by Mark Silva
Sarah Palin says the parents of her grandchild - still short of high school diplomas - have their work cut out for them and are "working their butts off.''
But they are definitely not "drop-outs,'' the first-term governor of Alaska and losing vice presidential nominee says.
Life also could get a little easier if the parents of young Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston seal a reported deal with People magazine for a $300,000 first look at the first family's first grandchild. It's not the kind of money that Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes command, but it's not bad for an 18-year-old Alaskan, an unmarried mother named Bristol Palin who gave birth to baby Tripp on Dec. 18.
The governor also has spent some time this week shooting down media descriptions of her daughter and the new father, Levi Johnston, as "dropouts.''
Palin informed People magazine: "You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time.'' She also e-mailed editors at the Anchorage Daily News questioning several aspects of the newspaper's coverage -- including a story that included the dropout description.
Palin has told the Associated Press that Johnston is enrolled in a high school through a correspondence program. And she issued this statement: "Bristol begins her final semester of high school next week where she'll get her last credit needed to graduate... Levi is continuing his online high school work in addition to working as an electrical apprentice on the North Slope."
And yes, that $300,000 should help.









Comments
More media lies about the Palins. The Constitution guarantees freedom the press, but when the press can no longer be trustworthy, becomes corrupt and abuses its freedom, then what is the point to a free press?
Posted by: John D | January 2, 2009 12:12 PM
So what do you call someone who leaves high school? I have never seen a public family that did so little to hide the fact they feel entitled to whatever they can get their hands on.
Posted by: Karl | January 2, 2009 1:14 PM
Are Bristol and Tripp living in the governor's taxpayer paid home? Interesting, Bristol gives birth last week and she's going back to school next week? I'd like to see the doctor's OK on that one. I guess hockey mom Sarah just keeps lying!
Posted by: Janstress | January 2, 2009 2:07 PM
"Sarah Palin's grandson: $300,000 mug?"
More fake "bootstrapper" republicans, big surprise
Posted by: CS Nowik | January 2, 2009 3:02 PM
Amazing.. Like he was the only baby born that day.........We are tired of the Palins....
Posted by: Kaye c.. | January 2, 2009 3:15 PM
People's Magazine is written for about a 4th grade level of intelligence and that's about all this Palin family possess. Go figure. And the Republicans and the media are still slobbering all over themselves about them.
Posted by: Doug R. | January 2, 2009 3:25 PM
Janstress, since Bristol is the governor's daughter and 18 years old, I would say it is OK that she lives in the governor's mansion. Also, giving birth one week and going back to school the next? Not unusual. Not even unusual for one who works. Used to be a fairly common practice and on occasion still is today.
Posted by: John D | January 2, 2009 3:29 PM
Crime pays is the apparently the moral of this story. Interest in the snapshots of the Palin progeny was limited until father Levi Johnston's mother Sherry was handcuffed on charges of possession and distribution of OxyContin. Bidding had topped out at $100,000 because "Sarah Palin stories just didn't sell all that well for the weeklies on newsstands." Then came what turned out to be an extremely profitable drug bust:
In a further ironic gift to Sarah Palin, Alaska police delayed the arrest of Sherry Johnston until after the election, when she was "no longer under the protection or surveillance of the Secret Service."
The estimated $300,000 People pay day is just the latest for the clan McCain campaign staffers deemed "Wasilla hillbillies." As mayor and governor, Sarah Palin emerged as a Republican welfare queen, pocketing per diems, inflating travel expenses for family, extracting gifts and receiving zoning assistance to aid the sale of her home. And that was before her $150,000 shopping spree, courtesy of the Republican National Committee.
Posted by: QJK | January 2, 2009 3:38 PM
That kind of dough buys a lot of birth control.
Posted by: Bubba | January 2, 2009 3:47 PM
God bless American capitalism...Tripp's already got his college fund..."looks like U. of Il. here I come". Get the pun?
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 2, 2009 3:55 PM
John D: huh? How is the media lying about the Palins?
Posted by: Janstress | January 2, 2009 4:06 PM
Those of us who prefer fairy stories that are more _believable_ than the Sarah-Trig-Bristol-Tripp confection should try any of the standard traditional offerings such as _The Ugly Duckling_, _Goldilocks and the Three Bears_, _Little Red Riding Hood_, _Jack and the Beanstalk_ and _Sleeping Beauty_.
But those of us who have been entertained by the pure-as-the-driven-snow northern fantasy of the last few months should not feel ashamed if we continue to wallow in the undiluted escapism of that wonderful and apparently endless saga.
The ghosts of those lesser yarn-spinners Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Trad ("In what respect is that a name, Charlie?") et cetera must have eaten their hearts out by now.
Posted by: Leigh Oats | January 2, 2009 4:30 PM
Just another typical teenager:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHKxvnY0gtI
Posted by: Fundy Mental | January 2, 2009 4:45 PM
I'd like to see the doctor's OK on that one. I guess hockey mom Sarah just keeps lying!
Posted by: Janstress | January 2, 2009 2:07 PM
What is the acceptable time before a teenage mother can go back to work?
Or- what could any of the Palin family do that would not draw your criticism? How vindictive do you have to be to find something to criticize in a teen mom finishing high school? Pathetic!
Looks like Bush Derangement Syndrome is being quickly replaced by Palin Derangement Syndrome...
Posted by: heartburn | January 2, 2009 5:20 PM
There is of course a strategy of preemption afoot, and MSM, online media, and bloggers are all going after Governor Palin in a sustained effort, and mysterious leaks and rumors persist.
Democrats are fearful of Sarah Palin coming back at them in 2012 with a dynamic and complementary VP nominee like Bobby Jindal. And the left has reason to fear Gov Palin-
Sarah Palin consistently enjoys an 80-90% approval rating as governor... are all those people idiots?
Unlike McCain, Obama, and Biden, she has actually executive experience, and manages an $11B budget, currently in surplus.
Alaska was a pretty corrupt system until she stepped in. Her reforms took on entrenched politicians (inc. Republicans), a mafioso-style union boss, and Big Oil.
Wouldn't it have been nice if Obama had been principled and brave enough to confront the corrupt Chicago Democratic Machine? Or shady political operators like Tony Rezko? Racist preachers? Instead of doing business with every last one of them?
The DNC's friends will be discrediting Palin and claiming condescendingly that she is a "joke" for the next couple years- precisely because they know the opposite to be true. She has been highly-successful in life while ignoring the left-wing feminist model... this helps to explain the extra dose of venom in these attacks.
Go get 'em, Sarah... these cowards are already shakin' in their boots, they know Obama's a lead baloon. When the fraud of Obamamania is fully exposed, the country will swing back to the right, and hard... probably by 2010, already.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2008/11/palinjindal-2012.html
Posted by: Reaganite Republican Resistance | January 2, 2009 6:04 PM
What a tripp, this family is. The Palin's will only gain legitimacy in the eyes of the civilized world when one of their progeny actually graduates from an acredited high school.
They can become college Republicans without much work, all they have to do is remember the GOP slogans and talking points that Rush gives them for four years and then take the oath of "silverspoonism, self-importance" givin' to them by a robe wearing Karl Rove upon graduation
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFGit_tZDqs
.
Posted by: Big Orange Satan | January 2, 2009 7:15 PM
Speaking of newborns...a woman from B.C., Canada had to fly 350 miles to Great Falls, Montana to give birth to triplets...seems like there is a 10 month waiting period for complex Ob/Gyn services in the Canadian national healthcare system and there was no room in the inn for their birth in Canada... to top that, the system is broke!...everyone's fine thanks to the U.S.A. and the worlds greatest healthcare. Don't ya love the idea of Obama-care. Oh, you must schedule your bypass at least a year in advance but could be "bumped" if you fail to meet gov't. standards. Geez
MSM's relentless attacks on Sarah Palin and family mirror the last eight years of Bush-bashing, destroy what you fear the most regardless of the truth...turning fiction into the belief of fact for the ignorant.
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 2, 2009 11:10 PM
Why shouldn''t they receive money for the baby's photo if any magazine is willing to pay for it? Also, they aren't the only teenage couple having a baby- didn't Jamie Spears do the same thing recently? My, what a judgemental public we've become!
Posted by: Sherry | January 2, 2009 11:33 PM
Let's face it...you libs would of been happier if Bristol just aborted the fetus and the baby never lived.
Just like some of you did to your babies that never had a chance to live when you became the judge and jury of life....feel better now?
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | January 3, 2009 12:38 AM
To learn more about Sarah Palin visit:
http://www.hootervillegazette.com
Posted by: Dash RipRock | January 3, 2009 2:01 AM
Says Reaganite Republican Resistance ("January 2, 2009 6:04 PM"):
" [. . .] mysterious leaks [. . .] persist."
Please give an example or two of such leaks.
Posted by: Leigh Oats | January 3, 2009 6:30 AM
Says John D ("January 2, 2009 12:12 PM"):
"More media lies about the Palins. The Constitution guarantees freedom the press, but when the press can no longer be trustworthy, becomes corrupt and abuses its freedom, then what is the point to a free press?
Media? Press? What are you trying to say? Spit it out, laddie!
Posted by: Leigh Oats | January 3, 2009 7:01 AM
That poor baby...
Posted by: lochnessmonster | January 3, 2009 7:11 AM
I find this more of a story about the failure of abstinence only ideas of the past and the willingness of Palin and the RR to take our country back to the 1800s. Had religion been allowed to run this country, I can tell you most of the advances in science, medicine, technology, and such would never have come about.
Posted by: bill r. | January 3, 2009 9:54 AM
To: Sherry{ above postr}. Are you now saying Bristol is a celebrity like Jamie Spears adn movie stars??What a croc..She had the baby. Fine..The family has proven they are against abortion..So?What's next??One can only wonder with this family.........
Posted by: kaye c. | January 3, 2009 3:34 PM
Liberals echo the sentiments of their public persona's/dropouts Matt Damon, Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, Sean Penn, Kanye West, Susan Sarandon, P Diddy & company, to whom $300K is walking around money. But certainly drop-out celebs, political spokespersons for the libs, are deserving of their multi-millions because they have mastered the ability to read from a script. Hypocrites.
Posted by: obamabotsACTIVATE | January 3, 2009 4:56 PM
It's a freakin' train wreck - just look the other way people. Yay, flippin' yay, Mrs. Palin. I'll have you know I worked a 40 hour a week job, took 2 Master's program classes AND was pregnant, delivered and cared for a baby all at the same time (no, I didn't "walk uphill, both ways in the middle of a snow storm with no shoes" - I really did do the things listed above, and I do NOT recommend it ^_^). I also DIDN'T have the energy of your average 18 year old, being in my mid 30's.
Stop beating the dead horse - your daughter is not a saint, nor is she going to be! She's just doing the same thing thousands of other unwed, teenage moms do all the time - let it go. Unless of course you want to laud all of the other unwed, teen moms who do the same thing!
Peace,
LadyGrey
Posted by: LadyGrey | January 3, 2009 6:31 PM
$300K for a baby pic.
Not too bad.
That's more than the net worth of 80% of Americans that have worked all their lives.
obamabotsACTIVATE
You don't seem to understand the issue. The Palin's claim to be salt of the Earth rustics, rubes, Luddite like 'folk'. The Hollywood elite do not.
Posted by: The LeninSisters | January 3, 2009 8:57 PM
What exactly is the LIE about the Palin family you are referring to? If high school EQUIVALANCIES are being earned (and who knows about that) it means you DROPPED OUT. Did they? Her son, her daughter, her son in law, DID THEY DROP OUT...YES. They are drop outs. That´s what it means for us, so maybe that is what it means for the Palins, as well.
I understand ti doesn´t sound like a model FIRST FAMILY, but then they are not.
Posted by: Deo | January 4, 2009 4:17 AM
It seems to me that most of you just read parts of the stories written about the Palins ..the story on ADN said "my daughter is taking the courses on-line"... which means she is at home taking them...but if you read all the story then you could not write all your junk and meanness...But if you read all the stories you would know that ADN writes one thing but a-lot of the time they have to correct what they say or they write just enough of the truth so that they do not get sued..
Posted by: Lynda Armstrong | January 7, 2009 2:25 PM
I WANT TO KNOW WHO DID SHE DONATE THE CLOTHES SHE HAD FOR THE HER CAMPAIN? OR IS SHE STILL LIEING ABOUT THEM.
Posted by: JENNIE | January 9, 2009 8:48 AM
How about naming the baby abstinence; if it's a girl, call her Abby and if it's a boy, call him Abe.
Posted by: John Andrews | January 9, 2009 11:17 AM
why don't these people who like to rip people apart to streads make our goverment stop doing what they are doing, lets try to make them honest, the mess in the goverment has been going on too long & now it's gotten even worse, all we care about is the next election & how to make deals to get favors or money, lets let them know what we want & they are going to start telling us the truth, I feel tthat the goverment is having a big party on us, they have fooled us long enough, stop electing people for what you think they are & start electing people who really want to care for this country, let's stop the denial, show me your friends & I will show you your future
Posted by: dee | October 31, 2009 5:08 PM