What's galling is this: When the subject is a pregnancy to an unwed, minority teenage mother growing up in some (presumably Democratic) urban area, that pregnancy becomes fodder for lectures from conservatives about bad parenting, the perils of welfare spending and so on. But when the subject is a pregnancy to an unwed, white teenager from some small town in a Republican state, that pregnancy is...a celebration of the wonders of God's magnificence--and choosing life! Thomas Schaller in Salons’s War Room 

Friday morning I received a long and extremely boring communication from a frothing-at-the-mouth conservative I used to work with several years ago. I will spare you the details, but basically the screed was all about character. It will come to you as no surprise that it basically stated that we should vote for McCain because he has Character, as proven by his military service, and, of course, his status as a former POW. Obama, on the other hand has less character in his entire body than the sainted McCain has in his pinky finger since he never served in the military.

We have been hearing this for years from the right, It’s All About Character. The left has  consistently rejected that argument. Frankly I see nothing wrong with applying the right’s character tests to those on the right. The character we need to highlight is hypocrisy.  The pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol is an excellent example of this double standard, and the quote above sums it up nicely.  I am not criticizing Bristol for getting knocked up  at the tender age of 17, but if I apply the test the neo-cons have been applying to the families of other teenagers who are in the family way, the Sarah Palin turns up lacking. This is not my test, it is hers, I didn’t make the rules, I simply ask why the rules are different for Palin. Why aren’t’the right wing pundits rushing to lecture the Palins about their lack of moral center? All the right-wing moral outrage over teen pregnancy seems to be drowned out by an overwhelming chorus of crickets. 

Say it with me: Hypocrisy. What’s good for the poor and minorities is not good for rich white folk who vote Republican. So what does it say about Republican character when their VP nominee has a 17 year old daughter who is 5 months along and no Repub utters a peep? They haven’t been shy before to poke their noses into private business and inform how the world how the other side is lacking in morals and character. It’s not wrong to point out how they have failed to apply their own standards to their people. Hypocrisy is one big, horking character flaw.