two high-risk births, though the first one, when I was in my 20s, was not recognized as "at-risk" until half an hour before I delivered at 30 weeks.

My second pregnancy was VERY closely monitored and I was constantly in and out of the hospital for observation and fortunately made it to term.

Neither of my pregnancies is particularly relevant to Palin's case, as your is.

However, since my first pregnancy, I have worked in various high-risk settings (OB and NICU). Based on this experience with hundreds of high risk pregnancies and infants, it is hard for me to accept Palin's stories.

I must agree with everything Page wrote above, and would like to add that I'll bet Palin ditched the false pregnancy apparatus at her hotel, before going to the airport. Otherwise, it might have been detected by airport security.

This may be why Palin appeared pregnant at the speech in Texas, but that the degree to which she was or wasn't pregnant was not visible to the flight attendants or the man who saw her in the airport lounge calmly reading a book during one of her stopovers on her return to Alaska.

This man later emailed Palin expressing surprise that she had been about to give birth.

I would like to ask a question about Trig's "heart defect." Has Palin, or anyone else, ever told us what the defect is or was?

Could this have been a reference to "patent ductus" or was it to something that had been detected in utero?

Laura Novak link
4/16/2011 06:01:27 am

Berkeley Mom, wow, our beat DOES go on. We WILL have to meet to discuss it all. It sounds like your situation gives you more than enough license to question this story, or at least put it in a proper context, both professionally and personally. I wondered about the PDA as well and have a short thing I plan to write about that in our next post. Thank you for reading and sharing.

doreen mcgettigan link
4/16/2011 07:11:00 am

Where do you all think President Obama was born? How about 911?

Berkeley Mom
4/16/2011 11:59:39 am

That "Trig" was so quickly released from the hospital and paraded around in public only days after delivery makes no sense.

You don't do this with new-born preemies! Even relatively healthy new-born preemies!

They are still highly vulnerable to devastating infection (such as RSV), brain-damaging levels of jaundice, breathing problems/cessation, severe feeding difficulties, even after they are able to leave intensive care and come home.

Add in the Down Syndrome and a "heart defect," each of which, independently, raises each of these these risks to a much higher level, and the story becomes incredible (as in "not believable").

That Trig would leave the hospital so soon is weird enough; that he wasn't being cared for by a team of specialists in a NICU is weirder. That any caring, informed mother would take such a child out in public so soon after birth is shocking.

And yet the GOP was willing to put Palin a heart-beat away from the presidency!

mistah charley, ph.d. link
4/16/2011 09:33:54 pm

Clearly the preponderance of the evidence establishes that Sarah Palin's pregnancy was a hoax. Why would she do it? I was inclined to think that it was for personal reasons, but the New Yorker article cited makes it clear that her ambitions for higher office were already active at the time of the pregnancy announcement. That she ended up the nominee for vice president makes this a very dark story indeed.

SME
4/16/2011 09:51:49 pm

With my first pregnancy I woke up at 5am with the slightest trickle of amniotic fluid leaking, but no contractions at all. At 8am I called the doctor and he told me to get to the hospital and he would see me there in the afternoon unless labor started and he would monitor by phone in the interim.

I had things to do so I set about doing them. At noon he came looking for me....not a common occurrence with a doctor. He was mad as hell and wanted to know why I wasn't at the hospital. I explained no pains no water breaking, just a slight trickle and I needed to get some things done first.

He went ballistic!! The risk of infection and harm to me or the child was his only concern. Needless to say I went straight to the hospital.

When labor didn't start he induced it to ensure no harm came to my baby.

All of that and it was not a high risk pregnancy, I was mid 20's healthy, no complications of any kind and full term.

There is no way a doctor would consider letting any woman fly home and wait to be seen. There is no way a doctor would deliver a high risk baby in a little hodunk town without a neonatal icu.

Palin no more gave birth to Trig than I did.

Not to mention Palin had her tubes tied after Piper. No woman can be as big as she was with her first one and not be as big or bigger with her 5th one....let's be serious.

mistah charley, ph.d.
4/18/2011 03:29:51 am

The "wild ride" narrative obviously can't be true - but couldn't one argue that Palin was lying about this, in order to appear heroic, but otherwise telling the truth? The alternative - the complete hoax narrative - requires co-conspirators, which are NOT required by the "wild ride" wild story.

Bobcat Logic
4/18/2011 04:22:46 am

No, mistah charley, she can't otherwise be telling the truth. It's not nearly as simple as an exaggeration of the "Wild Ride."

Please go to Andrew Sullivan's blog (at the Daily Beast) where he and his readers examine this point today.


Comments are closed.

    Laura Novak

    Reporter, Author, Blogger, and Mother...

    Picture

    RSS Feed


    My novel is now on Amazon Kindle!!
    Picture


    Blogs I Read

    Getty Iris
    Cloisters Garden
    Daily Dish
    AlterNet
    Immoral Minority
    Hullabaloo
    Phantomimic
    Jotting Down a Life
    Lynnrockets
    Oakland Local
    Passive Voice
    LitBrit
    Onward
    Joe McGinniss
    Barbara Alfaro
    Suzanne Rosenwasser


    Categories

    All
    Brushes With Greatness
    Dance Number
    Education
    Friday Feature
    Girls On The Bus
    Good Men Project
    Just Sayin
    My Favorite Movie
    Neonatologist
    Private Parts
    Quick Take Tuesday
    Sarah Palin
    Scharlott Stuff
    Scribd
    Shrink Wrap Supreme
    Tao Te Wednesday
    True Confessions
    Vox Populi
    Writing/Publishing

    Picture
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Picture

    Archives

    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from acidpix, sicamp, Clearly Ambiguous, breahn, hoill, William Arthur Fine Stationery, southerntabitha, *Vintage Fairytale*, NeoGaboX, Dana Moos, ButterflyOrb, ruurmo, MCS@flickr, h.koppdelaney, Andrew 94, MarkWallace, fdecomite, Wonderlane, christophercarfi, dreamsjung, the superash, euphro, melloveschallah, Rhett Sutphin, I Don't Know, Maybe., Harold Laudeus, h.koppdelaney, jennaddenda, Harrissa Sunshine, Wesley Fryer, fidalgo_dennis, bark, [cipher], fdecomite, Marcos Kontze, legends2k, optick, pjohnkeane, Kabacchi, Pink Sherbet Photography, h.koppdelaney, alexbrn, Elsie esq., Rafael Acorsi, naitokz, tiffa130, otisarchives4, Sheloya Mystical and Agrimas Gothic, allygirl520, tnarik, Daquella manera, peyri, Patrick Hoesly, Anderson Mancini, Abode of Chaos, joewcampbell, keepitsurreal, Jonas N, David Boyle, Gideon Burton, evmaiden, Mike Willis, ankakay, LadyDragonflyCC -Busy Wedding Week for BF Amy!, Cast a Line, aeneastudio, Lord Jim, hisperati, dbzoomer, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, thegardenbuzz, kamshots, AleBonvini, smadden, CarbonNYC