In a recent blog post full of snark and randomness, Bristol Palin attacked President Barack Obama for his stance on gay marriage; it would have been a great post, if it were in The Onion.
Shortly after Vice President Joe Biden expressed his support of gay marriage, President Obama did the same in unequivocal terms during an interview with Robin Roberts, for ABC News. Previously for gay people only having civil unions, the president giving a full-on endorsement of gay marriage before the presidential election kicked into high gear, was a surprise and a flash point for many political observers.
Bristol is certainly not the only person to be critical of the president’s position, but her criticism is down-right odd. As the friend and relative of several teen moms, I initially felt sympathy for Bristol back in 2008, when she was thrust into teen motherhood at the exact same time as her mother was enduring an excruciating media-intensive bid for the White House. Her mom lost, she gave birth, her relationship fell apart and she became a statistic—the single teen mom.
That sympathy, however, has withered away. Now, the single, never-been-married mother of a toddler decided that it would be a good idea to strongly criticize President Obama’s personal stance on gay marriage mostly on the theory that “we know that in general kids do better growing up in a mother/father home. Ideally, fathers help shape their kids’ worldview.”
So let’s get this straight (pun half-way intended), we should only be for child-bearing households that contain a mother and a father. That in itself is not an unheard-of position — many people on both ends of the political spectrum have said the same in so many words — but it’s interesting in a “throwing stones from a glass house/igloo” type of way for Bristol to attack President Obama’s stance from that angle without addressing her own situation. She has talked before about what she has learned from her own experience, but this particular blog post conveniently left out that information.
Bristol didn’t stop there, though. She also challenged President Obama’s parenting and leadership skills because he noted that his daughters have friends with same-sex parents and his baby girls couldn’t understand why their friends’ parents would be deprived of any rights that other parents have.
“It would’ve been nice if the President would’ve been an actual leader and helped shape their thoughts instead of merely reflecting what many teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee, ” said Bristol in her blog.
She somehow managed to put the smackdown on the president’s skills and a popular show in one sentence. There must be some type of award for that. She also rambled about how female Christian Republican candidates are unfairly treated in the press. Bristol and her mother have stated numerous times that they felt attacked by the media for “off limits” subjects like family members, yet Bristol decided to devote an entire blog post, dripping with sarcasm from the title to the last sentence, to the president’s family.
Bristol not being in favor of gay marriage is not the least bit surprising, but, since she has decided to become a media figure (she’s an author, blogger and is making her second reality TV appearance) and not just a former vice presidential candidate’s daughter, she should consider choosing her words and battles more carefully. A haphazard blog post that reads like a series of Facebook status updates is not a good way to add to one’s brand, and surely she doesn’t want to give her favorite TV personality Bill Maher more ammunition.
President Obama is a father of two and has been married for almost 20 years. Instead of criticizing his decisions as a dad and leader, Bristol should be calling him up for advice. Could she learn something? You betcha.
Follow Demetria Irwin on Twitter at @Love_Is_Dope